Member Bots 1.0 - Allow bots to act as members

--------- Member Bots 1.0 ---------
Written by Trilljester - http://www.trilliummud.com

This small mod allows you to treat search engine robots (i.e. GoogleBot, Yahoo Slurp) as registered users instead of guests, as they are treated by default in VBulletin.

This is handy if your site allows limited access to guests, but full access to registered users. By default, a search engine robot would only be allowed to index what a guest could see, but with this mod, it would allow them to fully index your site as a registered user.

This mod uses the spiders_vbulletin.xml file for determining if a visitor is a bot or not, so make sure you have that file up to date. The one that comes with VB is pretty sparse, but it works. If you're only interested in GoogleBot, then the default file works great.

WARNING! This mod requires a very small edit to a VBulletin core file. This means whenever you upgrade to a new version of VBulletin, you'll need to re-do this edit, if you overwrite this file. If the idea of editing a VBulletin core file bothers you, don't install this mod! I won't be held responsible for your forum being fouled up. This mod is very safe however, so don't fret.

Install Instructions:

1. Unzip the product-memberbot.xml file on your system.

2. Go to your VBulletin AdminCP and click on Manage Products under the Plugin Manager section.

3. Click on Add/Import Product.

4. Click on Browse on the first line (Upload the XML from your computer) and locate the product-memberbot.xml file. Click on Import to upload it to the system.

5. Click on Plugin Manager, and ensure that the new plugin named Bot Checker, which is found under the init_startup hook, is enabled.

6. Now the fun part, you'll need to edit the core VBulletin file init.php which is located in the includes directory under your forum home.

For example, if your forum home is located in /home/blah/forum, then init.php is in /home/blah/forum/includes

If you can edit the file on the server without having to download it, more power to you.

In init.php, find this line (should be near the very bottom of the file, it was line 403 in mine):

if (!empty($db->explain))

Add ABOVE this line:

if ($is_bot == 1) {
        $vbulletin->userinfo['usergroupid'] = 2;
}

NOTE: My registered users group is ID #2. Yours may be different, you may change this to any group ID you like.

7. Save init.php and upload back to your server if you had to download the file to edit it.

If you're editing on the server, save it, and that's it!

================================================== ========
That's it! Search Engine bots should now "see" your forum as a regular user, not a guest.

Questions, comments, improvements are more than welcome. Please use this thread as a cental support site. It makes it easier for me to help out. Also, you may visit my site and fire me off a PM for help, or just send a quick thanks or shout out.

Enjoy!
// trilljester

[trilljester]

Sure thing treasureman, I too had it with my old IPB installation and I missed it!

I guess the argument is pretty moot, but that was my understanding of cloaking as well.

[Ramsesx]

The spiders are not handled as registered member they get same before "acces denied". Have a new spiders_vbulletin.xml and vbulletin recognize and show them as spiders. Any help about that?

[trilljester]

Originally Posted by Ramsesx

The spiders are not handled as registered member they get same before "acces denied". Have a new spiders_vbulletin.xml and vbulletin recognize and show them as spiders. Any help about that?

Things to check:
-- Did you make the code change to init.php in the includes/ directory?

-- Make sure the plugin is active.

-- Double check that the group ID you're placing them in exists and has permission to view whatever they're trying to view.

[treasureman]

Yeah I created a new group just for spiders and made that group unable to post because if you set the spiders to use the Registered Users group then someone could change their user agent to the spider user agent and post on your board without registering. Works great!

[Ramsesx]

Originally Posted by trilljester

Things to check:
-- Did you make the code change to init.php in the includes/ directory?

-- Make sure the plugin is active.

-- Double check that the group ID you're placing them in exists and has permission to view whatever they're trying to view.

Thanks, checked everything, usergroup for registered members is 2, but it is not working.

[trilljester]

Originally Posted by Ramsesx

Thanks, checked everything, usergroup for registered members is 2, but it is not working.

What exactly are the robots trying to do that they're getting permission denied errors on? Some functions won't work because they don't have a real user id.

[Ramsesx]

Originally Posted by trilljester

What exactly are the robots trying to do that they're getting permission denied errors on? Some functions won't work because they don't have a real user id.

vba inks directory and vbgallery

[trilljester]

I have Photopost VBGallery, let me check a couple of things out, it might not be fully compatible with 3rd party addons, but I'll check.

[trilljester]

Yes, these 3rd party addons have their own permission set, so this mod won't work with them. Sorry about that.

[Ramsesx]

ok, thank you