haxor

Unofficial Python wrapper for official Hacker News API.

Installation

pip install haxor

Usage

import and initialization:

from hackernews import HackerNews
hn = HackerNews()

Get certain user info by user id (i.e. username on Hacker News)

user = hn.get_user('pg')
# >>> user.user_id
# pg
# >>> user.karma
# 155040

Stories, comments, jobs, Ask HNs and even polls are just items and they have unique item id. To get info of an item by item id:

item = hn.get_item(8863)
# >>> item.title
# "My YC app: Dropbox - Throw away your USB drive"
# >>> item.item_type
# story
# >>> item.kids
# [ 8952, 9224, 8917, ...]

To get item ids of current top stories:

top_story_ids = hn.top_stories()
# >>> top_story_ids
# [8432709, 8432616, 8433237, ...]

To get current largest item id:

max_item = hn.get_max_item()
# >>> max_item
# 8433746

Examples

Get top 10 stories:

for story_id in hn.top_stories(limit=10):
    print hn.get_item(story_id)

# <hackernews.Item: 8432709 - Redis cluster, no longer vaporware>
# <hackernews.Item: 8432423 - Fluid Actuators from Disney Research Make Soft, Safe Robot Arms>
# <hackernews.Item: 8433237 - Is Capturing Carbon from the Air Practical?>
# ...
# ...

Find all the 'jobs' post from Top Stories:

for story_id in hn.top_stories():
    story = hn.get_item(story_id)
    if story.item_type == 'job':
        print story

# <hackernews.Item: 8437631 - Lever (YC S12) hiring JavaScript experts, realtime systems engineers, to scale DerbyJS>
# <hackernews.Item: 8437036 - Product Designer (employee #1) to Organize the World's Code – Blockspring (YC S14)>
# <hackernews.Item: 8436584 - Django and iOS Hackers Needed – fix healthcare with Drchrono>
# ...
# ...

Find Python jobs from monthly who is hiring thread:

# Who is hiring
# https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8394339

who_is_hiring = hn.get_item(8394339)

for comment_id in who_is_hiring.kids:
    comment = hn.get_item(comment_id)
    if 'python' in comment.text.lower():
        print comment.item_id

# 8395568
# 8394964
# ...
# ...

API Reference

Class: HackerNews

Parameters:

Name	Type	Required	Description	Default
version	string	No	specifies Hacker News API version	v0

get_item

Description: Returns Item object

Parameters:

Name	Type	Required	Description	Default
item_id	string/int	Yes	unique item id of Hacker News story, comment etc	None

get_user

Description: Returns User object

Parameters:

Name	Type	Required	Description	Default
user_id	string	Yes	unique user id of a Hacker News user	None

top_stories

Description: Returns list of item ids of current top stories

Parameters:

Name	Type	Required	Description	Default
limit	int	No	specifies the number of stories to be returned	None

new_stories

Description: Returns list of item ids of current new stories

Parameters:

Name	Type	Required	Description	Default
limit	int	No	specifies the number of stories to be returned	None

ask_stories

Description: Returns list of item ids of latest Ask HN stories

Parameters:

Name	Type	Required	Description	Default
limit	int	No	specifies the number of stories to be returned	None

show_stories

Description: Returns list of item ids of latest Show HN stories

Parameters:

Name	Type	Required	Description	Default
limit	int	No	specifies the number of stories to be returned	None

job_stories

Description: Returns list of item ids of latest Job stories

Parameters:

Name	Type	Required	Description	Default
limit	int	No	specifies the number of stories to be returned	None

updates

Description: Returns list of item ids and user ids that have been changed/updated recently.

get_max_item

Description: Returns current largest item id

Class: Item

From Official HackerNews Item:

Property	Description
item_id	The item’s unique id.
deleted	true if the item is deleted.
item_type	The type of item. One of “job”, “story”, “comment”, “poll”, or “pollopt”.
by	The username of the item’s author.
submission_time	Creation date of the item, in Python datetime.
text	The comment, Ask HN, or poll text. HTML.
dead	true if the item is dead.
parent	The item’s parent. For comments, either another comment or the relevant story. For pollopts, the relevant poll.
kids	The ids of the item’s comments, in ranked display order.
url	The URL of the story.
score	The story’s score, or the votes for a pollopt.
title	The title of the story or poll.
parts	A list of related pollopts, in display order.
raw	original JSON response.
descendants	In the case of stories or polls, the total comment count.

Class: User

From Official HackerNews User:

Property	Description
user_id	The user’s unique username. Case-sensitive.
delay	Delay in minutes between a comment’s creation and its visibility to other users.
created	Creation date of the user, in Python datetime.
karma	The user’s karma.
about	The user’s optional self-description. HTML.
submitted	List of the user’s stories, polls and comments.
raw	original JSON response.

Development

For local development do pip installation of requirements-dev.txt:

pip install -r requirements-dev.txt

LICENSE

The mighty MIT license. Please check LICENSE for more details.