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.

[hbalagh1]

i installed this last night and ended up removing it this morning... my members hated that it filled up the new post feature( i had 5-6 request by the time i woke up asking to remove it). If there is a way to not have it show up there, and not add to the total post count count of the forum it would be great

[aciurczak]

Hi all -

I installed Articlebot a few days ago, and it's working great. Mods I've done include:

- changing the posting template to show a clean link
- stripping out the postbot's user ID in new post searches

If someone wants a demo of what this thing is supposed to do, check out this link: *EDIT - LINK REMOVED*

Within the admincp, I can selectively move threads from my news forum to a discussion forum if they have > zero replies.

Here's what I need: What I want is help creating a script that will automatically do this every hour or so. Has anyone created an auto-move script before, or I should I start parsing through how the admincp component works? Thanks for any assistance one can provide...

- Alex

EDIT: Got it working. It moves threads with replies over to a discussion forum, and it also strips out threads with ADV: in the title as trash and puts them into a Trash forum, hidden from the public, for later review and deletion.

[apshanon]

I have installed articlebot hack in my 3.0.8 version. But I have upgaded vbulletin to 3.5.0. Please help me how I can setup articlebot again now

[aciurczak]

Not sure if Articlebot will be updated for 3.5.0. Here's a well-regarded RSS hack for 3.5.0: click here...

[zachlee]

has anyone found a better RSS feed solution for 3.5?

I have toyed with the Inferno system but would prefer Article Bot if possible

[Byron]

1 question.

How to uninstall this hack if i don't need it in future?

[aciurczak]

No automated uninstall, but it isn't rocket science either. Look at the install.php file, and you can see the 3 tables created (articlebot, articlebot_rss, articlebot_rss_cache), along with a new column in the thread table. If you want to make it inactive, just don't call the cronjob anymore. If you want to remove everything completely (whether or not it is doing anything), just drop the 3 tables, remove the column from the thread table, and remove the template mods you made.

Personally, this is one of my favorite hacks; it is working so well on my board and is one of the reasons I haven't yet jumped to 3.5.0. I've added a few add-on mods that make it more useful on a board:

- strip out any RSS news items that come through with ADV: in the title to a trash forum (this kill pretty much all the ads that come through on the feeds I use)
- auto-move any threads with 1 or more replies from the news forum to a discussion forum every hour.

[Byron]

Thanks,

Velocd, can you add a file to do an automated uninstall?

[Byron]

How do we add rel=nofollow to

PHP Code:

$article[description]

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


I tried

PHP Code:

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


but it mess with the feed url.

[aciurczak]

Hi Byron - I don't think you can add it with only a template change; it needs to be added as vbulletin parses the bbcode into html. Here's a link for the mod in 3.0.X that can do it for all URL's:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...threadid=74703

What I'd do is just add another clause to the if statement checking for >50 posts, and make it (user > 50 posts) & user != my posting bot user ID, or not in my posting bot user''s group ID).

You can mess with the if clauses to aim the nofollow parameter to as few or as many users/groups as you'd like.