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.

[venomx]

Small thing I dont like... For some reason the acrticle bots drop down in the admincp is above the one forthe vb options... I will change this next time I am in the ftp but just wanted to let others know if they are just now installing this....

[venomx]

Doh this isnt working and I dont get an error.....
Even if I load articlebot.php in IE nothing..
If someone has a good RSS feed url can you post it please so I can see if thats the problem...

[venomx]

Wow I Edited the articlebot.php to remove the last / from my absolute server path to forums, e.g. /home/cjohn/public_html/forums instead of /home/cjohn/public_html/forums/ and set the bot to get the new news every one minute and tried the articlebot.php in IE and it worked!

Only one problem. I use uCash/uShop and I have it set to pay 1 point per post and it was not paying the bot for it BUT did pay the bot for the thread view when I viewed it....

Post counts/views all seem fine...

Wish UCash had a way of not paying certain usergroups..

[roundhost]

It WAS working great, posted fine for a few days, then THIS HAPPENED:

Warning: array_merge() [function.array-merge]: Argument #2 is not an array in /home/vbforum/public_html/includes/init.php on line 517

Unable to add cookies, header already sent.
File: /home/vbforum/public_html/includes/init.php
Line: 517

I use Vbulletin 3.0.3.

WHAT TO DO?????

[Holidazed]

**Also clicks uninstall**

[venomx]

Hmmm the last post on the forum home isnt updated..

[Beermonster]

I couldn't get it to post, I think the problem was with the Post Icon, all mine had the No1. so I gave them all new numbers and it seems to work now

[high]* Beermonster clicks install[/high]

[venomx]

Anyone else that got it to work on VB3.0.3 having the same problem as me?
I have 1 bot pulling Yahoos feed. It posts 3 threads every 7 hours.

Example:
On the forum home it says yahoo First News title

But if you open that forum the last one posted is yahoo 3rd news title.

[we_are_borg]

<font color="Red">We are Borg clicks uninstall</font>

[Erwin]

Mmm... doesn't work.

To undo the database changes, run these queries:

PHP Code:

DROP table `articlebot`;
 
DROP table `articlebot_rss`;
 
DROP table `articlebot_rss_cache`;
 
ALTER table `thread` DROP `is_rss`;