Twitter Analysis With IBM Bluemix and Tableau

This tutorial will teach you how to collect tweets with a specified expression and create some graphics with the results.

For this, you will need an IBM Bluemix Account (http://www.ibm.com/cloud-computing/bluemix/) and Tableau Desktop (http://www.tableau.com/products/desktop)

Besides these tools, Torsten Steinbach's Twitter-Loader project is used.

Step 1: IBM Bluemix

In this step you will create a Bluemix account.

Proceed to http://www.ibm.com/cloud-computing/bluemix/ and sign up. There are many licensing options and a trial period.

Step 2: Fork Project

In this step, you will create a copy of Torsten Steinbach's Twitter-Loader project and use it. The project lets you search for tweets that contain a determined expression and stores the tweets in a database (IBM dashDB).

Go to Twitter-Loader project page (https://hub.jazz.net/project/torsstei/Twitter-Loader/overview) and click the "FORK PROJECT" button. A pop-up window should open. In this window, choose a name for your project. After that, click the "Deploy to Bluemix" button.

After the project is created, you will be able to access the search page. Click the "VIEW YOUR APP BUTTON".

In this page, you will be able to search for tweets, choose a table of your database and insert the tweets in the database.

Step 3: Inserting and Viewing Tweets

To insert tweets, go to your app web page. If you don't know the URL, go to your Bluemix dashboard, then click on your app. This will redirect you to your project's page. In this page, a link to your app page will be available.

Once in your app page, you can search for tweets and insert them on tables. You can do that by searching tweets that contains an expression, writing a name for the new table and clicking on the "INSERT TWEETS" button.

To view your tables, you will need to access your database. Go to your app project page and click on the dashDB service button. This will redirect you to the service page. Click the "LAUNCH" button to access your database.

In this page, you will be able to see your tables' contents.

Step 4: Tableau

In this step you will need Tableau Desktop. Either buy it or use the trial version (http://www.tableau.com/products/desktop).

After acquring the tool, download and install the IBM DB2 driver on http://www.tableau.com/support/driver

Open Tableau Desktop and connect to IBM DB2 Server. A Server Connection Dialog will appear. Set the Server Connection to your database Connection Information. This may be viewed in your dashDB page, under Connection>Connection Information.

Tableau will connect to your database and you will be able to deal with your database from within Tableau.

Step 5: Graphics

Once connected, you will need to choose the table(s) you will want to work on. First, under "Schemas", choose the one corresponding to your user (the one you used to connect to the database). Under this Schema, all your tables will be listed. Choose one to work with. And select its sheet.

On its sheet, you will be able to analyze and create different graphics. For example, if you want to create a graphic with the number of tweets per month, you should drag the "Number of Records" to the "Rows" and the "Msg Posted Time" to the Columns. Then select how the time should be considered (in days, weeks, months, years...). After this, choose what kind of graphic should be created under "Show Me" button or in the Marks window.

Explore Tableau to create more amazing graphics charts.