Article Bot

[rajc007]

No the userid, i.e. the number of the user.

The userid of the user is 15.

[mrslugger]

I've tried to get this to work, but if I try to add a feed it says "No file located at... whatever the url is"

Am I doing something wrong. I've put the url in exactly as it says and everything.

[Basit]

A Wonderful Hack :)

However for some reasons I found instructions a bit confusing specially those given in articlebot.php as remarks or may be I failed to figure it out correctly at first place.

Otherwise job weldone.

[yoyoyoyo]

A Wonderful Hack :)

However for some reasons I found instructions a bit confusing specially those given in articlebot.php as remarks or may be I failed to figure it out correctly at first place.

Otherwise job weldone.
I think the cron job thing may a bit confusing to some people, but it can much more easily be set up in the "scheduled tasks" area of the ACP, instead of using the methods described in the read me. The other methods work, but I would think the first plan of action would be to set up a scheduled task via the ACP instead of using phpMyadmin, etc..

and I agree- excellent hack- I am having a lot of fun with it.

[patriotcow]

Hmm I have added this except it doesnt get the news. it just doing do anything :rolleyes:

[interfx]

I have seen some examples of this script in use, but the forum post has the title, and a link to read more... (but not the full article)

Is there a way to pull the entire RSS article? and then have the link at the bottom? I did a quick search, but did not see anyone talking about this option...

Can this be done?

InterFX

[yoyoyoyo]

I have seen some examples of this script in use, but the forum post has the title, and a link to read more... (but not the full article)

Is there a way to pull the entire RSS article? and then have the link at the bottom? I did a quick search, but did not see anyone talking about this option...

Can this be done?

InterFXas stated earlier in the thread, that is up to the feed provider. If the feed provides the full story then you can post it, but if it doesn't you can't. You are at the mercy of the feed provider in that sense. If you don't like the feeds, then look around, there are many feeds that do provide more extensive info than "click here to read the story!" :)

[lebanon]

i download this hack to try it out
all setup fine , added a cron tab , made a notify to my email to see when crontab ran.
here is what i get in email
X-Powered-By: PHP/4.3.10
Set-Cookie: bblastvisit=1107038700; expires=Sun, 29-Jan-06 22:45:00 GMT; path=/
Set-Cookie: bblastactivity=1107037800; expires=Sun, 29-Jan-06 22:45:00 GMT; path=/
Expires: 0
Cache-Control: private, post-check=0, pre-check=0, max-age=0
Pragma: no-cache
Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1

My forum is still empty and didnt get any rss , i was tryin two different rss feeds
Wired rss feed and newisfree which was suggested by authos.
Any ideas ? I am having no error messages of any kind , just the forum that i specified to recieve posts is empty !

[peterska2]

A quick question as I've only just got round to installing this and 35 pages of posts is a bit much to read.

Can you set it to post in a particular forum? If you can then can someone enlighten me to how as there ain't nothing about that in the readme.

[peterska2]

OK I'm a dunce I just realised the setting is in the Add RSS screen.

[OrangeFlea]

Great hack.

I looked on the rss feed lists (both in the zip and link). Anyone know of a good one that focuses mainly on fantasy (games, movies, literature, etc.)?

[yellow281]

Warning: MagpieRSS: Failed to parse RSS file. (not well-formed (invalid token) at line 1, column 274) in /articlebot/rss_fetch.inc on line 230

Warning: array_reverse(): The argument should be an array in /articlebot/articlebot.php on line 137

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /articlebot/articlebot.php on line 141

Thank you :)

[yellow281]

Okay I have resolved this issue, however I am only getting titles in my feed? Anyone know how to get the bot to post the entire article?

Thanks

[yoyoyoyo]

Okay I have resolved this issue, however I am only getting titles in my feed? Anyone know how to get the bot to post the entire article?

ThanksIt all depends on the feeds. The point of the RSS feeds is usually to draw someone to the site where the news is posted, not to provide content to other sites for free. Some RSS Feeds are very thorough, but for the most part they are simply the headline, and a short blurb and a link to the article. If you are continually getting broken feeds, or partial posts then it is a bad news feed, and that is another issue, and it can be fixed by getting a different/better RSS feed

[yellow281]

Well all my feeds from various places (yahoo, blizzard etc.) display an initial title and nothing to click at all. I checked the feeds and many have descriptions too as well as links but my board is displaying nothing but one line of text and thats it.

I also wanted to import the World of Warcraft feed that displays posts from their boards but that doesnt display at all, though it doesnt display an error either.

Any ideas?

Thanks! :surprised:

[Torqued]

Well all my feeds from various places (yahoo, blizzard etc.) display an initial title and nothing to click at all. I checked the feeds and many have descriptions too as well as links but my board is displaying nothing but one line of text and thats it.

I also wanted to import the World of Warcraft feed that displays posts from their boards but that doesnt display at all, though it doesnt display an error either.

Any ideas?

Thanks! :surprised:

Check the feeds in another RSS reader to see how much of the post is being delivered......

Or run them through www.feedburner.com and see how they are displaying.

[dfdems]

I keep getting this error when trying to add abot, any clue what the fix is or reason for it?

Error: There is no user with ID of 0.

Its a member I created just for this

[Torqued]

I keep getting this error when trying to add abot, any clue what the fix is or reason for it?


Error: There is no user with ID of 0.

Its a member I created just for this

It's the numeric userID, not the user name.

[dfdems]

Firgured it out, user ID (#), not the user name..

[Beermonster]

I keep getting this error when trying to add abot, any clue what the fix is or reason for it?


Error: There is no user with ID of 0.

Its a member I created just for this

You need to add article bot then give it the user id number of the user you created.

And now for me :) I had it working fine but since I've upgraded to 3.0.6 and reinstalled it all I get is
Error: There is no file located at http://www.wired.com/news/feeds/rss2/0,2610,31,00.xml
when trying to add article

[yellow281]

"It all depends on the feeds. The point of the RSS feeds is usually to draw someone to the site where the news is posted, not to provide content to other sites for free. Some RSS Feeds are very thorough, but for the most part they are simply the headline, and a short blurb and a link to the article. If you are continually getting broken feeds, or partial posts then it is a bad news feed, and that is another issue, and it can be fixed by getting a different/better RSS feed"

The post shows ONLY a title in the title bar and no URL, description or any kind of post at all. I have gone through everypage on this hack and others have had the same issues but no one seems to have provided a definitive answer. I have tried with known feeds that work and the same problem for everyone of them. Title in the title bar, but no post at all.

It has to be something with the way this is set up. Can someone explain exactly where articlebot_post is supposed to be uploaded to, what type of file its supposed to be and exactly what the full contents of the file should look like. I am pretty certain this is where the error lies and a bunch of us just arent as smart and as intuitive as you coders :) Pretty please!

Thanks

[pieman666]

Could you check the feeds with a 'normal' rss reader, and see what you should be getting in your forums. If it is different then it could be a problem with the forum code, if not then it's the feeds limitation.

[yellow281]

Checked the feeds multiple times, its about 12 different feeds from reliable sources and they read fine in other readers. I have also tried feeds that people here have said are working for them. Its an issue with the configuration somewhere. If anyone has any idea or managed to fix this, I would be eternally grateful.

Literally, I think if someone that has this working could display the contents of their articlebot_post template (page) and tell me exactly where it needs to be uploaded and in what file format then this could cure the problem. Im certain its something to do with that.

Thanks

Kate

[No Harmony]

... I had it working fine but since I've upgraded to 3.0.6 and reinstalled it all I get is
Error: There is no file located at http://www.wired.com/news/feeds/rss2/0,2610,31,00.xml
when trying to add article

I get the same error on my vB 3.0.6, for any feed I am trying to add

[interfx]

Does this work with 3.0.6? Before I start installing, wanted to know...

Thanks

[yoyoyoyo]

Literally, I think if someone that has this working could display the contents of their articlebot_post template (page) and tell me exactly where it needs to be uploaded and in what file format then this could cure the problem. Im certain its something to do with that.

Thanks

KateThe templates are all in the directions. They are templates, not pages, so they are not uploaded- they are added via the Admin control panel: Styles & Templates -> Style Manager -> Add New Template ->

Does this work with 3.0.6? Before I start installing, wanted to know...

Thanksyep!

[No Harmony]

If this works with 3.0.6, then what could be the cause of the problem with feeds?

[mskgr]

I've tried to get this to work, but if I try to add a feed it says "No file located at... whatever the url is"

Am I doing something wrong. I've put the url in exactly as it says and everything.

As I have the same problem on my vB3 Installation, I tried to find out the cause of those symptomps. The error your are reffering to is the :


Error:&nbsp; There is no file located at <i>$rss_path</i>


Which is on line 735, of articlebot_admin.php

The error is displayed when the following is true - if (!$rss = @file_get_contents($rss_path)) - Unfortunately, according to php.net, filget_get_contents requires allow_url_fopen on php.ini script of your server to be turned ON. As this is a potential security risk, I really don't want to enable the wrapper for external files, so I didn't mess with my php.ini script. In addition, magpie (http://magpierss.sourceforge.net/) doesn't need fopen for getting RSS's contents.

So, I went to line 735 and commented out that check...

Problem solved, script works fine...

[MikaK]

I have this hack installed on a 3.0.3 board and keep getting a cron daemon message like this:

From: "Cron Daemon" <>
To:
Subject: Cron <xxx@server> /usr/bin/curl http://soundchilds.net/loud_lounge/articlebot/articlebot.php >/dev/null
Date: Sun, 06 Feb 2005 13:35:06 -0800

% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time
Curr.
Dload Upload Total Current Left
Speed
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- 0:00:01
--:--:-- 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- 0:00:02
--:--:-- 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- 0:00:03
--:--:-- 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- 0:00:04
--:--:-- 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- 0:00:05
--:--:-- 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- 0:00:06
--:--:-- 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- 0:00:06
--:--:-- 0

Any idea what might cause it and how it could be corrected?
###EDIT###
It looks like the script delivers all properly despite the report. So... If this can not be corrected easily, how could I turn the cron report off?
#########

Thanks for any ideas!
-Mika

[Ninth Dimension]

Hi, I'm using this hack on my latest site, and I think it's fantastic.. I do have a question however, if you don't mind:

I notice that you've a 'Regex Search & Replace' built in, and thisis fantastic as I was hoping to be able to use it to replace new-lineswith spaces.

The two feeds I'm currently using(http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/oddlyenough andhttp://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/science) are putting a lot of newlinesinto the descriptions, and I want to remove them.. now I assume thatthe 'Regex Search & Replace' can do this... but I don't know whatcode to use.

Thank you :D

[yellow281]

Mine is now working thanks to the kind guys who helped me, particularly Poolking - you guys rocked. Thanks again :)

[interfx]

Is there a way to take the RSS feed you get from Yahoo.com, and insert the words "read more" before the link to the entire story?

Seems simple, but would help my site look more professional...

Thanks in advance -
INterFX

[Ninth Dimension]

Is there a way to take the RSS feed you getfromYahoo.com, and insert the words "read more" before the link totheentire story?

Seems simple, but would help my site look more professional...

Thanks in advance -
INterFXThis is easy, just edit the articlebot_post template.. here, use mine$article[description]

Read More... ($article[link])
(External link - older links might not be active)

[Couch]

I can probably work this out through trial and error, but as I am no php expert I was wondering if someone can help me.

The rss feed I am getting is only updated once a day as it is a TV guide for the day. However it has several <title> tags around each program.

I am presuming that I can comment out part of the code in articlebot.php so that the file is not trimmed down. I want the whole rss file displayed as one post, with the first <title> used as the title of the thread.

Thanks if you can help :)

[Hubsi]

at first, sorry for my bad english

now my reason for this post

i try to use a rss structure like this: http://www.kino-zeit.de/rss.php
there are fields of <content:encoded> with more informations and pictures as html code

in this thread are few posts about this theme, but no answers
there its named rss2

at last, is there a way to realize my problem?

THX Hubsi :)

[Turboface]

It seems like I have everything all set up here. I haven't set up a cron job yet for the articlebot.php file. I just decided to run it manually to see if it worked and it didn't. I got the following error:


Warning: chdir(): No such file or directory (errno 2) in /usr/home/turbo1/html/www.entertainmentedition.com/forums/articlebot/articlebot.php on line 42

Warning: main(./global.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /usr/home/turbo1/html/www.entertainmentedition.com/forums/articlebot/articlebot.php on line 43

Fatal error: main(): Failed opening required './global.php' (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in /usr/home/turbo1/html/www.entertainmentedition.com/forums/articlebot/articlebot.php on line 43


Any ideas?

[tanyeri24]

www.animesystem.com/forums/

Bots include:
Kanno, Aspen, Zen, Crowbar

Currently my bots are dominating the forum and will soon have a higher postcount then some of the regulars. Har har. :ermm:


where exactly are the bots on your forums? after 10 minutes searching İ gave up

[tanyeri24]

no demo available?

[School-Help]

Someone please help! I get a blank news post with only the title when my bot posts. It is not the feed because i am using bbc and yahoo feeds. Someone help!

[memobug]

no demo available?

How would you demo this?

Here is a forum full of short posts made by the robot, if that is meaningful to you. The feed was translated by a native Czech, so the English itself may be a little odd.

http://forum.bonsaitalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=80

Regards,

Matt

[memobug]

Someone please help! I get a blank news post with only the title when my bot posts. It is not the feed because i am using bbc and yahoo feeds. Someone help!

I documented a cpanel cron setup and a working feed back on this page:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=582820&postcount=441

I'd suggest that if you are having problems, you get it working with that feed and those particulars defined in that post. If it's not working then describe the problem. It is really too much to try to address every possible variable at once.

Regards,

Matt

[tanyeri24]

memobug that was what ı'm searching. thx for usefull link.

[huss]

memobug that was what ı'm searching. thx for usefull link.
This is just a great hack. One of the most useful ever, that will really build traffic and loyalty. Thanks.

[Turboface]

As you can see here - http://www.entertainmentedition.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=71 - the posts have a title, but no message.

Any ideas on what might be the problem here?

:surprised:

[iamboard]

I would like to post news headlines on a particular subject. I'd like to supply the key words (only once) and have the news headlines for those stories automatically appear on my site along with a link to those articles. I would like those headline with links to those stories to appear automatically without my intervention. Will your .... allow me to do that and how would I do it?

[School-Help]

As you can see here - http://www.entertainmentedition.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=71 - the posts have a title, but no message.

Any ideas on what might be the problem here?

:surprised:
I have the same problem a reply which i have tried countless of times? Any support?

[havefun]

thank u for your hack :)

[toolblast]

Maybe you've meantioned about it before,

I have an rss feed from a site called lockergnome.

EXAMPLE: http://feeds.lockergnome.com/rss/web.xml

Problem is, they take all their forum posts and put them into the RSS feed.

That is ok, but then the ArticleBot starts from the BOTTOM and works its way to the TOP. Meaning that the posts will be out of order.

The articlebot posts the LAST message in the forum, and then gets to the first later on... so some people on my forum are sitting there reading this post that doesnt make sense cause it isnt the starting thread...



HOW CAN I MAKE IT SO IT READS THE FIRST POST IN THE RSS, THEN WORKS ITS WAY DOWN INSTEAD OF UP?


Thanks in advance! Great hack!

[havefun]

some members where bored to see the RSS-posts (threads)
after using "new posts". if you don't like see that posts there
follow the steps below...

so i modified the links in "navbar"

important:
65 & 66 are my forum ids where the rss-feeds are postet.
so you have to change them (it).

find 3 times:
search.php?$session[sessionurl]do=getnew
and change it to:
search.php?$session[sessionurl]do=getnew&exclude=65,66
if you have only one forum for RSS than it has to be like this:
search.php?$session[sessionurl]do=getnew&exclude=65
and if you have more forums:
search.php?$session[sessionurl]do=getnew&exclude=65,66,67,68

_______
demo for 3.0.7:
http://www.acnw.de/board/forumdisplay.php?f=65

[jbear6]

Great hack Velocd,
Thanks! you're work is very much appreciated :cool:

Thanks to memobug also :cool:

Regards,
Jbear6

[DeadGaze]

hmm try to install but i get thiss error on my site
anyone knows what it is and get it to work
Fatal error: Call to undefined function: array_change_key_case() in rss_parse.inc on line 203

[Benj]

this is prob a really stupid question but you cant do this hack with out setting up the cron job can you ??? bastard host (globat.com beware) dont support them for security reasons :disappointed:

[venomx]

You can always set up a VBcron...

[School-Help]

Still get blank threads posted by my BOT. Is no one ever going to help me.

[xtreme-mobile]

ive just installed this hack but my bot is not posting

am i doing something wrong?

ive gone into the set up bit and ive linked to all the code stuff for the feed but he dont post anything lol

any ideas?

[JsnakeJ]

Thanks. This hack is great.

[JsnakeJ]

You have to wait till the site updates.

[sub_ubi]

Great hack but a quick question:

Would it be possible to replace HTML with BB code using regex?

My favorite RSS uses a ton of HTML. I figure I can comment out or remove this line in articlebot.php:

$article['description'] = strip_tags(html_entity_decode($article['description']));

But how can I turn the HTML into BBcode with regex?

[TTG]

this is prob a really stupid question but you cant do this hack with out setting up the cron job can you ??? bastard host (globat.com beware) dont support them for security reasons :disappointed:

"The other methods are placing an include_once in your index.php file, or in your phpinclude_end template. In the former case an extra query will be called everytime your index.php is accessed, while in the latter an extra query is called on every page." ..

It's listed in the hack instructions.

[TTG]

Still get blank threads posted by my BOT. Is no one ever going to help me.


Did you create the new template .. ?

[School-Help]

What new template?

[JsnakeJ]

I am having the same problem as xtrememobile. I installed it yesterday when i posted and no luck :(

I have Post Interval set to 1.

[xtreme-mobile]

yeh mine still hasnt posted anything from the yahoo feeds any one know what we are doing wrong?

[vulture]

Installed in 3.0.7 fine.

Only problem is running via VB schedule manager. To solve it:

FIND:
if (!$_REQUEST['do'])

REPLACE WITH:

if (!$_REQUEST['do'] || $_REQUEST['do']=='runcron')

[Jaxx]

I've asked a bit ago but got no reply, so here goes.

I'm trying to figure out why I've got news, but no title, and also how I can get the link at the end of the story to be 'Click Here ...' instead of the actual link.

I've also got an issue with the formating, and i do not believe its from the RSS feed itself.

Site: http://www.nektulos.net

Feed: http://bootleg-rss.g-blog.net/d.eq2players_station_sony_com-3031660840092630H.php

Its a scrap since SOE does not have a true RSS feed. it supplies the title, but its not showing up on my site.

Thanks

[venomx]

Can anyone help me edit Article bot to work with this hack?
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=72560
Amy gave me the code to add to the adrticle bot file but I am not sure how to change it. :(

[RichieBoy67]

Just wondering.... does this actually post an article or just a link to an article???? As of right now that is all I am getting... I need to try more feeds I guess...lol

[memobug]

It posts whatever is in the Description field and links to the article. Take a look at the feed itself and you'll see what's in it in terms of text. That's all there is.

Regards,

Matt

[RichieBoy67]

Thanks,

I had it working last night but it only posted a link.... now it is not working at all..


Just wondering..

do I need to add index.php to the path??

chdir('/home/talkandm/talkandmore-www/');

[venomx]

Take a look at the feed. Is there any new ones listed? I have a few feeds that only post every few days because thats about when they are updated.

No need to add index.php...

[RichieBoy67]

Thanks,

I didn't think so.... I do not have it set in cron jobs right now.. I just have the php file taking care of it right now... I set it at 1 minute just so I can test....

Thanks for your reply... I will have to add more feeds and see if that helps...

[School-Help]

When someones got some free time or something. I would be greatful for support. I have been trying to get it to work for like a month and still its only posting titles. Had it working on 3.03 but since i upgraded to 3.06 im having only titles posts made by the bot. Any ideas i would be so grateful.

[RichieBoy67]

OK- I have it working. I just had to uninstall the other rss feed hack. They are basically the same thing...

I was under the impression that this would post an article.. Inactuality it just posts a description and a link....

Are there any feeds out there that actually post more than a short description????

Links to demos would be nice to so I can compare... Thanks

[memobug]

The bot will post whatever is in the description. It can't post what isn't there. Some feeds are longer and more descriptive than others. Basically it's up to the feed generator to put whatever they want in there.

Usually the intention of the feed generator is to stir up enough interest in the description field to get the reader to follow the link back to the site. Having too much info in the feed is often self defeating, because the user won't follow the link.

Regards,

Matt

[kyouens]

Is anyone else having problems with their articlebot making duplicate posts? Mine performs correctly about 99% of the time, but the last 1% of posts are re-downloaded and re-posted every time that articlebot is run. I can't see any difference in the posts or titles (e.g. obvious areas of whitespace).

Has anyone either a) succesfully dealt with this problem from the articlebot end or b) found a script to delete identical posts (even if they're in the same forum--note that the remove doubleposts function in admincp only works across forums)?

Thanks.

PS. If you're having problems with your articlebot's formattting, inserting wacked looking foreign characters in some places, etc, you can replace the magpie RSS files from the hack download with the updated ones from here (http://magpierss.sourceforge.net/). I did that and my problems with wierd looking characters magically dissapeared. The upgrade is seamless, and you don't need to change anything (that I have yet encountered) in articlebot.php, etc.

[memobug]

I'm pretty sure that it's the actual target link that defines the uniqueness of the post. If the feed uses a different target link that post will be identified as unique regardless of the description and title.

That's what I recall from reading the code once a long while ago, and it seems to make sense.

Regards,

Matt

[kyouens]

I'm pretty sure that it's the actual target link that defines the uniqueness of the post. If the feed uses a different target link that post will be identified as unique regardless of the description and title.

That's what I recall from reading the code once a long while ago, and it seems to make sense.

Regards,

Matt
The target links are identical in the duplicated posts. I think it has to do with the post title, but mine appear to be identical.

[KevinL]

I've been trying to get this to work it just wont. I went over it and over it..

I'm uninstalling it. :(

[memobug]

This hack requires that you configure it precisely and it has a lot of dependencies, like the feed being properly formed and the cron be implemented correctly and the paths being accurate.

If you get anything wrong, it will not work. Even if you do configure it right you will not get any output until the cron and posting intervals have passed.

So, I suggest that people begin with a known good feed and import to a test forum to minimize the probability of error.

I posted a thread awhile back to help set up the cron and use a known good feed.

If you try to customize it completely the moment you install it, chances are good that it will not work, and you will not be able to figure out why.

1. Follow the instructions for setup exactly. Don't leave out any steps and make sure your paths are right.
2. Try using this cron and this feed:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=582820&postcount=441

Regards,

Matt

[KevinL]

Thanks for the reply I will go over it again.

I did have it working at one point one bot posted like 15 threads then just stopped.

Then I started getting a email saying that the cron wasnt working right. It all was very confusing.

I will remove everything including the tables and re install everything and leave it for 24 hours and see if it posts anything.

[RichieBoy67]

Is there any way you can keep the bots posts from not being counted?? I would also like to keep the bot out of statistics??? Is this possible???

Thanks

[kyouens]

I think if you read all 40(!) of the pages in this thread, somebody mentions that RichieBoy. But I could be wrong.....Try a thread search.

[KevinL]

This hack requires that you configure it precisely and it has a lot of dependencies, like the feed being properly formed and the cron be implemented correctly and the paths being accurate.

If you get anything wrong, it will not work. Even if you do configure it right you will not get any output until the cron and posting intervals have passed.

So, I suggest that people begin with a known good feed and import to a test forum to minimize the probability of error.

I posted a thread awhile back to help set up the cron and use a known good feed.

If you try to customize it completely the moment you install it, chances are good that it will not work, and you will not be able to figure out why.

1. Follow the instructions for setup exactly. Don't leave out any steps and make sure your paths are right.
2. Try using this cron and this feed:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=582820&postcount=441

Regards,

Matt

Ok so I went back and did it all over again...and it works great!!

Thank you!

[ChrisHasenpflug]

I am having a problem with this hack. Currently the feed I am trying to use includes an ampersand.

I input:

http://www.example.com/rssfeed.cfm?m=10&s=255

However the hack converts this to:

http://www.example.com/rssfeed.cfm?m=10&amp;s=255

Obviously (for anyone who knows about query strings), this does not work. The hack is encoding the ampersand, and that doesn't fly. While ampersands should be encoded when displayed in a browser (for W3C standards) they should not be encoded when accesed (browsers unencode the &amp; and turn it into a plain & when viewed).

I would appreciate any help in fixing this hack to not encode ampersands. I'm considering making a mod_rewrite rule for this as a work around, but I would prefer to make this work.

Thanks!

[kyouens]

PS. If you're having problems with your articlebot's formattting, inserting wacked looking foreign characters in some places, etc, you can replace the magpie RSS files from the hack download with the updated ones from here (http://magpierss.sourceforge.net/). I did that and my problems with wierd looking characters magically dissapeared. The upgrade is seamless, and you don't need to change anything (that I have yet encountered) in articlebot.php, etc.

Try this, it worked for me.

Kenny

[KevinL]

Now..is there a way that when someone replies to a thread the bot made it moves to another forum?

Like say you set up the news to go to a sub forum and when someone goes in and replies it goes into the the regular forum. So people can see the ones that people have replied to.

[memobug]

Now..is there a way that when someone replies to a thread the bot made it moves to another forum?

If so, it would be a different hack. The bot doesn't read the forum.

Regards,

Matt

[T3MEDIA]

Simple question the standard vb feeds... is this a major upgrade to it?

Thanks.

[KevinL]

If so, it would be a different hack. The bot doesn't read the forum.

Regards,

Matt
No, I mean if the thread that the bot makes gets a reply the thread moves out of the sub forum (automatically) and into a discussion forum so others could reply to it without it getting lost.

Without say a mod or admin moving the threads into the other forum.

[kyouens]

No, I mean if the thread that the bot makes gets a reply the thread moves out of the sub forum (automatically) and into a discussion forum so others could reply to it without it getting lost.

Without say a mod or admin moving the threads into the other forum.
What memobug said. . . . .If you are moving posted threads from one forum to another, you should look at a completely different hack. Articlebot does not (and should not, probably), have such a function. Try searching for something like "move threads with replies" or the like and see what you get.

[KevinL]

Thanks guys I get what youre saying now :)

[Romeos Tune]

I have found several rss feeds that work..... the problem is most all of them I found only give you 2 or 3 lines of a story and then a link..... Does anyone know of some good links that will post the entire story? Preferably sports related...... Thanks!

[RichieBoy67]

I would also love a feed that actually puts more content on the site and not 3 lines................... I would also like to be able to remove the bot from adding to post counts...lol

[kyouens]

I would also love a feed that actually puts more content on the site and not 3 lines................... I would also like to be able to remove the bot from adding to post counts...lol
The content of the feed has absolutely nothing to do with ArticleBot and everything to do with what the content providers choose to include.

[KevinL]

I have found several rss feeds that work..... the problem is most all of them I found only give you 2 or 3 lines of a story and then a link..... Does anyone know of some good links that will post the entire story? Preferably sports related...... Thanks!
Reuters usually gives a good description.

[Layne SMith]

I know I'm beating a dead horse here but the answer eludes me still.

Just got it all set up to feed the link below (the one recommended) into a forum. Works fine, feeds it in. BUT, it feeds only into the title. It doesn't post any of the lines or the link into the body of the post. Just a title.

http://www.bonsai-today.com/rss/bonsai-today-rss.html

I've checked this whole board and the one fella who seemed to figure it out was happy to tell us of his triumph, BUT NOT HOW HE DID IT!!! ugh.

Help is appreciated!

Thanks,
Layne

[kyouens]

I know I'm beating a dead horse here but the answer eludes me still.

Just got it all set up to feed the link below (the one recommended) into a forum. Works fine, feeds it in. BUT, it feeds only into the title. It doesn't post any of the lines or the link into the body of the post. Just a title.

http://www.bonsai-today.com/rss/bonsai-today-rss.html

I've checked this whole board and the one fella who seemed to figure it out was happy to tell us of his triumph, BUT NOT HOW HE DID IT!!! ugh.

Help is appreciated!

Thanks,
Layne
Layne

I just added that feed to my test installation, and it appears to work correctly on mine. I would recommend doing a fresh install of articlebot and using the updated MagpieRSS files (Which I linked to in a previous post.)

Also, you might want to take a look at your template (if it's customized for your articlebot) to make sure you haven't left something out. You could look diretly at your database (phpmyadmin) to see if the article descriptions are coming through and being inserted or not.

Good luck

Kenny

[Layne SMith]

I would recommend doing a fresh install of articlebot and using the updated MagpieRSS files (Which I linked to in a previous post.)

Kenny,

I downloaded the most recent version of Magpie and am not sure what to do with it or where to put it. Or, even if I should do anything with it. I'm not sure which MagpieRSS files you're talking about. Which files in the Article Bot download need to be updated?

Thanks,
Layne

[kyouens]

There are four files in the articlebot directory that you should have uploaded to your server. The file names are rss_cache.inc, rss_fetch.inc, rss_parse.inc and rss_utils.inc I believe. If I recall, the MarpieRSS tgz file has those files inside it, and you should upload and replace the ones in your articlebot directory with the new ones from the magpie tgz.

I don't know if this will fix your problem, but it might. Good luck.
Kenny

[Layne SMith]

Kenny, thanks for helping me out with this.

I just added that feed to my test installation, and it appears to work correctly on mine. I would recommend doing a fresh install of articlebot and using the updated MagpieRSS files (Which I linked to in a previous post.) Did this. No dice.

take a look at your template (if it's customized for your articlebot) to make sure you haven't left something out. Doublechecked, looked fine. Did a copy and replace right out of instructions to be sure. Still nada.

You could look diretly at your database (phpmyadmin) to see if the article descriptions are coming through and being inserted or not. Here's where we have a lead. When I use phpMyAdmin to check the contents of articlebot_rss_cache the last thing in the table says...

rsschacheid=91
title=...And We're Back
dateline=1114918800

That's it. I see no descriptions.

This looks fishy.

On a different note...

Before checking the database, I tried to do a reinstall, went through the steps and got this database error. Have no idea what I've messed up, if anything. Thoughts?

Database error in vBulletin 3.0.7:

Invalid SQL:
CREATE TABLE articlebot (
articlebotid smallint(5) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
userid int(10) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
regex_title_search varchar(100) NOT NULL,
regex_title_replace varchar(100) NOT NULL,
regex_desc_search varchar(100) NOT NULL,
regex_desc_replace varchar(100) NOT NULL,
enabled tinyint(1) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
dateline int(10) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
PRIMARY KEY (articlebotid)
)

mysql error: Table 'articlebot' already exists

mysql error number: 1050

Again, thank you.

[Layne SMith]

Is anyone else having problems with their articlebot making duplicate posts? Mine performs correctly about 99% of the time, but the last 1% of posts are re-downloaded and re-posted every time that articlebot is run. I can't see any difference in the posts or titles (e.g. obvious areas of whitespace).

Has anyone either a) succesfully dealt with this problem from the articlebot end or b) found a script to delete identical posts (even if they're in the same forum--note that the remove doubleposts function in admincp only works across forums)?

Kenny, Did you ever solve this one? I'm having the same problem.


Thanks,
Layne

[kyouens]

Originally Posted by kyouens
I just added that feed to my test installation, and it appears to work correctly on mine. I would recommend doing a fresh install of articlebot and using the updated MagpieRSS files (Which I linked to in a previous post.)
----------------------
Did this. No dice.

Well, at least once you get it fixed you'll be ready to go and have already done the upgrade.....

Originally Posted by kyouens
take a look at your template (if it's customized for your articlebot) to make sure you haven't left something out.
------------------------------
Doublechecked, looked fine. Did a copy and replace right out of instructions to be sure. Still nada.

Well, it seems like the posts are getting where they need to be, but for some reason the descriptions in particular are being neglected, and the template still seems like the best lead. Here is the contents of my articlebot_post template:

$article[description]

View Reference ($article[link])

One possibility--make sure that you've placed the articlebot_post template into a style that you're actually using, i.e. your default style, or make sure that your style is a "child" style of the one with the articlebot_post template.
If your template was somehow not getting accessed, you would see exactly what you're describing--everything works except the post itself. Also, check the spelling of the template name and make sure you haven't botched that accidentally.

Here's where we have a lead. When I use phpMyAdmin to check the contents of articlebot_rss_cache the last thing in the table says...

rsschacheid=91
title=...And We're Back
dateline=1114918800

That's it. I see no descriptions.

This looks fishy.

No dice on this one, because the purpose of the articlebot_rss_cache is, I think, to keep track of already-posted articles, i.e. to avoid doubleposts.

The database error you saw when you tried to reinstall occurred because your old articlebot tables were still on your database. I should have mentioned that you need to drop those tables before reinstalling. However, if you're not that familiar with phpyadmin or MYsql, I would be careful and be sure to make a backup of your DB before you "fix" it ;)

Anyway, I still think the best lead may be the template. Let me know if you get it.

Kenny

[kyouens]

Kenny, Did you ever solve this one? I'm having the same problem.


Thanks,
Layne
No, I never fixed the double posting problem. I haven't given up, though. I am afraid it may be due to a problem with the feed itself, though. For example, if the feed puts a different spacing in the article title, it will be treated like a new article.

For the time being, I'm hand-deleting, which sucks big time. I'm looking for (At least) a piece of code that can delete identical posts, but ideally I'd like to work out this crappy doubleposting problem.

PS I checked out your page. Your work is outstanding.

[Layne SMith]

Also, check the spelling of the template name and make sure you haven't botched that accidentally.YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! You mean the template I called "article_post"? The one I should've called "articlebot_post"!!! Well double-damn!!!

The database error you saw when you tried to reinstall occurred because your old articlebot tables were still on your database. I should have mentioned that you need to drop those tables before reinstalling. However, if you're not that familiar with phpyadmin or MYsql, I would be careful and be sure to make a backup of your DB before you "fix" it ;)

Okay, well since when I tried to reinsttall I may have done more harm than good, I need to rectify this table already exists stuff.

In phpMyAdmin, I see three tables clearly labeled articlebot.

articlebot
articlebot_rss
articlebot_rss_cache


Are these the ones to delete?

I'm going to back up my databases now ...

PS I checked out your page. Your work is outstanding. Thanks fella. Appreciate that. But not half as much as I appreciate your help here!

[kyouens]

YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! You mean the template I called "article_post"? The one I should've called "articlebot_post"!!! Well double-damn!!!



Okay, well since when I tried to reinsttall I may have done more harm than good, I need to rectify this table already exists stuff.

In phpMyAdmin, I see three tables clearly labeled articlebot.

articlebot
articlebot_rss
articlebot_rss_cache


Are these the ones to delete?

I'm going to back up my databases now ...

Thanks fella. Appreciate that. But not half as much as I appreciate your help here!
I don't think you'll necessarily need to reinstall. From the SQL output you posted, it looks like it may have just barfed on the error and not changed your DB. But, if you want to delete them, the three called / prefixed with articlebot are the ones to amputate.

Glad to have been of help with the post trouble. Now, if I could only get one of these PHP geniuses around here to do some work for me . . . .

[Layne SMith]

Kenny! My man, Kenny!

Hot Damn! Look what just started working! My feeds are coming in loud and proud. Apparently the reinstall did enough without having to monkey with the database.

For you people having problems out there, MAKE SURE YOU NAME YOUR STUFF EXACTLY AS THE INSTRUCTIONS TELL YOU! That's right I yelled it.

Thanks again Kenny!

[greenhybrid]

I just want to check... does this work with 3.0.7? If so, I'll install. But, it hasn't been updated in months.

[kyouens]

I just want to check... does this work with 3.0.7? If so, I'll install. But, it hasn't been updated in months.

Yep.

[Layne SMith]

I just want to check... does this work with 3.0.7? If so, I'll install. But, it hasn't been updated in months.

I'm running 3.0.7 right now. Just got it up and running.

[greenhybrid]

Can I see? I don't see a demo anywhere. Thanks.

[kyouens]

Can I see? I don't see a demo anywhere. Thanks.

Look at the front page of my site.

Boom. (http://www.thetrainedeye.com)

The site is still being constructed (aren't they all . . .) but the articlebot is working. I am using a custom template for the articlebot forum, that's why you don't see all the reply buttons, post numbers, etc.

[greenhybrid]

Is there a reason why the vBullein scheduled tasks aren't working for this? I used ./articlebot/articlebot.php and tried to run it, but there were no results.

[kyouens]

Is there a reason why the vBullein scheduled tasks aren't working for this? I used ./articlebot/articlebot.php and tried to run it, but there were no results.
If possible, it's best to run this using a regular server cron job (eg. /usr/local/bin/php /home/whatever/vbulletin/articlebot/articlebot.php). That's how I have mine set up and it works great. Also, if you do it this way, there are not the interspersed pauses whenever an unlucky user loads a page when it's time for a feed update.

[greenhybrid]

I'll look into that. It did start working, however.
I see there are like 15 scheduled tasts by other hacks. They haven't caused any load problems like you mention...?

[kyouens]

I'll look into that. It did start working, however.
I see there are like 15 scheduled tasts by other hacks. They haven't caused any load problems like you mention...?
Hmm..actually I think you're right about not having the interspersed updates when you use the vbulletin cron. I know you DO get them if you have an include for articlebot.php on your forum home, for example, though.

One other drawback of having them in your vbulletin cron is that if your forum isn't very busy, it won't get updated often. Someone has to use your vbulletin for your vbulletin cron to work. I guess the upside is that it's easy to set up. . .

[Layne SMith]

I noticed one of my feeds wasn't working and when I sent it through Feed Validator I got this error ...

Your feed appears to be encoded as "UTF-8", but your server is reporting "US-ASCII"

Is this something Article Bot can account for?

Thanks,
Layne

[greenhybrid]

Can someone please explain the difference between the cron and the post interval? Right now I created a custom RSS for certain Google News terms and its results are both ever-changing and unpredictable. I've set the cron for every hour and the interval for every 5 minutes or so. Also, I set the amount to process at each time for 1, the default and recommendation. Does this mean that if there's duplicates, they won't be posted and only 1 can be posted every 5 minutes?

[kyouens]

Can someone please explain the difference between the cron and the post interval? Right now I created a custom RSS for certain Google News terms and its results are both ever-changing and unpredictable. I've set the cron for every hour and the interval for every 5 minutes or so. Also, I set the amount to process at each time for 1, the default and recommendation. Does this mean that if there's duplicates, they won't be posted and only 1 can be posted every 5 minutes?
The cron and postinterval thing is kind of confusing. I have my articlebot.php set to run (via a server cron job) every five minutes. However, I have my post intervals set to anywhere between 120 minutes to 3600 minutes. So what happens is that the articlebot.php runs every 5 minutes, but I have my rss feeds "staggered". If the postinterval has elapsed for any of my given feeds THAT FEED gets updated while the others do not. Each time articlebot.php is run, maybe only 1-2 of my feeds' postinterval is up.

The amount to process I set to like 20 or something. For example, if your feed has 3 NEW posts and yours is set to 20, it will download only those 3 new posts. But if your amount is set to 1 and your feed gets 3 new ones, it will only grab one of them (each time it runs.)

Confusing.
Kenny

[kyouens]

I noticed one of my feeds wasn't working and when I sent it through Feed Validator I got this error ...

Your feed appears to be encoded as "UTF-8", but your server is reporting "US-ASCII"

Is this something Article Bot can account for?

Thanks,
Layne
Are you talking about the feeds that articlebot enters into the forums (i.e. external feeds)? Or are you talking about a feed of YOUR page. If you're talking about an external feed, articlebot doesn't have anything to do with the content of the file it processes. I don't know whether it converts the "non-valid" (but still useable) feeds into valid XML.

[greenhybrid]

So, the postintervals tell the cron whether to process the threads at that time, correct?

Earlier today, my bot posted the same article 3 times. How can this be prevented?

[kyouens]

So, the postintervals tell the cron whether to process the threads at that time, correct?

Earlier today, my bot posted the same article 3 times. How can this be prevented?
That's correct about the postintervals. And the doubleposting--I am having the same problem, and it's pissing me off to no end. I'm trying to pin down why it's happening, and if I do, I'll let you know.

[greenhybrid]

In my case, it's because there is more than one instance of the article in the RSS :) The bot should be able to check if the title would be a duplicate; if so, don't post.

[kyouens]

In my case, it's because there is more than one instance of the article in the RSS :) The bot should be able to check if the title would be a duplicate; if so, don't post.
That's what it does, in theory. Here's the relevant code, I think:


$result_threads = $DB_site->query("
SELECT title
FROM articlebot_rss_cache
WHERE dateline >= $timecut
");


while ($thread = $DB_site->fetch_array($result_threads))
{
$threads[] = trim($thread['title']);
}

By any chance, are the articles that are being duplicated in your installation only those that have a long title (at least longer than the others?) I'm trying to see what the duplicated threads have in common. On mine, it seems to be only the articles with the longest titles.

[kyouens]

By any chance, are the articles that are being duplicated in your installation only those that have a long title (at least longer than the others?) I'm trying to see what the duplicated threads have in common. On mine, it seems to be only the articles with the longest titles.

Check this out: In my forum, the longest threads have names like this:

Immunohistochemical Stains for p63 and alpha-Methylacyl-CoA Racemase, Versus a Cocktail Comprising Both, in the Diagnosis of Prostatic Carcinoma: A Comparison of the Immunohistochemical Staining of 430 Foci in Radical Prostatectomy and Needle Biopsy

However, the feed itself gives the title as this (ignore the html characters):

Immunohistochemical%20Stains%20for%20p63%20and%20
alpha-Methylacyl-CoA%20Racemase%2C%20Versus%20a%20
Cocktail%20Comprising%20Both%2C%20in%20the%20Diagn osis%20
of%20Prostatic%20Carcinoma%3A%20A%20Comparison%20o f%20
the%20Immunohistochemical%20Staining%20of%20430%20 Foci
%20in%20Radical%20Prostatectomy%20and%20Needle%20
Biopsy%20Tissues.

These are not identical. If you look, the last part of the feed's title has a few extra words. For some reason, the title is getting truncated as it is being written into the forum, which is why the script, which I believe uses the title and postdate to determine identical-ness, fails to see these as identical.

Now to find the responsible code and drop a major load of hurt on this stupid bug.

Update: The problem is that the title row in the post table (of vbulletin) is of type varchar(250), and some of the full titles are >250 characters. To include the full titles, I may need to change the column type to TEXT. I wonder if this will wreck my vbulletin due to unforeseen badness...I will ask around before I try it and will update the thread.

Update: Fixed the doubleposting of articles with long titles issue. Go into PHPmyadmin and change the column type of the "title" row of the articlebot_rss_cache table from Varchar(255) to "text". That eliminates the 255 character limit for titles in the feed cache and stops the doubleposting. Note that the thread title ON THE POST will still be limited to 254 characters, but this shouldn't be a problem at all for most people.

[|Jordan|]

I'm using running the article bot in a cron tab. I receive this error when it runs:

/bin/sh: line 1: /usr/local/lib/php: is a directory

The instructions state the php dir, well that is the php dir (i checked with my host). Any ideas what's wrong?

[kyouens]

I'm using running the article bot in a cron tab. I receive this error when it runs:

/bin/sh: line 1: /usr/local/lib/php: is a directory

The instructions state the php dir, well that is the php dir (i checked with my host). Any ideas what's wrong?
that is the php directory, but you need to run the php executable binary file. On many servers, it's at the address /usr/local/bin/php

Give that a shot.

[memobug]

Check this out: In my forum, the longest threads have names like this:

Immunohistochemical Stains for p63 and alpha-Methylacyl-CoA Racemase, Versus a Cocktail Comprising Both, in the Diagnosis of Prostatic Carcinoma: A Comparison of the Immunohistochemical Staining of 430 Foci in Radical Prostatectomy and Needle Biopsy
There would appear to be a limit of 250-255 characters or so in the forum titles. Maybe it's a limit set in the hack but probably it's a database limitation, too.

Regards,

Matt

[kyouens]

Yeah, it's a databse limitation. From my above post :)

Update: Fixed the doubleposting of articles with long titles issue. Go into PHPmyadmin and change the column type of the "title" row of the articlebot_rss_cache table from Varchar(255) to "text". That eliminates the 255 character limit for titles in the feed cache and stops the doubleposting. Note that the thread title ON THE POST will still be limited to 254 characters, but this shouldn't be a problem at all for most people.

Thanks for the help though.
Kenny

[memobug]

I am not sure my article bot is 100% up-to-date - I installed 10/15/04 and article bot has a comment in it dated articlebot.php, v1.1, 07/25/04

However each time the bot makes a post I get emailed the following error. I am 98% sure it is coming from my friend the 'bot.

Q1: Does anyone else get these ( I mean obviously it is trying to add an array to a scalar - but why?)
Q2: Any idea what could be the actual cause?


Invalid SQL:
UPDATE user
SET posts = posts + Array
WHERE userid = 0

mysql error: Unknown column 'Array' in 'field list'

mysql error number: 1054

Date: Thursday 17th of March 2005 12:00:14 AM
Script: http://
Referer:
Username: Unregistered
IP Address

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Are you running PHP5?

[memobug]

Are you running PHP5?
I have PHP Version 4.3.11

Regards,

Matt

[Marco van Herwaarden]

memobug
I don't have this installed so it would be a bit difficult to bugfix. So could you please temporary do the follwoing edit.

Find:

$DB_site->query("
UPDATE ".TABLE_PREFIX."user
SET posts = posts + $user_posts
WHERE userid = $userid
");


Add before:

if ('debug' == 'debug')
{
echo "<br />Users: <pre>";print_r($users);echo "</pre>";
echo "<br />Userid: $userid - user_posts: <pre>";print_r($user_posts);echo "</pre>";
}

Then let the bot make a post and check these debug echo's.
Remove these lines after you have the info and post it here.

[KevinL]

memobug,

I got that when I used the other option and not the server cron job. As soon as I set up a cron job I havent seen it again.

Dont know if that really helps though.

[NewOrder]

does it have to link to a .rss

or is linking it to http://blogs.msdn.com fine?

mine are linked to things like the above link but im getting no news displayed?

also when i goto articlebot.php i get the following

Warning: chdir(): No such file or directory (errno 2) in /home2/tek/public_html/articlebot.php on line 42

[memobug]

1. No it doesn't need to have an .rss extension. It could be .xml or .cgi or most anything but it needs to be a valid rss feed. Try a search on RSS FEED VALIDATOR on Google - then submit your feed

2. You apparently have a path problem as your server is trying to tell you. Did you make the required change in articlebot.php?

Regards,

Matt

[kylek]

Help please,

My host doesn't allow cpanel access for security reasons so I am running Article Bots with the include method and it works. Would like to find out how to set it up as a scheduled task and scanned the 43 pages but cannot see how to do it.

Could someone please explain in step by step instructions how to do this. much thanks in advance!!!

[greenhybrid]

In the vBulletin control panel, at the bottom you can set up a Scheduled Task. Just fill out the form and point to the correct script.

cPanel access for your own shared account doesn't pose a security issue.

[kylek]

In the vBulletin control panel, at the bottom you can set up a Scheduled Task. Just fill out the form and point to the correct script.

cPanel access for your own shared account doesn't pose a security issue.

That is what they told me when I asked, oh well,
I know how to fill out the task except for the bottom box called file name. All my other various tasks have ./includes/cron/ and then whatever file you are pointing to, so would I need to have ./includes/cron/articlebot.php?

And what do I need to put in articlebot.php for the forum server path?

I appreciate the help as a newbie still but trying to learn.

[NewOrder]

1. No it doesn't need to have an .rss extension. It could be .xml or .cgi or most anything but it needs to be a valid rss feed. Try a search on RSS FEED VALIDATOR on Google - then submit your feed

2. You apparently have a path problem as your server is trying to tell you. Did you make the required change in articlebot.php?

Regards,

Matt

sorry what recriured change?

[kylek]

sorry what recriured change?

If you are using crontab check step 7 for required change to articlebot.php,
not using crontab check step 8 for required change to articlebot.php

[kylek]

That is what they told me when I asked, oh well,
I know how to fill out the task except for the bottom box called file name. All my other various tasks have ./includes/cron/ and then whatever file you are pointing to, so would I need to have ./includes/cron/articlebot.php?

And what do I need to put in articlebot.php for the forum server path?

I appreciate the help as a newbie still but trying to learn.

Still cant get this to work using scheduled tasks. When I use ./articlebot/articlebot.php for the filename and manually run the scheduled task everything seems to work, page pops up with one word on it "articlebot" and nothing else, any ideas?

[NewOrder]

Warning: chdir(): No such file or directory (errno 2) in /articlebot/articlebot.php on line 42

^^ this is what im still getting

for the place to point articlebot.php im using :
/home/tek/public_html/

[topten]

no matter what rss feed I try to add to my bot I get

Error: There is no file located at ....

anyone got any suggestions for me please?

[topten]

no matter what rss feed I try to add to my bot I get

Error: There is no file located at ....

anyone got any suggestions for me please?
I have tried about 20 different feeds includign yahoo news feeds which i validated with a feed validator to make sure

I really am at a loss here :(

[poolking]

Could you give people a chance to answer you before bumping your post.

Have you tried this page?

http://news.yahoo.com/rss

[topten]

Could you give people a chance to answer you before bumping your post.

Have you tried this page?

http://news.yahoo.com/rss


Error: There is no file located at http://news.yahoo.com/rss

[poolking]

are you actually typing in the link to the XML files?

I was just telling you where the feeds are located.

[topten]

well gee man instead of trying to come down on me for simply adding a bit of extra info to the post you could have read what I added and we could avoided all this.

I have tried about 20 different feeds includign yahoo news feeds which i validated with a feed validator to make sure(

[wmturkey]

This is a GREAT hack and is working well for me -- many thanks to the author and those here supporting it.

[topten]

This is a GREAT hack and is working well for me -- many thanks to the author and those here supporting it.

no doubt man , so what news rss feed are u using if i may ask?

[topten]

ok i seem to have narrowed it down. if i use a absolute path on my server then it will accept the feed. If i use any URL it wont accept it.

I wondered does this mean theres a problem with my paths in articlebot.php but ive tried switching them around but nada?

[Qwest]

Will someone PLEASE add some code to truncate the DISPLAY URL?

my site www.ipodarena.com is running vbadvanced but the news column is narrow. I have to manually edit URLs so they dont stretch the box and make my right side box too narrow.

[topten]

Will someone PLEASE add some code to truncate the DISPLAY URL?

my site www.ipodarena.com is running vbadvanced but the news column is narrow. I have to manually edit URLs so they dont stretch the box and make my right side box too narrow.
you coulld set the column to be fixed width or I guess you dont want the wrap either

[topten]

damn im stumped - spent half a day just trying to get this werkin hehe

anyone with any experience with this able to offer me some assistance?

[wmturkey]

Can anyone help me with the cache errors below?

Thanks!

Cache unable to open file for writing: ./cache/3f337277b2b2cfd6fcc0a0b953d1b88b
Cache unable to open file for writing: ./cache/e905c9ebbb58c522239df9bfa6cea4cc
Cache unable to open file for writing: ./cache/faa381df8ef97ebee0b979afaf6a08a7
Cache unable to open file for writing: ./cache/7c5945d293bb83bcffa25ccb26f741c5
Cache unable to open file for writing: ./cache/6965bb7e2cd199c6cebfcca7b0c15c30
Cache unable to open file for writing: ./cache/e872bc0799d39b02da412a1fe5bed1ec
Cache unable to open file for writing: ./cache/07199ba6b997fbb1322d6ef8f559a51b
Cache unable to open file for writing: ./cache/a3fcd87a0c09a0edcc94c99bcd7279eb
X-Powered-By: PHP/4.3.4
Set-Cookie: bbsessionhash=be8fe0a5677cbc5b73899fd4408e4222; path=/
Set-Cookie: bblastvisit=1116586861; expires=Sat, 20-May-2006 11:01:01 GMT; path=/
Set-Cookie: bblastactivity=1116586861; expires=Sat, 20-May-2006 11:01:01 GMT; path=/
Cache-Control: private
Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1

[wmturkey]

no doubt man , so what news rss feed are u using if i may ask?

Check my implementation using 'Aibo' - the Sony robot dog:

www.engineers.net
www.9500communicator.com

I check feeds carefully first, and keep the posting rate quite low.

Cheers!

[romeshomey]

OK, new question.

I eliminated the bots posts from showing up on the search page, but now need to eliminate their posts from being counted on the forum home page.

For example, their posts arent showing up on the search page, but their posts are still counted here.

Your Info:
User: romeshomey
New Posts: 29
New Threads: 27
Private Messages: 0 Unread, Total 20.

How can I eliminate this?

[Troy McClure]

Nevermind!

[topten]

my ++++ing host has disabled the PHP option allow_url_fopen

BLAH

is there going to be anyway I can include an rss feed on my forum without this function?

[topten]

where do I ask general questions on this forum?

[mrpotatohead]

Hi,

I'm having a problem that has only occured recently.

See:
http://www.bigbrotherwebsite.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=34

The bot is starting to post up news stories from the RSS feed that are days or sometimes weeks old as new... why is this? It is not coming up in the actual RSS feed as recent news stories, only in the forum...

Can anyone help?


- Joe

[Torqued]

Hi,

I'm having a problem that has only occured recently.

See:
http://www.bigbrotherwebsite.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=34

The bot is starting to post up news stories from the RSS feed that are days or sometimes weeks old as new... why is this? It is not coming up in the actual RSS feed as recent news stories, only in the forum...

Can anyone help?


- Joe

Check the RSS feed/origin site - I have found that some feeds/sites will recycle older stories if there has not been much traffic.

[mrpotatohead]

Nope it's not that, because it's my own website that I am including the feed from in to the forum... it's very strange!?

- Joe

[kyouens]

Hi,

I'm having a problem that has only occured recently.

See:
http://www.bigbrotherwebsite.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=34

The bot is starting to post up news stories from the RSS feed that are days or sometimes weeks old as new... why is this? It is not coming up in the actual RSS feed as recent news stories, only in the forum...

Can anyone help?


- Joe

Have you noted that the old posts are duplicates, e.g. that they are identical in every way to prior posts? Same post title, content, etc?

Have you noted that the old articles have exceptionally long titles?

Mine was doing that and I edited the code to fix it. If you're having the same problem let me know and I'll post (re-post? can't remember . ..) the fix.

Kenny

[mrpotatohead]

Have you noted that the old posts are duplicates, e.g. that they are identical in every way to prior posts? Same post title, content, etc?

Have you noted that the old articles have exceptionally long titles?

Mine was doing that and I edited the code to fix it. If you're having the same problem let me know and I'll post (re-post? can't remember . ..) the fix.

Kenny

Yup, yes to both those Kenny... they do have long titles and yes the duplicates are exactly the same... if you could would you be able to post the fix, I'd be extremely grateful!! :)


- Joe

[kyouens]

Yup, yes to both those Kenny... they do have long titles and yes the duplicates are exactly the same... if you could would you be able to post the fix, I'd be extremely grateful!!

Hey Joe, below I've attatched my description of and workaround for this problem. The shorthand answer, which does involve mucking with the database (so make a backup):

Go into PHPmyadmin (or whatever mySQL client you've got and change the column type of the "title" row of the articlebot_rss_cache table from Varchar(255) to "text". That eliminates a 255 character limit for titles in the feed cache and stops the doubleposting. Note that the thread title ON THE POST will still be limited to 254 characters, but this shouldn't be a problem at all for most people.

I did this about a month ago and I've had no problems at all since that time with doubleposting.

Here's the original stuff below:
Check this out: In my forum, the longest threads have names like this:

Immunohistochemical Stains for p63 and alpha-Methylacyl-CoA Racemase, Versus a Cocktail Comprising Both, in the Diagnosis of Prostatic Carcinoma: A Comparison of the Immunohistochemical Staining of 430 Foci in Radical Prostatectomy and Needle Biopsy

However, the feed itself gives the title as this (ignore the html characters):

Immunohistochemical%20Stains%20for%20p63%20and%20
alpha-Methylacyl-CoA%20Racemase%2C%20Versus%20a%20
Cocktail%20Comprising%20Both%2C%20in%20the%20Diagn osis%20
of%20Prostatic%20Carcinoma%3A%20A%20Comparison%20o f%20
the%20Immunohistochemical%20Staining%20of%20430%20 Foci
%20in%20Radical%20Prostatectomy%20and%20Needle%20
Biopsy%20Tissues.

These are not identical. If you look, the last part of the feed's title has a few extra words. For some reason, the title is getting truncated as it is being written into the forum, which is why the script, which I believe uses the title and postdate to determine identical-ness, fails to see these as identical.

Now to find the responsible code and drop a major load of hurt on this stupid bug.

Update: The problem is that the title row in the post table (of vbulletin) is of type varchar(250), and some of the full titles are >250 characters. To include the full titles, I may need to change the column type to TEXT. I wonder if this will wreck my vbulletin due to unforeseen badness...I will ask around before I try it and will update the thread.

Update: Fixed the doubleposting of articles with long titles issue. Go into PHPmyadmin and change the column type of the "title" row of the articlebot_rss_cache table from Varchar(255) to "text". That eliminates the 255 character limit for titles in the feed cache and stops the doubleposting. Note that the thread title ON THE POST will still be limited to 254 characters, but this shouldn't be a problem at all for most people.

[mrpotatohead]

Thanks kyouens!! Fingers crossed it works... thanks for your help, much appreciated!

- Joe

[Benj]

my cron gets these errors any ideas tried changing the files permissions
/home/benj/www/articlebot/articlebot.php: line 1: ?php: No such file or
directory
/home/benj/www/articlebot/articlebot.php: line 5: /aquota.user: Permission
denied
/home/benj/www/articlebot/articlebot.php: line 6: syntax error near unexpected
token `|'
/home/benj/www/articlebot/articlebot.php: line 6: ` | articlebot.php, v1.1,
07/25/04

[Benj]

bump

[zachlee]

I am getting the cron error, even though I have set the script to report to /dev/null

/usr/bin/php /var/www/html/football-forums/forums/articlebot/articlebot.php >> /dev/null

my error email I get is:

junk after document element at line 161, column 16

I followed earlier instruction, to change the table type of 'title' in 'articlebot_rss_cache' from 'varchar' to 'text' which eleminated 1 line of the error. What am I missing to fix this?

Thanks
-Zach

[Marco van Herwaarden]

And what you have on line 161 (post a few lines before and after)?

[zachlee]

As I check my morning email, I am getting the error on line 145 as well.

attached screenshot of articlebot.php that was uploaded.

[bfd21]

I am trying to install a user as a bot I get the following error

Error: There is no user with ID of 0.

What is this?

I search but found no answer.

Thanks

[venomx]

You need to creat a user then enter its ID# when making it a bot...

[bfd21]

You need to creat a user then enter its ID# when making it a bot...


thanks for the info.

If i can trouble you with one more question?

it seems that I screwed up creating the articlebot template.

can someone explain how to do this?


the threads are showing up, but not content.


thanks

[popowich]

it seems that I screwed up creating the articlebot template.
can someone explain how to do this?

AdminCP -> Styles & Templates -> Style Manager

Select "Add new Template" from the dropdown menu in the right frame and follow the template directions from the articlebot readme. The dropdown is the one with "All Style Options" as the first choice.

-Raymond

[dsboyce8624]

Would one of you please point me to where on your systems these posts are going so I can have a look?

Thanks,

Dennis

[simple_john]

Is there a way that i can flag or change the RSS articles to NOT show up on 'new posts' or active topics??

[TTG]

AdminCP -> Styles & Templates -> Style Manager

Select "Add new Template" from the dropdown menu in the right frame and follow the template directions from the articlebot readme. The dropdown is the one with "All Style Options" as the first choice.

-Raymond

your looking in the right place .. :)

Add the new template and all should now work.

[thuffner]

Is there a way that i can flag or change the RSS articles to NOT show up on 'new posts' or active topics??
I'd like to know this as well...

EDIT: Also, to make sure the bot's threads and posts dont count towards the forum and the member list.

[dsboyce8624]

Would one of you please point me to where on your systems these posts are going so I can have a look?

Anybody?

[thuffner]

Anybody?
http://www.bondmovies.com/board/forumdisplay.php?f=44

There ya go. ;)

[dsboyce8624]

http://www.bondmovies.com/board/forumdisplay.php?f=44

There ya go. ;)

Thanks man.

[H@K@N]

Hi @ll,

after i upgraded to php 5.0.4 my RSS Feed looks strange.

As example:


Internet Explorer bazı javascript kodlarını düzgün i?�leyemiyor. Bunun sonucunda uzaktaki bir kullanıcı özel bir HTML sayfası hazırlayarak çalı?�an script kodunu (View Source fonksiyonunda) gizleyebiliyor. Orjinal script kodu görüntülenece?�ine IE script'in çıktısını görüntülüyor.


I am using turkish character set and its working on my Forums, but on my Feeds i am gettin wrong characters.

The XML of that RSS is saying:


<item>
-
<title>
[MS] Microsoft Internet Explorer script kodu gizleme a?ığı
</title>
<link>http://www.olympos.org/article/view/1463/</link>
-
<description>
Internet Explorer bazı javascript kodlarını d?zg?n işleyemiyor. Bunun sonucunda uzaktaki bir kullanıcı ?zel bir HTML sayfası hazırlayarak ?alışan script kodunu (View Source fonksiyonunda) gizleyebiliyor. Orjinal script kodu g?r?nt?leneceğine IE script'in ?ıktısını g?r?nt?l?yor.
</description>
</item>


Does somebody know, how i can solve this ? On php.ini i have default_charset = ISO-8859-9.


gr33tz

[altsounds]

OK, I don't know if anyone has heard of tapestry but it is a way to get Daily Comics in your forums. If you look at the xml of the rss feeds (version2.0) you will see that the description is actually an <img> tag pulling in an image from outside.

However, article bot does not work with these. It skips the description all together i.e. the comic and just shows the link.

If someone could figure out how to get this to work it would be awesome@!!!!

[L3e]

This mod is awesome!

But I have a quick question, (sorry if it has already been answered) is it possible to have a different template for different RSS feeds?

[mr.nerve]

Hi,

I'm very new to this, but I have managed to get the bots to work, but they seem to be giving me errors as listed below.


Warning: MagpieRSS: Failed to parse RSS file. (junk after document element at line 195, column 16) in /articlebot/rss_fetch.inc on line 230

Warning: array_reverse(): The argument should be an array in /articlebot/articlebot.php on line 137

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /articlebot/articlebot.php on line 141

Warning: MagpieRSS: Failed to parse RSS file. (junk after document element at line 206, column 16) in /articlebot/rss_fetch.inc on line 230

Warning: array_reverse(): The argument should be an array in /articlebot/articlebot.php on line 137

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /articlebot/articlebot.php on line 141

Warning: MagpieRSS: Failed to parse RSS file. (junk after document element at line 202, column 16) in /articlebot/rss_fetch.inc on line 230

Warning: array_reverse(): The argument should be an array in /articlebot/articlebot.php on line 137

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /articlebot/articlebot.php on line 141

Warning: MagpieRSS: Failed to parse RSS file. (junk after document element at line 212, column 16) in /articlebot/rss_fetch.inc on line 230

Warning: array_reverse(): The argument should be an array in /articlebot/articlebot.php on line 137

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /articlebot/articlebot.php on line 141


This appears at the top of the main forum page after the rssbots update

Other than that message at the top of the forums, they seem to work, but do not post a link in thier thread, or even a description. I will have to do more looking into that, but I am using ESPN and FOX sports for the feeds, and not sure how much info they provide.

But, any assistance you could offer on the above errors would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you.
NeRVe

[NxTek]

I've setup everything correctly as far as I know. I'm trying to grab the feed from http://www.lasvegasvegas.com/pokerblog/index.rdf but after running articlebot.php from the command-line and through a web browser both have no output.

How can I start troubleshooting what the problem is?

[NxTek]

Can anyone help me with the cache errors below?

Thanks!

Cache unable to open file for writing: ./cache/3f337277b2b2cfd6fcc0a0b953d1b88b
Cache unable to open file for writing: ./cache/e905c9ebbb58c522239df9bfa6cea4cc
Cache unable to open file for writing: ./cache/faa381df8ef97ebee0b979afaf6a08a7
Cache unable to open file for writing: ./cache/7c5945d293bb83bcffa25ccb26f741c5
Cache unable to open file for writing: ./cache/6965bb7e2cd199c6cebfcca7b0c15c30
Cache unable to open file for writing: ./cache/e872bc0799d39b02da412a1fe5bed1ec
Cache unable to open file for writing: ./cache/07199ba6b997fbb1322d6ef8f559a51b
Cache unable to open file for writing: ./cache/a3fcd87a0c09a0edcc94c99bcd7279eb
X-Powered-By: PHP/4.3.4
Set-Cookie: bbsessionhash=be8fe0a5677cbc5b73899fd4408e4222; path=/
Set-Cookie: bblastvisit=1116586861; expires=Sat, 20-May-2006 11:01:01 GMT; path=/
Set-Cookie: bblastactivity=1116586861; expires=Sat, 20-May-2006 11:01:01 GMT; path=/
Cache-Control: private
Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1

I'm getting the same thing. Anyone?

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Check if you have a 'cache' directory and that it is chmodded to 777.

[yellowchaser]

Hi,

I'm very new to this, but I have managed to get the bots to work, but they seem to be giving me errors as listed below.



This appears at the top of the main forum page after the rssbots update

Other than that message at the top of the forums, they seem to work, but do not post a link in thier thread, or even a description. I will have to do more looking into that, but I am using ESPN and FOX sports for the feeds, and not sure how much info they provide.

But, any assistance you could offer on the above errors would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you.
NeRVe

I have the same problem here too.

[yellowchaser]

Fixed the problem, updated to the latest Magpie files at http://magpierss.sourceforge.net/ and it works with no errors now

[subnet_rx]

How do you troubleshoot if your getting no errors (that I've found) but no posts?

[Madmax4321]

How do you troubleshoot if your getting no errors (that I've found) but no posts?



yeah i had same problem too.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

subnet_rx,

You are currently showing up as unlicensed. To be able to download hacks and/or receive support here at vBulletin.org, we ask you to please click here (http://members.vbulletin.com/membersupport_priority.php) (vB-germany users click here (http://members.vbulletin-germany.com/membersupport_priority.php)) and enter your email address, to show us that you are licensed.

You will need to use your customer number and password (which will be in the email you got when you paid for your license) to access that page. Please note that your email is case sensitive. The update of your account may take up to one hour.

Thank you.

[Byron]

How do we uninstall this hack in future?

[wtrk]

the default template displays only the posting date and a link to the article. i want to include the actual article text as well in the bots post. how do i do this?

[weallgoboing]

When I try to add an artivlebot I get

Error: There is no user with ID of 0.

Heyulp!

***PAGE 46 GIVES THE ANSWER!***

[NxTek]

I'm grabbing a feed from http://www.pokerdiagram.com/rss.xml which is a Podcast. The Podcast (mp3) is linked through an <enclosure> tag, which Article Bot seems to ignore when posting to the forum. Is this a bug?

[The Avatar]

Okay, maybe this has been answered already in this huge thread, I went through 20 pages and didn't see anything about it, so sorry if it has already been answered.

But.....

How come the scheduled task of the article bot never executes? I can get it to run, by running the bot manually, however I have it scheduled to update every hour and it doesn't. Any idea why?

[NxTek]

Is there any possibility to have the ability to include images if they are available ?

Anyone?

[weallgoboing]

Status: 404
Content-type: text/html
X-Powered-By: PHP/4.3.11

No input file specified.

My cronjob email is this. Any ideas?

[weallgoboing]

Solved it!

If you know this apologies, if you don't hope it helps!

/path/to/forums/articlebot is where I installed AB

/path/to/forums/cache

I created the cache directory and chmod 777 and voila it works.

Blindingly obvious, but took me a while to work out!

[jluerken]

Will there be a version for vB 3.5?

[BioVader]

Is there a way to edit the way the rss feed is displayed? Meaning is there a way to get rid of the full link to read the full article and change it to a [read more] type link.. Also is there a way to see more of the article or is it preset by the provider as to what is shown via the feed?

I'm new at with the whole rss thing.

[Cyburbia]

Will there be a version for vB 3.5?

I was going to ask the same thing. A lot of work seems to be going into the 3.0.* version. That's great, but you know what when 3.5 is gold, many will make the switch within weeks.

This is a great hack, and even if it's not available for 3.5, I gotta' offer my respect.

[popowich]

Hello,

My article bot constantly posts duplicate threads. I have no other problems except for the posts that are reposted even though they appeared hours, days, or weeks earlier. I already updated my MySQL with the change to make the cache title be text instead of varchar as noted earlier in this thread. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thank you,
-Raymond

[Mr.D]

when will this be for 3.5

[popowich]

My article bot constantly posts duplicate threads. I have no other problems except for the posts that are reposted even though they appeared hours, days, or weeks earlier. I already updated my MySQL with the change to make the cache title be text instead of varchar as noted earlier in this thread. Any ideas would be appreciated.


Does the article bot use the mysql history or the file cache or both?

I have increased the $MAX_AGE to 2 years.

If the file cache is my problem why keep a second history in mysql?

-Raymond

[jcbatchelor]

I am having a problem with articlebot only posting the thread title but nothing in the description (body of the thread). I have it set to skip the articles with no description. Any fixes?

[jcbatchelor]

Nevermind, duh, found it. I forgot to create the new articlebot_post template.

[MaXxed]

any help on how to uninstall this cleanly? the php mod and template are easy, but what about that SQL script in step5 of the install?

[Dorign]

Alright, I'm a newb, but .. I may have done it right? I may not have.. :P

First of all, I gave my "bot" permission to post in the restricted forum "Community Center," where Yahoo! news feeds will go. Second, I added three RSS feeds (Yahoo! Top Stories, Yahoo! US, and Yahoo! World). I ran "articlebot.php" but it didn't post anything. Is that normal?

As for the Cron Job thing, isn't that what vb3's scheduled task management system is? I set it to run articlebot.php every day at 9:15 am. Is that like cronning?

Ehm.. help? :P

[Dorign]

EDIT: Okay, so I still need to know if vB 3.0.8's scheduled tasker will work, but I've got the bot showing activity now.

My only question now is, it pulled advertisements from the selected XML's. Is that normal? I don't want to display ad's, I want to display important news.

[Mr.D]

Can someone answer is there gona be 3.5 version the coder hasent been here since Last Online:Mar 2005

[Dorign]

Hrmm, well it seems the scheduled tasker does indeed work as planned. Does anyone have any XML's for direct news they'd suggest? All I'm getting are advertisings.

[Gutspiller]

What is a good amount of time to set our cronjob to? In the instructions I saw 6-7 hours but was a little confused if that's the setting everybody should use or only super popular forums.

[sensimilla]

this is a beauty :) thanks *click install

[BeePee]

Hello,

My article bot constantly posts duplicate threads. I have no other problems except for the posts that are reposted even though they appeared hours, days, or weeks earlier. I already updated my MySQL with the change to make the cache title be text instead of varchar as noted earlier in this thread. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thank you,
-Raymond
Had the same problem until I found out that I had forgotten to chmod 777 the cache folder...

[BeePee]

Can someone answer is there gona be 3.5 version the coder hasent been here since Last Online:Mar 2005Hmm, I guess the answer is in your question m8. You'll have to find someone who does it for you or even better: do it yourself ;) that way you'd learn a lot about vBull and php.

[BeePee]

I have been using this hack for a long time now to display the latest news on my forum. So far the news bot has made some 136,000+ posts. The hack works perfectly as advertised but:

I get a bit tired of having this bot as top poster, having all the time new posts problems [moded the search.php so it won't show the forum section where the bot posts in New Posts but than the new posts stats won't correspond to the new posts search page] and having a new thread and new post for each news as this falsifies a lot of forum stats, having to follow forum, thread and topic links instead of having an easy to read page, etc...

Anyway this gives me a new idea about this hack:
I came across this some time ago: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=62164&page=1&pp=100 [How to create your own vBulletin-powered page] and started toying with the idea of seperating the article bot from the forum soft itself and using this kind of integration to put it back into the forum:
- have article bot "post" into it's own table with a similar structure to the post table;
- create a custom made page and link it to a forum

If haven't started work on this yet and wanted to first ask if there is someone out there who has already been working on a similar idea...

[BeePee]

@ MadMan, had a closer look at the code: Although I haven't really looked much at vBull v3.5 yet I think this hack might work with it since it is mainly stand alone. I only checked the structure of the tables which has remained the same. The hack calls a few global vBull variables which, if they have changed, could cause problems. Maybe give it a try on a test board...

[Gutspiller]

I'm a little confused about how to set how frequently the bot posts. I have 1 bot with multiple news feeds. In the feeds settings I set the "Post Interval" setting to 30,40,50 and 60 for different feeds. The cronjob runs every 5 hours. But the bot doesn't post ever 30,40,50 or 60 minutes. Nor does it post every 5 hours. How do I get it to check for new articles every hour and posts them if there are more?

Right now it's only posting 1 time per day.

[tm3500]

Fixed the problem, updated to the latest Magpie files at http://magpierss.sourceforge.net/ and it works with no errors now

I did that too, but it didn't resolve the following error:

-------------------------------------------------
Warning: MagpieRSS: Failed to parse RSS file. (syntax error at line 1, column 0) in /articlebot/rss_fetch.inc on line 238

Warning: array_reverse(): The argument should be an array in /articlebot/articlebot.php on line 137

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /articlebot/articlebot.php on line 141
-------------------------------------------------

That error occurs both with Google and Yahoo feeds. Interestingly, it worked a couple of times with Yahoo, but no more!

Any ideas? Is this simply a problem with the RSS format? Google and Yahoo use RSS 2.0 and that should be supported by this hack, right?

Thanks!

[tm3500]

I'm a little confused about how to set how frequently the bot posts. I have 1 bot with multiple news feeds. In the feeds settings I set the "Post Interval" setting to 30,40,50 and 60 for different feeds. The cronjob runs every 5 hours. But the bot doesn't post ever 30,40,50 or 60 minutes. Nor does it post every 5 hours. How do I get it to check for new articles every hour and posts them if there are more?

Right now it's only posting 1 time per day.

Are you sure the cron is set up correctly? For some reason I could never get the cron to work in combination with this hack, it never executed at all. It started working perfectly when I used vB's Scheduled Tasks Manager and instructed it to call the articlebots.php script once an hour.

[Gutspiller]

Pretty sure the cron is working because when I click to run it now, it doesn't error out. Are you sure the cron is set up correctly? For some reason I could never get the cron to work in combination with this hack, it never executed at all. It started working perfectly when I used vB's Scheduled Tasks Manager and instructed it to call the articlebots.php script once an hour.

[Fallback]

Is there any way to get the bot post to show only after the first post on each page?

[darnoldy]

Folks-

I'm trying to install this mod (my first), and I got all the way to step seven, then got very confused.

I went to the cpanel on my site, found "chron jobs" but none of the choices i can make there seem to the instruction.

In the crontab you will have to provide the path to the articlebot.php script, but first with the path to the php executable. Here is the syntax:

/usr/local/bin/php /path/to/forums/articlebot/articlebot.php

There is a box that asks"Please enter an email address where the cron output will be sent:"
One that asks "Command to run: "
and a bunch of menus that ask minute, hour, day, weekday & month

where do I put the path?

--don

[BeePee]

M8, you do that in your AdminCP, see the picts below:

AdminCP -> Scheduled Tasks -> Add New Scheduled Task and then fill out in accordance with my second pict.

[darnoldy]

M8, you do that in your AdminCP, see the picts below:

AdminCP -> Scheduled Tasks -> Add New Scheduled Task and then fill out in accordance with my second pict.

Thank you-

I got that done, but now get to the instruction:\

Set the path between the single quotes to the absolute server path to your forums.
e.g. /home/cjohn/public_html/forums/I'm on a shared server, does that path start at my partition (the part I can see) or do I have to start at the server name?

--don

[RyanDe680]

All I am getting are advertisements so far, even though in the XML feed I can see the articles relevant to what I would want posted

[Yup]

I installed this, followed everything the way it said to, and yet there is no option to the left of my admin cp.

There isnt an article bot settings box

any help?

[Yup]

Forget about that, I guess i didnt refresh..

however now i have a new problem

i set up everything through all the steps put the include for articlebotphp in my index

and put the correct path to server in the articlebot.php

but when i go and try to execute articlebot.php i get a blank screen

also it isn't posting any threads or rss feeds

[RyanDe680]

Forget about that, I guess i didnt refresh..

however now i have a new problem

i set up everything through all the steps put the include for articlebotphp in my index

and put the correct path to server in the articlebot.php

but when i go and try to execute articlebot.php i get a blank screen

also it isn't posting any threads or rss feeds

If it results in a blank page when you go to http://www.yoursite.com/forum/articlebot/articlebot.php then that's good, it's working. Perhaps it could be the XML scripts that you are receiving (ie. the news source)?

For me all I have been getting are advertisements.

[Yup]

It just took sometime to grab it, I guess my only complaint now is that the threads that are being posted are only like a couple of sentences... instead of full articles

is anyone else experiencing that as well?

[darnoldy]

the threads that are being posted are only like a couple of sentences... instead of full articles

is anyone else experiencing that as well?Yep, everyone. That's the way RSS feeds are designed to work--they give a few-sentence description and a link to the full article.

--don

[Cloud Strife]

Is there any way to use regex to replace the link that is inside <link> </link> This link is being posted in the threads, but it is not the link to the full article. The link posts like this "http://www.thesite.com/short.php?id=12543" I want to replace it so it puts a link to "http://www.thesite.com/full.php?id=12543" I tried to do a regex for description in the admincp but it didnt work. Seems that it wont work for things embedded in a link tag. Any way to get it to work?

[ferrariengines]

I believe the entire logic of this script is absolutely wrong. Firstly, there is no code in articlebot.php which would cause it to loop for the specified interval time. Setting an interval appears to be useless, articlebot will grab the first item in the RSS and then wait until the cronjob fires it again to grab the second item, the interval setting is completely bypassed. The way I imagined functionality was as follows:

Say you have a RSS feed with 10 items that haven't been added to your forums. At whatever time you designated the cronjob to fire, the first item from the RSS is added to the forums. Because I have set the interval to 2 minutes, the next item is added 2 minutes later, etc. until after 20 minutes, all 10 items have been added to the forums, and execution stops. When my cronjob fires articlebot.php the next time it will check for any new items, and input them 1 at a time taking a 2 minute rest between items.

I believe this was the intention of the script, but there is no coding in articlebot.php to facilitate this. I am currently attempting to incorporate the correct interval structure into articlebot.php, however, it may prove to be difficult as I am having a hard time understanding the layout of this code as it appears to be completely linear without any reference to certain functions.

I will keep you guys updated.

[NxTek]

I haven't noticed most of what you mentioned, but I have noticed that it will grab a post in the "middle" of a feed as a new article.

The 3 biggest problems with this script as I see it are -

1, It doesn't correctly parse images in feeds to (img) vB code tags. I know the layout can't always match the original, but still displaying them would be nice.

2, It doesn't correctly parse <enclosure> tags into (url) vB code tags. This is most often used for Podcasts.

3, There is zero support for it. I've asked 7 questions in this thread and none have been answered. I'd even be willing to pay a few bucks for the script if support questions would get answered. Welcome to vB hacks I guess. :)

[ferrariengines]

Hi NxTek,
Does the interval system work for you, such as you specify an interval, and it will churn away posting a new message for each item based on the interval time? It is not possible from looking at the code... I wonder if I have a bad articlebot.php?

[ferrariengines]

PS: If your intervals do work, was there a step in the setup you had to perform, and what are your settings/rss feed. I am very interested to see how I can make mine perform correctly. Furthermore, have you been able to make it work via Scheduled Tasks? I can only use it with cronjobs.

[NxTek]

The interval system itself works (I.E., the cronjob), but it doesn't always get articles in order.

[ferrariengines]

Hi NxTek, the cronjob isn't suppose to be what controls intervals.. The cronjob is suppose to fire the main .php file, then the interval is suppose to control how often articles are grabbed during execution, it doesn't work at all. I guess im going to have to resort to setting up a 10 minute cronjob to grab headlines, it will work, but i'd prefer something easier..

[ferrariengines]

Ok this modification officially is horrible, it doesn't work as intended, and it doesn't handle special characters worth anything! I'm removing it right away!

[poolking]

so what did you intend it to do?

[yahoooh]

i love this hack it works perfectly with 3.0.7 that have more than 50 hacks!

[mattyk72]

how do I uninstall?

[interfx]

I have this installed on VB3.0.7, buta m upgrading my site to use VB3.5RC3...

Will this hack work, or is there a better RSS programs that has similar features for VB35RC3?

Thanks in advance -
INterFX

[c0d3x]

i would like to use it on my vb 3.5 board as well... is there any similar hack or any port of this?

[michaelbenson]

Warning: chdir(): No such file or directory (errno 2) in /home/michael/public_html/articlebot/articlebot.php on line 42

Warning: main(./global.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/michael/public_html/articlebot/articlebot.php on line 43

Fatal error: main(): Failed opening required './global.php' (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/michael/public_html/articlebot/articlebot.php on line 43
I am being sent the following Cron Job error whenever it tries to run.
But the path to my forums is correct and working.