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.

[Maikeru]

Warning: MagpieRSS: Failed to fetch http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/topstories. (HTTP Error: connection failed () in /home/maikeru/public_html/forums/articlebot/rss_fetch.inc on line 230

Warning: array_reverse(): The argument should be an array in /home/maikeru/public_html/forums/articlebot/articlebot.php on line 136

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/maikeru/public_html/forums/articlebot/articlebot.php on line 140

Warning: MagpieRSS: Failed to fetch http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/music. (HTTP Error: connection failed () in /home/maikeru/public_html/forums/articlebot/rss_fetch.inc on line 230

Warning: array_reverse(): The argument should be an array in /home/maikeru/public_html/forums/articlebot/articlebot.php on line 136

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/maikeru/public_html/forums/articlebot/articlebot.php on line 140

Warning: MagpieRSS: Failed to fetch http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/tech. (HTTP Error: connection failed () in /home/maikeru/public_html/forums/articlebot/rss_fetch.inc on line 230

Warning: array_reverse(): The argument should be an array in /home/maikeru/public_html/forums/articlebot/articlebot.php on line 136

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/maikeru/public_html/forums/articlebot/articlebot.php on line 140

Warning: MagpieRSS: Failed to fetch http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/politics. (HTTP Error: connection failed () in /home/maikeru/public_html/forums/articlebot/rss_fetch.inc on line 230

Warning: array_reverse(): The argument should be an array in /home/maikeru/public_html/forums/articlebot/articlebot.php on line 136

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/maikeru/public_html/forums/articlebot/articlebot.php on line 140

Warning: MagpieRSS: Failed to fetch http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/tv. (HTTP Error: connection failed () in /home/maikeru/public_html/forums/articlebot/rss_fetch.inc on line 230

Warning: array_reverse(): The argument should be an array in /home/maikeru/public_html/forums/articlebot/articlebot.php on line 136

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/maikeru/public_html/forums/articlebot/articlebot.php on line 140

Warning: MagpieRSS: Failed to fetch http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/movies. (HTTP Error: connection failed () in /home/maikeru/public_html/forums/articlebot/rss_fetch.inc on line 230

Warning: array_reverse(): The argument should be an array in /home/maikeru/public_html/forums/articlebot/articlebot.php on line 136

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/maikeru/public_html/forums/articlebot/articlebot.php on line 140

It's getting worse I think.. :\

[sully02]

Originally Posted by Maikeru

It's getting worse I think.. :\

And I'm noticing that a lot of people's questions are going unanswered. You'd think something up for HotM could get a little support around here :classic:

[Kwak]

That doesn't look good Maikeru.

[Megareus Rex]

Originally Posted by sully02

And I'm noticing that a lot of people's questions are going unanswered. You'd think something up for HotM could get a little support around here :classic:

Maybe the support people are on vacation >_>

[johnnyb]

Just a suggestion.

This would be a great script, however the problem with this (and the other RSS vB scripts) is that it uses a user account as a source. It would be better if it used a different method of post, or somehow exclude the bot from being part of the user database. I don't know if I'm making sense, but I don't like when the new posts page is flooded with bot articles and the bot reaches 400 posts a day. I just don't like it, however I do love the concept of the script.

:ermm:

What do you think?

[we_are_borg]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

Just a suggestion.

This would be a great script, however the problem with this (and the other RSS vB scripts) is that it uses a user account as a source. It would be better if it used a different method of post, or somehow exclude the bot from being part of the user database. I don't know if I'm making sense, but I don't like when the new posts page is flooded with bot articles and the bot reaches 400 posts a day. I just don't like it, however I do love the concept of the script.

:ermm:

What do you think?

Well it could work if the bot directly inputed its data in the db instead of posting it on the board. The load is way to high i'm getting time outs because the load is to high.

[johnnyb]

Oh, so you gave it a try?

[we_are_borg]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

Oh, so you gave it a try?

no i did not give it a try but it sounds like it will work.

[johnnyb]

It's a pain, everytime I click on view new posts, it has like 50 posts from the news bot! I'm sure my members aren't liking it either!

[Megareus Rex]

*sigh*

Why is it support STILL isnt here?