NAME

Net::Twitter::Role::RateLimit - Rate limit features for Net::Twitter

VERSION

version 4.00005

SYNOPSIS

    use Net::Twitter;
    my $nt = Net::Twitter->new(
        traits => [qw/API::RESTv1_1 RateLimit/],
        %other_options,
    );

    #...later

    sleep $nt->until_rate(1.0) || $minimum_wait;

DESCRIPTION

This provides utility methods that return information about the current rate limit status.

METHODS

If current rate limit data is not resident, these methods will force a call to rate_limit_status. Therefore, any of these methods can throw an error.

rate_remaining

Returns the number of API calls available before the next reset.

rate_reset

Returns the Unix epoch time of the next reset.

rate_limit

Returns the current hourly rate limit.

rate_ratio

Returns remaining API call limit, divided by the time remaining before the next reset, as a ratio of the total rate limit per hour.

For example, if rate_limit is 150, the total rate is 150 API calls per hour. If rate_remaining is 75, and there 1800 seconds (1/2 hour) remaining before the next reset, rate_ratio returns 1.0, because there are exactly enough API calls remaining to maintain he full rate of 150 calls per hour.

If rate_remaining is 30 and there are 360 seconds remaining before reset, rate_ratio returns 2.0, because there are enough API calls remaining to maintain twice the full rate of 150 calls per hour.

As a final example, if rate_remaining is 15, and there are 7200 seconds remaining before reset, rate_ratio returns 0.5, because there are only enough API calls remaining to maintain half the full rate of 150 calls per hour.

until_rate($target_ratio)

Returns the number of seconds to wait before making another rate limited API call such that $target_ratio of the full rate would be available. It always returns a number greater than, or equal to zero.

Use a target rate of 1.0 in a timeline polling loop to get a steady polling rate, using all the allocated calls, and adjusted for other API calls as they occur.

Use a target rate < 1.0 to allow a process to make calls as fast as possible but not consume all of the calls available, too soon. For example, if you have a process building a large social graph, you may want to allow it make as many calls as possible, with no wait, until 20% of the available rate remains. Use a value of 0.2 for that purpose.

A target rate > than 1.0 can be used for a process that should only use "extra" available API calls. This is useful for an application that requires most of it's rate limit for normal operation.

AUTHOR

Marc Mims <marc@questright.com>

LICENSE

Copyright (c) 2009 Marc Mims

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.