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Article Bot · **Released**: 07-10-2004

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.

infiniterb · #**122** 07-28-2004, 04:01 PM

I have 1.1 though, and am noticing that there isn't a log created for this file. Is there anyone else that is working with the scheduled tasks that is getting the logs to work properly for articlebot.php? Must I put this in the Includes/cron folder for it to work that way?

Rob Eh · #**123** 07-28-2004, 04:43 PM

I am seeing a problemn though when running articlebot.php from the scheduled task manager. It does not send the posts, just check and reteives. I have to click the "Run Now" button on the scheduled tasks for it to actually send the posts to the news server.

I've sent several messages and waited since yesterday for them to appear on the same news server that I sent them to - they never did. I just posted a message on my forum and manually click the run now button, and they sowed up on the news server perfectly.

Anyone else run into this?

Any suggestions?

SnowBot · #**124** 07-29-2004, 12:43 AM

Well i tried and tried, added lots of feeds but the bot will not post at all, no DB errors but it just will not post... Any ideas? I also had this with the other RSS feed hack

KW802 · #**125** 07-29-2004, 03:35 PM

OK, I know, dumb question but I'm still learning. Where do I put the template? In my default style, all styles, or someplace else?

Problem #2: I get the following error message.....

Quote:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: array_change_key_case() in /home/www/farpointstation/forums/articlebot/rss_parse.inc on line 203

.... but it should be /home/farpointstation/www/forums/articlebot/rss_parse.inc but I can not find any reference anywhere to "/home/www/...". Thoughts? Where might it be buried that I missed it?

Thanks,
Kevin

Velocd · #**126** 07-29-2004, 06:46 PM

KW802, add the template to your default style.

As for that error, check articlebot.php, and make sure you configured the absolute paths correctly.

Quote:

Well i tried and tried, added lots of feeds but the bot will not post at all, no DB errors but it just will not post... Any ideas? I also had this with the other RSS feed hack

Execute articlebot.php in your browser. No errors? There shouldn't be any if you configured the paths correctly.

For those using vB's scheduled tasks, I'll look into making Article Bot more integrated with it (the hack was not built for it).. although I can't guarantee it'll be anytime soon.

I do recommend you use a real cron setup anyway (if you're on a NIX server, via your cPanel or shell), instead of vbulletin's system.

KW802 · #**127** 07-29-2004, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Velocd

KW802, add the template to your default style.

As for that error, check articlebot.php, and make sure you configured the absolute paths correctly.

Cool, I guessed the template thing right at least. I added it to my default style thinking that since it was using global.php that it'd use whatever the default was.

I tried the directory name in articlebot.php first, even ended up hard-coding the full path and still get the same error.

Below is what the code at http://www.farpointstation.org/forum...articlebot.php currently is but is still producing the same error.

Code:

chdir('/home/farpointstation/www/forums/');
require_once '/home/farpointstation/www/forums/global.php';
include_once '/home/farpointstation/www/forums/articlebot/rss_fetch.inc';

I'm stumped. :ermm: I figured I'd try running it directly from the browser first to rule that it wasn't my cron job.

Any thoughts appreciated. :nervous:

Thanks,
Kevin

rinkrat · #**128** 07-29-2004, 08:48 PM

Mine's working great on Apache/Redhat. I just added it to the cron job that is getting the Usenet mail in the other hack

SnowBot · #**129** 07-29-2004, 10:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Velocd

KW802, add the template to your default style.

As for that error, check articlebot.php, and make sure you configured the absolute paths correctly.

Execute articlebot.php in your browser. No errors? There shouldn't be any if you configured the paths correctly.

For those using vB's scheduled tasks, I'll look into making Article Bot more integrated with it (the hack was not built for it).. although I can't guarantee it'll be anytime soon.

I do recommend you use a real cron setup anyway (if you're on a NIX server, via your cPanel or shell), instead of vbulletin's system.

I am on a dedicated server, will try your suggestion and get back to you via the thread

SnowBot · #**130** 07-29-2004, 10:14 PM

hhmmm got this error

Quote:

his error. what to do ?

Warning: main(./global.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/synergy4/public_html/forum/articlebot/articlebot.php on line 43

Fatal error: main(): Failed opening required './global.php' (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/synergy4/public_html/forum/articlebot/articlebot.php on line 43

What to do ?

Line 43 to 45

PHP Code:


			
 chdir('/home/synergy4/public_html/forum/articlebot/');
require_once './global.php';
include_once './articlebot/rss_fetch.inc';

Velocd · #**131** 07-30-2004, 01:21 AM

Snowbot, chdir needs to be pointing to your forums, not the articlebot directory.

As printed in the code.

Code:

// Provide absolute server path to forums.
// e.g. /home/cjohn/public_html/forums/

chdir('/path/to/forums/');
require_once './global.php';

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