Rate Limited API How to deal with

Below is one way of dealing with the RateLimit error - hack the code so you don't make as many requests.

Sebastian pointed out on the list that a better way is to use the new bulk ID methods

https://dev.twitter.com/docs/api/1.1/get/followers/ids

And then walk thru that using your code. This is a change that we are chewing on for the next python-twitter update.

A version of GetFollowers() that pulls chunks of results so you don't get rate limited.

def GetFollowers(self, user_id=None, screen_name=None, cursor=-1, skip_status=False, include_user_entities=False, count=10):

'''Fetch the sequence of twitter.User instances, one for each follower

The twitter.Api instance must be authenticated.

Args:
  user_id:
    The twitter id of the user whose followers you are fetching.
    If not specified, defaults to the authenticated user. [Optional]
  screen_name:
    The twitter name of the user whose followers you are fetching.
    If not specified, defaults to the authenticated user. [Optional]
  cursor:
    Should be set to -1 for the initial call and then is used to
    control what result page Twitter returns [Optional(ish)]
  skip_status:
    If True the statuses will not be returned in the user items.
    [Optional]
  include_user_entities:
    When True, the user entities will be included.

Returns:
  A sequence of twitter.User instances, one for each follower
'''
if not self._oauth_consumer:
  raise TwitterError("twitter.Api instance must be authenticated")
url = '%s/followers/list.json' % self.base_url
result = []
parameters = {}
if user_id is not None:
  parameters['user_id'] = user_id
if screen_name is not None:
  parameters['screen_name'] = screen_name
if skip_status:
  parameters['skip_status'] = True
if include_user_entities:
  parameters['include_user_entities'] = True
remaining=count
ratelimited=False
while remaining > 1:
  remaining -= 1
  parameters['cursor'] = cursor
  json = self._FetchUrl(url, parameters=parameters)
  try:
    data = self._ParseAndCheckTwitter(json)
    result += [User.NewFromJsonDict(x) for x in data['users']]
    if 'next_cursor' in data:
      if data['next_cursor'] == 0 or data['next_cursor'] == data['previous_cursor']:
        break
      else:
        cursor = data['next_cursor']
    else:
      break
  except TwitterError:
    ratelimited = True
    break
return (cursor, result, ratelimited)