The Arcive of Official vBulletin Modifications Site.

Article Bot · **Released**: 07-10-2004

Article Bot
by velocd

Article Bot is a script that allows you to assign a user account (preferably an exclusive one) to an article bot that will post RSS feeds in select forums at designated intervals. These articles are derived from RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds.

RSS files are assigned to article bots, as well to individual forums, which in turn directs what, when and where your article bot will post.

Features

Works with RSS versions: 0.9x, 2.0, 1.0, and Atom 0.3
AdminCP interface for adding/modifying/deleting article bots & rss feeds
Designate intervals (in minutes) to each RSS feed for when your article bot will post them.
Requires only 1 file edit (admincp/index.php), allowing ease of upgrading your vBulletin
without having to remodify files.
Easy to install. Works best in conjunction with crontab (contab help is inside install.html)

News

7/25/04 - Version 1.1 Released
- Bug Fixes
  - Replaced htmlspecialchars() with htmlentities() in articlebot.php to fully convert special entities from descriptions.
  - Added trim() to thread titles, to prevent double threads from being posted that are merely off by whitespace.
  - New table articlebot_rss_cache for storing a copy of article bot threads, for quicker checking of doubles when posting new threads.
  - Threads are checked in articlebot_rss_cache, so you can permanently remove them from the thread table (you don't have to "soft delete") without worrying about the bot replicating them.
  - Other minor bugs.
- Features
  - New installer/upgraders for doing the SQL part automatically.
  - Added "label" field to add/modify RSS interface, that allows you to tag a label, e.g. [yahoo], to the beginning of threads, unique to each RSS feed. This might help for better distinction of RSS feeds.
  - Added an option to toggle on/off of building similar threads per RSS feed. Some RSS feeds could hault the script if the building of similar thread results for that feed takes too long (maybe the article thread title is too vague, and matches a lot of results--my guess is it's only a problem on large forums).
  - Added an option to toggle on/off skipping of articles that don't contain descriptions.
  - Regular expression search and replace for article titles and descriptions. This grants you much flexability to filter out things you don't want in your titles or descriptions (given you have some regex experience, I will try to post some patterns in due time.. feel free to add yours )
7/11/04 - Version 1.0 Released

Upgrading

To upgrade, reupload the new PHP and MagpieRSS parser files to their places on your server. Upload upgrade_vx-x (replace the x's with the version you are upgrading to) to /path/to/forums/admincp/, and then execute that script.

Files

3 screenshots attached
articlebot_v1.zip
- install.html, logo.gif
- articlebot_admin.php
- articlebot/
  - rss_cache.inc
  - rss_fetch.inc
  - rss_parse.inc
  - rss_utils.inc
  - extlib/
    - Snoopy.class.inc

RSS Feeds

There are several in the install.html, but if you're looking for more than you could ever want, check out NewsIsFree's directory:

http://www.newsisfree.com/sources/bycat/

Remember to click install if you use this hack.

Also be sure to read through the what you haven't of the thread before asking a question, for it may have been answered.

yellow281 · #**532** 02-08-2005, 08:36 PM

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

interfx · #**533** 02-08-2005, 08:37 PM

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 · #**534** 02-08-2005, 08:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by interfx

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 -
INterFX

This is easy, just edit the articlebot_post template.. here, use mine

PHP Code:


			
$article[description]

[b][url="$article[link]"]Read More...[/url][/b]
[size=1](External link - older links might not be active)[/size]

Couch · #**535** 02-23-2005, 01:50 PM

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 · #**536** 02-24-2005, 01:58 PM

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 · #**537** 02-25-2005, 02:16 AM

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:

Code:

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 · #**538** 02-25-2005, 03:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Velocd

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 · #**539** 02-25-2005, 05:38 PM

no demo available?

School-Help · #**540** 02-25-2005, 06:53 PM

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 · #**541** 02-25-2005, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tanyeri24

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

X vBulletin 3.8.12 by vBS Debug Information
Page Generation 0.05719 seconds Memory Usage 2,322KB Queries Executed 25 (?)
More Information
Template Usage: (1)SHOWTHREAD (1)ad_footer_end (1)ad_footer_start (1)ad_header_end (1)ad_header_logo (1)ad_navbar_below (1)ad_showthread_beforeqr (1)bbcode_code (1)bbcode_php (3)bbcode_quote (1)footer (1)forumjump (1)forumrules (1)gobutton (1)header (1)headinclude (1)modsystem_post (1)navbar (6)navbar_link (120)option (1)pagenav (1)pagenav_curpage (4)pagenav_pagelink (3)pagenav_pagelinkrel (11)post_thanks_box (11)post_thanks_button (1)post_thanks_javascript (1)post_thanks_navbar_search (11)post_thanks_postbit_info (10)postbit (11)postbit_onlinestatus (11)postbit_wrapper (1)spacer_close (1)spacer_open (1)tagbit_wrapper Phrase Groups Available: global inlinemod postbit posting reputationlevel showthread	Included Files: ./showthread.php ./global.php ./includes/init.php ./includes/class_core.php ./includes/config.php ./includes/functions.php ./includes/class_hook.php ./includes/modsystem_functions.php ./includes/functions_bigthree.php ./includes/class_postbit.php ./includes/class_bbcode.php ./includes/functions_reputation.php ./includes/functions_post_thanks.php Hooks Called: init_startup init_startup_session_setup_start init_startup_session_setup_complete cache_permissions fetch_threadinfo_query fetch_threadinfo fetch_foruminfo style_fetch cache_templates global_start parse_templates global_setup_complete showthread_start showthread_getinfo forumjump showthread_post_start showthread_query_postids showthread_query bbcode_fetch_tags bbcode_create showthread_postbit_create postbit_factory postbit_display_start post_thanks_function_post_thanks_off_start post_thanks_function_post_thanks_off_end post_thanks_function_fetch_thanks_start post_thanks_function_fetch_thanks_end post_thanks_function_thanked_already_start post_thanks_function_thanked_already_end fetch_musername postbit_imicons bbcode_parse_start bbcode_parse_complete_precache bbcode_parse_complete postbit_display_complete post_thanks_function_can_thank_this_post_start pagenav_page pagenav_complete tag_fetchbit_complete forumrules navbits navbits_complete showthread_complete
Messages:

The Arcive of Official vBulletin Modifications Site.

It is not a VB3 engine, just a parsed copy!