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.

[nhatrang]

Can anybody help me pull all the RSS contents rather than just a few lines?

[Code Monkey]

Ok, I updated the articlebot admin script. Works for me. give it a try.

[DS MrSinister]

thx you sir i will give it a shot!

[Code Monkey]

I sent a PM to velocd at another website he hangs out at asking if I can release it for vb 3.51. I have already made it into a product but I am not sure what the rules and such are.

[Code Monkey]

Originally Posted by T3MEDIA

Maybe you can help... my feeds keep turning "&" into "&" and of course ruins the feed. is there a way to stop that? as well the egex commands do not seem to be working.

Just find this in articlebot.php

PHP Code:

$thread_id = $db->insert_id(); 


And insert below.

PHP Code:

$article['description'] = str_replace('&', '&', $article['description']); 


That should fix it. There are posts earlier in this thread that help deal with these isssues.

[Code Monkey]

Ok, I have recieved permision from Velocd to release my 3.51 product version of this. Once I finish it up I will release it.

[Code Monkey]

Ok, the 3.5 product version can be found here. Enjoy

[fluentdesigns]

Everytime I try to add an article bot I get the following error

Error: There is no user with ID of Array['userid'].

[poolking]

Originally Posted by fluentdesigns

Everytime I try to add an article bot I get the following error

Error: There is no user with ID of Array['userid'].

Are you using the username or the userid? You are supposed to be using the userid.

Also you are supposed to create the account that the bot is going to use as well.

[XrayHead]

Originally Posted by 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: Link to news section of my forum

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

Any chance you can share with us HOW you did the stripping out the postbot's user ID in new post searches??

A lot of people have been asking how to do this.

Xray