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.

[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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Originally Posted by topten

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?