Python Tweepy streaming with multitasking - multithreading

Question

in Python 2.7 I am successful in using the following code to listen to a direct message stream on an account:
from tweepy import Stream
from tweepy import OAuthHandler
from tweepy import API
from tweepy.streaming import StreamListener
# These values are appropriately filled in the code
consumer_key = '######'
consumer_secret = '######'
access_token = '######'
access_token_secret = '######'
class StdOutListener( StreamListener ):
def __init__( self ):
self.tweetCount = 0
def on_connect( self ):
print("Connection established!!")
def on_disconnect( self, notice ):
print("Connection lost!! : ", notice)
def on_data( self, status ):
print("Entered on_data()")
print(status, flush = True)
return True
# I can add code here to execute when a message is received, such as slicing the message and activating something else
def on_direct_message( self, status ):
print("Entered on_direct_message()")
try:
print(status, flush = True)
return True
except BaseException as e:
print("Failed on_direct_message()", str(e))
def on_error( self, status ):
print(status)
def main():
try:
auth = OAuthHandler(consumer_key, consumer_secret)
auth.secure = True
auth.set_access_token(access_token, access_token_secret)
api = API(auth)
# If the authentication was successful, you should
# see the name of the account print out
print(api.me().name)
stream = Stream(auth, StdOutListener())
stream.userstream()
except BaseException as e:
print("Error in main()", e)
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
This is great, and I can also execute code when I receive a message, but the jobs I'm adding to a work queue need to be able to stop after a certain amount of time. I'm using a popular start = time.time() and subtracting current time to determine elapsed time, but this streaming code does not loop to check the time. I just waits for a new message, so the clock is never checked so to speak.
My question is this: How can I get streaming to occur and still track time elapsed? Do I need to use multithreading as described in this article? http://www.tutorialspoint.com/python/python_multithreading.htm
I am new to Python and having fun playing around with hardware attached to a Raspberry Pi. I have learned so much from Stackoverflow, thank you all :)

Answer 1

I'm not sure exactly how you want to decide when to stop, but you can pass a timeout argument to the stream to give up after a certain delay.
stream = Stream(auth, StdOutListener(), timeout=30)
That will call your listener's on_timeout() method. If you return true, it will continue streaming. Otherwise, it will stop.
Between the stream's timeout argument and your listener's on_timeout(), you should be able to decide when to stop streaming.

Answer 2

I found I was able to get some multithreading code the way I wanted to. Unlike this tutorial from Tutorialspoint which gives an example of launching multiple instances of the same code with varying timing parameters, I was able to get two different blocks of code to run in their own instances
One block of code constantly adds 10 to a global variable (var).
Another block checks when 5 seconds elapses then prints var's value.
This demonstrates 2 different tasks executing and sharing data using Python multithreading.
See code below
import threading
import time
exitFlag = 0
var = 10
class myThread1 (threading.Thread):
def __init__(self, threadID, name, counter):
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
self.threadID = threadID
self.name = name
self.counter = counter
def run(self):
#var counting block begins here
print "addemup starting"
global var
while (var < 100000):
if var > 90000:
var = 0
var = var + 10
class myThread2 (threading.Thread):
def __init__(self, threadID, name, counter):
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
self.threadID = threadID
self.name = name
self.counter = counter
def run(self):
#time checking block begins here and prints var every 5 secs
print "checkem starting"
global var
start = time.time()
elapsed = time.time() - start
while (elapsed < 10):
elapsed = time.time() - start
if elapsed > 5:
print "var = ", var
start = time.time()
elapsed = time.time() - start
# Create new threads
thread1 = myThread1(1, "Thread-1", 1)
thread2 = myThread2(2, "Thread-2", 2)
# Start new Threads
thread1.start()
thread2.start()
print "Exiting Main Thread"
My next task will be breaking up my twitter streaming in to its own thread, and passing direct messages received as variables to a task queueing program, while hopefully the first thread continues to listen for more direct messages.