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]

Originally Posted by Ramsesx

ok, thank you

No prob. I'll probably look into making it work with them in the future, but as it stands now, they don't mesh. But don't give up hope! I won't let it get too far from my radar!

[bashy]

Hi

If bots are members then how come mine are viewing the No Permissions Message?
Is this right?

[trilljester]

It depends on what the bots are trying to look at. What location are the bots seeing the No Permission message?

[bashy]

Hi, please see image, it was trying to read a thread in the lounge thats open to all

Originally Posted by trilljester

It depends on what the bots are trying to look at. What location are the bots seeing the No Permission message?

[trilljester]

Hmmm, I'm pretty sure that MKPortal is causing the issue. Note that this mod is not compatible with any 3rd party addons that mess with permissions/sessions. Are there any forums on your site that normal guests can't see?

[bashy]

Hi

Yes there are a few that normal guests cant see prob about 5 or so

[Stop]

Installed and works fine. But I'm wondering if there's a way to make these bots showable in the members who have visited the forum in the last 24 hours list.

[trilljester]

No, not via this hack. You'd have to ask whoever did that hack to see if they can add bots into it. Not a bad idea, gives you an idea how often bots are visiting.

[corbint]

Excellent idea for a hack. Ive installed it, and am having an issue. Ive edited the core file, init.php, and now the end of the file looks like this :

if ($is_bot == 1) {
        $vbulletin->userinfo['usergroupid'] = 9;
        }

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

My issue is that its not detecting the spiders. Ive changed my user agent in Mozilla to Google, Yahoo slurp, MSN, Teoma, etc, and they still dont have proper access. I view my forum with user-agent set to GOOGLEBOT, create a thread, and it says my username is Unregistered. Shouldnt it be "registered"?

[HaMaDa4eVeR]

I upload http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/po...hitehouse.html
in /includes/xml and I set $vbulletin->userinfo['usergroupid'] = 2;
and #2 = my registered group ID ,,
and still Now I see in (online.php)
Yahoo! Slurp Spider (watch no presmmistion message)
Yahoo! Slurp Spider (watch no presmmistion message)
MSNBot Spider (watch no presmmistion message)
Google Spider (watch no presmmistion message)

whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy ??