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]

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]

Originally Posted by 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

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&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 & 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. 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]

Originally Posted by KevinL

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]

Originally Posted by memobug

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]

Originally Posted by KevinL

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.