Deprecate `Faker::Twitter` in favor of `Faker::X` and update attributes by stefannibrasil · Pull Request #3138 · faker-ruby/faker

stefannibrasil · 2025-11-13T22:53:01Z

Motivation / Background

Faker::Twitter has never been updated since it was introduced. Not only has the platform's name changed, but their objects have changed a lot.

After working on the user generator, it made sense to also deprecate the status one. The API migration docs don't mention changing status to tweet, but after inspecting what status returns, I realized the new API calls is tweet.

There were lots of changes for both user and tweet objects. Most notably, the shape of the response, additional fields, and removal of deprecated attributes. Used resources as references:

Additional information

I will include a noticeable note in the CHANGELOG when this gets released.

The documentation has been updated to reflect the output changes. The changes were made to match the API's new structure as much as possible, however, I took the liberty of excluding some empty fields that faker included in the past. X's API does not return null fields in their response anymore ("X is adopting the convention that JSON values with no value (for example, null) are not written to the payload. Post and user attributes are only included if they have a non-null values." from Updated JSON design).

Examples of the responses:

Faker::X.user =>
{
  data: [
    {
      author_id: "5688134805624042468",
      id: "2007502004337242257",
      text: "Qui sint magni vel."
    }
  ],
  includes: {
    users: [
      {
        public_metrics: {
          followers_count: 1000,
          following_count: 77,
          tweet_count: 4642,
          listed_count: 704
        },
        username: "lilian",
        pinned_tweet_id: "1702549793917523469",
        entities: {
          url: {
            urls: [ { url: "https://t.co/0iz5wx1ysh", expanded_url: "http://example.com/stuart", display_url: "example.com/stuart" }]
          },
          description: { hashtags: [{tag: "Adipisci"}] }
        },
        description: "Est est laborum dolores.",
        name: "Kimberli Ullrich Jr.",
        verified: false,
        location: "104.82.135.3",
        id: "5688134805624042468",
        protected: false,
        url: "https://t.co/lqsqf67cx5",
        profile_image_url: "https://robohash.org/990174365255127568.png?size=48x48&set=set1",
        created_at: "2018-07-11T00:00:00+00:00"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Faker::X.tweet

Faker::X.tweet =>
{
  data: [{
    id: "5530076569335337477",
    text: "Omnis facere ullam velit.",
    lang: "ja",
    conversation_id: "5530076569335337477",
    created_at: "2009-02-21T07:00:00.000Z",
    author_id: "2788144046134446176",
    public_metrics: {
      retweet_count: 95,
      reply_count: 3,
      like_count: 10,
      quote_count: 3
    },
    possibly_sensitive: false,
    entities: {
      urls: [{
        start: 0,
        end: 5,
        url: "https://t.co/t6o3lav9z1",
        expanded_url: "http://example.com/errol.upton",
        display_url: "example.com/errol.upton"
      }],
      hashtags: [{
        start: 0,
        end: 5,
        tag: "Odit"
      }]
    }
  }]
}

With additional fields:

```ruby
Faker::X.tweet(include_media: true, include_user: true) =>
{
  data: [{
    id: "5340086698567112794",
    text: "Esse nulla minus qui.",
    lang: "en",
    conversation_id: "5340086698567112794",
    created_at: "2009-07-04T06:00:00.000Z",
    author_id: "5156189524741091965",
    public_metrics: {
      retweet_count: 56,
      reply_count: 2,
      like_count: 23,
      quote_count: 1
    },
    possibly_sensitive: false,
    entities: {
      urls: [{
        start: 0,
        end: 5,
        url: "https://t.co/mqplf9rhpn",
        expanded_url: "http://example.com/mohamed_koelpin",
        display_url: "example.com/mohamed_koelpin"
      }],
      hashtags: [{
        start: 0,
        end: 5,
        tag: "Atque"
      }]
    },
    attachments: {
      media_keys: ["6992225089295851582"]
    }
  }],
  includes: {
    media: [{
      height: 526,
      media_key: "6992225089295851582",
      type: "photo",
      preview_image_url: "https://loremflickr.com/1064/600",
      width: 1571,
      alt_text: "Qui ratione magnam et."
    }],
    users: [{
      public_metrics: {
        followers_count: 467,
        following_count: 3,
        tweet_count: 9006,
        listed_count: 984
      },
      username: "gayle",
      pinned_tweet_id: "2282479924658708548",
      entities: {
        url: {
          urls: [{
            start: 0,
            end: 5,
            url: "https://t.co/69eytnuwwu",
            expanded_url: "http://example.com/werner",
            display_url: "example.com/werner"
          }]
        },
        description: {
          hashtags: [{
            start: 0,
            end: 5,
            tag: "Soluta"
          }]
        }
      },
      description: "Esse harum voluptatem voluptate.",
      name: "Elva Spinka",
      verified: false,
      location: "34.230.131.77",
      id: "2365736908578621112",
      protected: false,
      url: "https://t.co/pyuqky3gdl",
      profile_image_url: "https://robohash.org/2204799175591912732.png?size=48x48&set=set1",
      created_at: "2025-01-30T07:00:00.000Z"
    }]
  }
}

Besides renaming the generator to Faker::X, the generator is vastly outdated. Twitter, aka X API, has changed a lot (it's now v2), and most of the attributes being returned in the user have been deprecated: https://docs.x.com/x-api/enterprise-gnip-2.0/fundamentals/data-dictionary#no-longer-supported-deprecated-attributes To maintain backwards compatibility, users still using Faker::Twitter will keep using it but be notified of the upcoming changes. Initially, the goal was to only update the `user` generator but then I realized it wouldn't make sense to leave `status` as it is.

After working on the user generator, it made sense to also deprecate the `status` one. The API migration docs don't mention changing status to tweet, but after inspecting what `status` returns, I realized the new API calls is `tweet`. There were lots of changes for both user and tweet objects. Most notably, the shape of the response, additional fields, and removal of deprecated attributes. Used resources as references: - https://docs.x.com/x-api/migrate/data-format-migration#user-object - https://docs.x.com/x-api/fundamentals/data-dictionary#tweet - https://docs.x.com/x-api/migrate/data-format-migration#entities-and-expanded-entities-objects

stefannibrasil · 2025-11-22T17:38:40Z

The change introduced in #3144 is failing for ruby head. If I add the gem version explicitly back again, tests pass locally. Might be an issue that gets fixed down the road when ruby 4.0 is released?

doc/default/x.md

lib/faker/default/twitter.rb

doc/default/x.md

lib/faker/default/twitter.rb

thdaraujo

nice work! 🙏

thdaraujo · 2025-11-22T19:57:55Z

created an issue #3147 to fix the problem on CI -> https://github.com/faker-ruby/faker/actions/runs/19600283917/job/56130782276?pr=3138

…es (#3138) * Add deprecation warning for Faker::Twitter Besides renaming the generator to Faker::X, the generator is vastly outdated. Twitter, aka X API, has changed a lot (it's now v2), and most of the attributes being returned in the user have been deprecated: https://docs.x.com/x-api/enterprise-gnip-2.0/fundamentals/data-dictionary#no-longer-supported-deprecated-attributes To maintain backwards compatibility, users still using Faker::Twitter will keep using it but be notified of the upcoming changes. Initially, the goal was to only update the `user` generator but then I realized it wouldn't make sense to leave `status` as it is. * Deprecate Faker::Twitter and update status to tweet After working on the user generator, it made sense to also deprecate the `status` one. The API migration docs don't mention changing status to tweet, but after inspecting what `status` returns, I realized the new API calls is `tweet`. There were lots of changes for both user and tweet objects. Most notably, the shape of the response, additional fields, and removal of deprecated attributes. Used resources as references: - https://docs.x.com/x-api/migrate/data-format-migration#user-object - https://docs.x.com/x-api/fundamentals/data-dictionary#tweet - https://docs.x.com/x-api/migrate/data-format-migration#entities-and-expanded-entities-objects * Update docs

stefannibrasil force-pushed the sb-deprecate-twitter-generator branch from e846c63 to 68d4aa1 Compare November 13, 2025 22:55

stefannibrasil force-pushed the sb-deprecate-twitter-generator branch from 68d4aa1 to f2aa395 Compare November 13, 2025 22:56

Merge branch 'main' into sb-deprecate-twitter-generator

82def71

stefannibrasil requested a review from thdaraujo November 13, 2025 22:59

Merge branch 'main' into sb-deprecate-twitter-generator

6dc25bd