In the following, we share the R codes for collecting twitter search network data. This network data is created from tweets containing #BoilerUp hashtag. We create a node for each unique Twitter user who either tweeted one of those tweets, was replied to in one of those tweets, or was mentioned in one of those tweets. These nodes were connected with edges of tweeting, replying, and mentioning. If a user X1 was replied or mentioned by another user X2, the edge between X1 and X2 represents a one way connection from X2 to X1.

First step, you need install package twitterR, igraph, reshape, reshape2 from R. The package graphTweets is not offered within R and one need download it from https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/graphTweets/index.html to your computer. Then you can install this package from R.

Second step, you need gain the authorization from twitter for your R application. Please read the article here to understand the detailed process. http://thinktostart.com/twitter-authentification-with-r/

Third step, run your codes in R.

library(twitteR)
library(igraph)
library(graphTweets)

#setup_twitter_oauth() function uses the httr package
# replace these value from your register on twitter
#Twitter Authentication with R

Consumer_key=”YOUR API KEY”
Consumer_secret=”YOUR API SECRET”
access_token=”YOUR ACCESS TOKEN”
access_token_secret=”YOUR ACCESS TOKEN SECRET”
setup_twitter_oauth(Consumer_key,Consumer_secret,access_token,access_token_secret)

#pull and parse tweets
tweets=searchTwitter(“#BoilerUp”, n=5000, lang=”en”)
tweets=twListToDF(tweets)
edges=getEdges(data = tweets, tweets = “text”, source = “screenName”)
nodes=getNodes(edges)
graph=graph.data.frame(edges[,1:2], directed=TRUE, vertices=nodes)
write.graph(graph, “D:/SNAdata/boilerup.graphml”, format=”graphml”)

More information about twitterR package can be found from the following link.
# https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/twitteR/twitteR.pdf

Gephi 0.9.0, Gephi 0.9.1, and Gephi 0.9.2 have been tested on Java 7 and Java 8. Therefore, you are recommended to have these versions of Java installed on your computer.  Check the following website for these versions of Java platforms:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html

If you have Java installed, but the Gephi reports that it cannot find the Java platform. One possible reason is that the Gephi installation failed to locate the path of your installed Java platform. You can correct this problem by following these steps:

(1) Open configuration file under the installed folder of your Gephi, for example, C:\Program Files (x86)\Gephi-0.8.2\etc\gephi.conf, depending where you install your Gephi.

(2) Specify jdkhome=”C:\Program Files\Java\jre8″, the specific path you put here depends on where you install your Java platform. Please de-comment out this line by removing the “#” symbol after you change the default specification.

(1) Open the data file in Gephi.

(2) Calculate statistics and size the nodes based on a measurement of centrality.

(3) Partition the network into several communities based on the calculated modularity.

(4) Run a layout algorithm to get a better layout of nodes and edges.

(5) Next, show the labels for nodes and run a label adjust algorithm.

(6) To preview the graph, switch to the “Preview” window. To show the label, you need check the “Show Labels” box.

(7) In Data Laboratory window, you can sort the nodes based on some centrality measurement.