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.

[Robert Basil]

Originally Posted by bitg

Ok, it seems to be working. A new article showed up. But it does not give me a link to the full article? See for yourself.

http://www.dungeonkeepersdomain.com/...ead.php?t=1387

Help?

I am having the EXACT same problem as bitg. And from the looks of it, he didn't find a resolution either.

[Robert Basil]

I know this is going to sound like +++++ing (and I guess it is) but come on. I know the author of this hack has a life (as do we all) but how can a hack that is having so many problems and no support for the last few weeks from the author be considered for a "Hack of the Month?"

[puredj]

Originally Posted by Sportbikeworld

I am having the EXACT same problem as bitg. And from the looks of it, he didn't find a resolution either.

Did you make the articlebot_post template, this controls the link.

PHP Code:

[b][url="$article[link]"]$article[link][/url][/b] 


That's for the link at the botom.

The other option is, that the source doesn't have a link propertie in there html.
Try to open the source xml (where you get the articles) with your browser and see if every news item has a <link> </link> propertie

[Robert Basil]

Originally Posted by puredj

Did you make the articlebot_post template, this controls the link.

PHP Code:

[b][url="$article[link]"]$article[link][/url][/b] 


That's for the link at the botom.

The other option is, that the source doesn't have a link propertie in there html.
Try to open the source xml (where you get the articles) with your browser and see if every news item has a <link> </link> propertie

Thanks for trying to help.

My problem is not that I am getting a "blank" message body in my posts, it's that I am not seeing a message body at all, only the subject line.

I've posted above that I have included the articlebot_post template in both of my styles and have also verified the xml source to be correct. It's not just one xml feed that I am having this problem with, but all of them. I have even tried the same feeds that others have posted that they use.

I'm not a newbie to hacking VB, I've been using it for about 4 years now (and created 5 hacks myself). I have also been using xml and atom feeds on my personal website for years as well.

I'm just at a loss as to what the problem is. I'd love to be able to use this hack on one of our forums, but the lack of support from the author has me frustrated.

I know the HOTM is now an automated process at vb.org But in my opinion is hacks like this (with no support from the author and trouble with it from almost 95% of the users) should not be eligible for the HOTM.

[puredj]

hmm, okay I didn't know your experience in vbb hacks (I have started with vbuletin some month ago)
I have installed the hack aswell and it works fine,
altough I used xml instead of rss
this is the link where I fetched the xml
http://www.synthtopia.com/rss.xml

Maybe it helps you a bit.
Maybe you could try that one out and see what that one does.

[Robert Basil]

Originally Posted by puredj

hmm, okay I didn't know your experience in vB hacks (I have started with vbuletin some month ago)
I have installed the hack aswell and it works fine,
altough I used xml instead of rss
this is the link where I fetched the xml
http://www.synthtopia.com/rss.xml

Maybe it helps you a bit.
Maybe you could try that one out and see what that one does.

Nope, same problem with that feed as well.

Thanks for trying though.

[puredj]

hmm that's strange...
and no error when you start articlebot.php ?

well if you want to compare something let me know

[Robert Basil]

Originally Posted by puredj

hmm that's strange...
and no error when you start articlebot.php ?

well if you want to compare something let me know

No error from articlebot.php at all. It runs just fine.

Here is a screenshot of what type of posts I'm getting from the bot.

(Notice how the subject is fine but there is no message body posted?)

This is not a problem with the feed, but the script itself.

[puredj]

Strange, very strange..
Here it works fine, could it be that the author had change the code in a newer version and forgot to post it here?
So that my version of article bot is newer then yours. (would be strange if so, but who knows)

do you use word filters (the option articlebot provides)?

[Robert Basil]

Originally Posted by puredj

Strange, very strange..
Here it works fine, could it be that the author had change the code in a newer version and forgot to post it here?
So that my version of article bot is newer then yours. (would be strange if so, but who knows)

do you use word filters (the option articlebot provides)?

Nope, no word filters at all.