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.

[ferrariengines]

PS: If your intervals do work, was there a step in the setup you had to perform, and what are your settings/rss feed. I am very interested to see how I can make mine perform correctly. Furthermore, have you been able to make it work via Scheduled Tasks? I can only use it with cronjobs.

[NxTek]

The interval system itself works (I.E., the cronjob), but it doesn't always get articles in order.

[ferrariengines]

Hi NxTek, the cronjob isn't suppose to be what controls intervals.. The cronjob is suppose to fire the main .php file, then the interval is suppose to control how often articles are grabbed during execution, it doesn't work at all. I guess im going to have to resort to setting up a 10 minute cronjob to grab headlines, it will work, but i'd prefer something easier..

[ferrariengines]

Ok this modification officially is horrible, it doesn't work as intended, and it doesn't handle special characters worth anything! I'm removing it right away!

[poolking]

so what did you intend it to do?

[yahoooh]

i love this hack it works perfectly with 3.0.7 that have more than 50 hacks!

[mattyk72]

how do I uninstall?

[interfx]

I have this installed on VB3.0.7, buta m upgrading my site to use VB3.5RC3...

Will this hack work, or is there a better RSS programs that has similar features for VB35RC3?

Thanks in advance -
INterFX

[c0d3x]

i would like to use it on my vb 3.5 board as well... is there any similar hack or any port of this?

[michaelbenson]

Warning: chdir(): No such file or directory (errno 2) in /home/michael/public_html/articlebot/articlebot.php on line 42

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

I am being sent the following Cron Job error whenever it tries to run.
But the path to my forums is correct and working.