Loading from ‘Saved Posts’ on Instagram in Automation Project: A Step-by-Step Guide

Are you tired of manually searching for specific posts on Instagram? Do you want to automate the process of loading posts from your ‘Saved Posts’ section? Look no further! In this article, we’ll show you how to load posts from ‘Saved Posts’ on Instagram in an automation project using Python and the Instagram API.

What You’ll Need

Before we dive into the tutorial, make sure you have the following:

• A Python 3.x environment installed on your computer
• The Instagram API set up and configured with your account
• A text editor or IDE of your choice (e.g., PyCharm, Visual Studio Code)
• Familiarity with Python and basic programming concepts

Understanding the Instagram API

The Instagram API provides a way for developers to access Instagram data, including user information, media, and more. To load posts from ‘Saved Posts’, we’ll use the Instagram Graph API, which is the recommended API for accessing Instagram data.

Before we start coding, let’s understand the basic structure of the Instagram Graph API:

https://graph.instagram.com/{version}/{endpoint}

In this structure,:

• {version} is the API version (currently v13.0)
• {endpoint} is the specific endpoint we’re calling (e.g., /me/media)

Getting Started with the Code

Create a new Python file in your text editor or IDE and add the following code:

import requests

# Replace with your Instagram access token
access_token = "YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"

# Set the API version
version = "v13.0"

# Set the endpoint for the 'Saved Posts' section
endpoint = "me/saved_media"

Make sure to replace “YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN” with your actual Instagram access token.

Authenticating with the Instagram API

To authenticate with the Instagram API, we’ll use the access token to make a request to the `/me` endpoint:

# Make a GET request to the /me endpoint
response = requests.get(
    f"https://graph.instagram.com/{version}/me",
    params={"access_token": access_token}
)

# Check if the response was successful
if response.status_code == 200:
    print("Authenticated successfully!")
else:
    print("Authentication failed.")

If the response was successful, you should see a “Authenticated successfully!” message. If not, check your access token and API configuration.

Loading Posts from ‘Saved Posts’

Now that we’re authenticated, let’s load the posts from the ‘Saved Posts’ section:

# Make a GET request to the /me/saved_media endpoint
response = requests.get(
    f"https://graph.instagram.com/{version}/{endpoint}",
    params={"access_token": access_token}
)

# Check if the response was successful
if response.status_code == 200:
    saved_media = response.json()["data"]

    # Print the saved posts
    for post in saved_media:
        print(f"Post ID: {post['id']}\nPost URL: {post['media_url']}\n")
else:
    print("Failed to load saved posts.")

This code makes a GET request to the `/me/saved_media` endpoint and retrieves the list of saved posts. We then iterate through the list and print the post ID and URL for each post.

Parsing the Response Data

When you run the code, you’ll see a list of saved posts with their IDs and URLs. But what if you want to extract more information from the response data?

The Instagram API returns a JSON response, which we can parse and extract specific fields:

for post in saved_media:
    post_id = post["id"]
    media_url = post["media_url"]
    caption = post[" caption"]["text"]
    likes = post["like_count"]
    comments = post["comment_count"]

    print(f"Post ID: {post_id}\nPost URL: {media_url}\nCaption: {caption}\nLikes: {likes}\nComments: {comments}\n")

In this example, we extract the post ID, media URL, caption, likes, and comments for each post.

Handling Pagination

If you have a large number of saved posts, the Instagram API will return a paginated response. To handle pagination, we’ll use the `after` parameter:

# Set the after parameter to the last post's ID
after = saved_media[-1]["id"]

# Make a new GET request with the after parameter
response = requests.get(
    f"https://graph.instagram.com/{version}/{endpoint}",
    params={"access_token": access_token, "after": after}
)

# Repeat the process until there are no more posts
while response.status_code == 200:
    saved_media.extend(response.json()["data"])
    after = saved_media[-1]["id"]
    response = requests.get(
        f"https://graph.instagram.com/{version}/{endpoint}",
        params={"access_token": access_token, "after": after}
    )

print(f"Loaded {len(saved_media)} saved posts!")

This code sets the `after` parameter to the last post’s ID and makes a new GET request. We repeat this process until there are no more posts, and then print the total number of loaded saved posts.

Conclusion

That’s it! You’ve successfully loaded posts from your ‘Saved Posts’ section on Instagram using the Instagram API and Python. You can now automate tasks, analyze your saved posts, or integrate this functionality with other automation projects.

Remember to check the Instagram API documentation for the latest endpoints, parameters, and rate limits. Happy automating!

Endpoint	Description
/me	Returns the authenticated user’s information
/me/saved_media	Returns a list of saved media posts

If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to ask in the comments below!

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