Article Bot

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.

[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. 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]

Originally Posted by 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

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....&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.