How to use offset in VKontakte with Python?

Question

I am trying to build a script where I can get the check-ins for a specific location. For some reason when I specify lat, long coords VK never returns any check-ins so I have to fetch location IDs first and then request the check-ins from that list. However I am not sure on how to use the offset feature, which I presume is supposed to work somewhat like a pagination function.

So far I have this:

import vk
import json


app_id =   #enter app id 
login_nr =    #enter your login phone or email
password = ''   #enter password  
vkapi = vk.API(app_id, login_nr, password)

vkapi.getServerTime()

def get_places(lat, lon, rad):

    name_list = []
    try:
        locations = vkapi.places.search(latitude=lat, longitude=lon, radius=rad)
        name_list.append(locations['items'])
    except Exception, e:
        print '*********------------ ERROR ------------*********'
        print str(e)

    return name_list


 # Returns last checkins up to a maximum of 100
 # Define the number of checkins you want, 100 being maximum

def get_checkins_id(place_id,check_count):

    checkin_list= []

    try:
        checkins = vkapi.places.getCheckins(place = place_id, count = check_count)
        checkin_list.append(checkins['items'])
    except Exception, e:
        print '*********------------ ERROR ------------*********'
        print str(e)

    return checkin_list

What I would like to do eventually is combine the two into a single function but before that I have to figure out how offset works, the current VK API documentation does not explain that too well. I would like the code to read something similar to:

def get_users_list_geo(lat, lon, rad, count):
    users_list = []
    locations_lists = []
    users = []

    locations = vkapi.places.search(latitude=lat, longitude=lon, radius=rad)

    for i in locations[0]:
        locations_list.append(i['id'])

    for i in locations:
        # Get each location ID 
        # Get Checkins for location
        # Append checkin and ID to the list

From what I understand I have to count the offset when getting the check-ins and then somehow account for locations that have more than 100 check-ins. Anyways, I would greatly appreciate any type of help, advice, or anything. If you have any suggestions on the script I would love to hear them as well. I am teaching myself Python so clearly I am not very good so far.

Thanks!

Paul · Accepted Answer · 2015-02-11T14:45:18.050

1

I've worked with VK API with javascript, but I think, logic is the same.

TL;DR: Offset is a number of results (starting with the first) which API should skip in response

For example, you make query, which should return 1000 results (lets imagine that you know exact number of results). But VK return to you only 100 per request. So, how to get other 900?

You say to API: give me next 100 results. Next is offset - number of results you want to skip because you've already handled them. So, VK API takes 1000 results, skip first 100, and return to you next (second) 100.

edited Feb 11 '15 at 14:45

answered Feb 11 '15 at 14:37

Paul

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Thanks, this worked, just had to loop through adding offset count after each request. – James Feb 13 '15 at 21:41

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 11 '15 at 15:01

0

Also, if you are talking about this method (http://vk.com/dev/places.getCheckins) in first paragraph, please check that your lat/long are float, not integer. And it could be useful to try swap lat/long - maybe you got them mixed up?

answered Feb 11 '15 at 15:01

Paul

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Paul, I definitely did mess up the lat/long a few time but learned after that. I did use float as just using int coords were far too broad. – James Feb 13 '15 at 21:43

How to use offset in VKontakte with Python?

2 Answers2