Chatbot Dev

overactor

8:05 AM

@ArtOfCode are you pingable here?

ArtOfCode

8:44 AM

@overactor Apparently so. What can I do you for?

overactor

@ArtOfCode The twitter account thing got me thinking. Do you think we could combine a twitter bot with a chatbot and thus allow a golden middle way between an automated twitter account and a curated one?

ArtOfCode

@overactor Almost certainly we could. We could do it off SEC too, I dare say.

overactor

@ArtOfCode That's what I was thinking

ArtOfCode

Twitter module, add a backend Twitter and stack API script, we're golden.

overactor

I imagine that instead of immediately tweeting, it would post in chat when it decides a question is worth tweeting and then would need confirmation to acually tweet it

allow user suggested tweets as well

scheduled tweets too of course

@ArtOfCode Didn't someone look at creating a twitter module once?

ArtOfCode

8:49 AM

Aye. Our group of account managers can have shared direct access to tweet whatever, the chatbot can take in question suggestions.

@overactor Probably, but I can't remember who, when, or the outcome.

overactor

Each scheduled tweet can be addressed with some sort of id

Is the SE provided Twitter bot open source?

ArtOfCode

I doubt it.

@overactor Reply to the suggestion with the id and stick it in a queue.

overactor

evaluating which questions are worth tweeting about probably isn't too difficult.

ArtOfCode

votes, views, close votes

overactor

Do you think we should get to work on this or check first if there is any interest in this?

ArtOfCode

9:04 AM

I've got a lot of free time today, I'll see if I can throw a proof of concept together.

overactor

And perhaps if SE would support it?

github.com/bear/python-twitter

overkill?

ArtOfCode

@overactor I imagine it would be pretty useful, and it would allow wider participation on what gets tweeted.

overactor

I'd also love to see SEC get more widespread :)

ArtOfCode

@overactor Probably. We only need access to tweeting, not much else.

Then again, we could provide access to everything.

overactor

@ArtOfCode similar question for the SE api, do we use a wrapper or not?

@ArtOfCode would probably become cumbersome though

I'd imagine the curators still also have direct access to the twitter account

ArtOfCode

9:08 AM

@overactor Of course, yeah.

@overactor GitHub.com/ArtOfCode-/APiPy

overactor

404

@ArtOfCode convenient

ArtOfCode

And lightweight. We could sub module it.

overactor

@ArtOfCode What do api calls look like with your wrapper?

star unstar star unstar ...

are you on mobile?

ArtOfCode

@overactor Mistap, yeah. I can't remember, as it happens. Lemme investigate.

overactor

Not really a full wrapper but rather convenience methods to work with the SE API it seems.

Could definitely be what we need

ArtOfCode

9:18 AM

@overactor oh awesome, I wrote docs for it. github.com/ArtOfCode-/APiPy/blob/master/docs/requester.py.md

@overactor Essentially, yeah.

overactor

We'll likely only use a fraction of the api anyway

ArtOfCode

Tiny bits of it, yeah. Maybe look at user reputations?

overactor

@ArtOfCode I feel like it'd be best to stick to the question

ArtOfCode

Make it a privilege you get at what, 750 rep?

overactor

but perhaps

Ah you mean suggesting things?

ArtOfCode

9:21 AM

yeah

and rejecting them, though that should be higher

overactor

I'd say curators are not based on rep but rather set explicitly

ability to suggest questions could have a rep limit

maybe the rep limit is configurable?

ArtOfCode

Aye, make it a bit setting.

bot

overactor

I must say, I've become a bit concerned about the breadth of modules in the builtins

well, concerned is a big word

ArtOfCode

Shrug. It's good to have a wide feature base, I think.

overactor

@ArtOfCode I agree, but some splitting up seems in order

ArtOfCode

9:29 AM

We can do that as we do the Twitter bit :)

overactor

Maybe it's overkill but I'd like to see:

Essential modules

Fun modules

and then

SE Chatbot Bare

(no modules)

ArtOfCode

That's basically the message sending code and not much else...

overactor

SE Chatbot (only essentials) (as a fork)

SE Chatbot extended (all modules) (as a fork)

ArtOfCode

Or use branches

overactor

@ArtOfCode I just realised branches might be better too :)

The Bare version could serve as a base in case someone would like to write some alternative essential modules

I do wonder if we're not perhaps abusing git submodules

ArtOfCode

9:34 AM

true that. I think we should maintain the full feature set as the main branch, though.

overactor

@ArtOfCode That's up for debate in my view

Is xkcd and flipping part of the main feature set?

ArtOfCode

that could be in the fun feature branch

overactor

what about translate and define, fun features or essential?

I'd vote fun

ArtOfCode

Personally, I'd keep everything we've got together as a whole package on the main branch, and link to the other branches for people who want different feature sets.

overactor

Should we make a room somewhere for this discussion?

And invite ProgramFOX?

ArtOfCode

9:38 AM

Use chatbot dev

For anyone interested, that's here: chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/25323/chatbot-dev

overactor

@ArtOfCode do you have the ability to move stuff from the worldbuilding chat to here?

ArtOfCode

@overactor I do, but not on mobile. I'll be on a computer in about 20 minutes, though.

overactor

@ArtOfCode Okay cool

paging @ProgramFOX

ArtOfCode

10:02 AM

← 85 messages moved from Worldbuilders' General Chat

overactor

cool

ArtOfCode

That's a pretty useful ability.

overactor

It really is

ArtOfCode

There's also a trashcan room, which we can move to to prevent long strings of (removed).

Great fun.

overactor

sort of like /dev/null ?

ArtOfCode

10:09 AM

Pretty much

user153821

11:32 AM

Bot started.

ArtOfCode

Well hey, I managed to get that much working.

$>module disable

user153821

@ArtOfCode Not enough arguments.

ArtOfCode

$>module help

user153821

Contains controls for modules.
`module enable <name>` - enables a module
`module disable <name>` - disables a module

ArtOfCode

$>module disable xkcd

user153821

11:37 AM

@ArtOfCode Module disabled.

ArtOfCode

$>module disable fun

user153821

@ArtOfCode Module disabled.

overactor

$> xkcd 1

user153821

@overactor Command not found.

ArtOfCode

$>module disable translate

user153821

11:38 AM

@ArtOfCode Module disabled.

ArtOfCode

$>module disable upsidedown

user153821

@ArtOfCode No such module, or it (or its container) has already been disabled.

ArtOfCode

Did we ever build in a method to disable modules?

overactor

upsidedown is not a module, just a helper file

ArtOfCode

aha, we did

overactor

11:39 AM

@ArtOfCode wait, what do you mean by that?

ArtOfCode

@overactor I was looking for a method I can call from code, rather than having to execute commands to disable a module.

overactor

@ArtOfCode aha

ArtOfCode

I assume we don't want the 'fun' modules active in the twitterbot, so disable them on startup

They'll get added to the bot automatically because they're in the builtins, but we can disable them.

overactor

@ArtOfCode unless we make them not builtins anymore of course

ArtOfCode

@overactor Well yeah - but for now, I'm just using what we made.

If we can do it so that we can pick the builtins package we want, excellent.

overactor

11:42 AM

it does indeed work this way though

$>utc

user153821

@overactor Tue Feb 2 11:42:23 2016

ArtOfCode

What module's that in? Utils, isn't it?

overactor

uhu

i think we can leave that in

$>listcommands

user153821

Commands:
alive, utc, listcommands, help, cat, read, getcurrentusers, ping, random, randomint, randomchoice, shuffle, stop, disable, enable, ban, unban, delete, module, define

overactor

$>help define

ArtOfCode

11:45 AM

I'm disabling a few more, too.

user153821

@overactor Looks up a word in the Merriam-Webster dictionary API.

ArtOfCode

like define and random

$>define word

we have no key

user153821

@ArtOfCode No API key found. Contact the bot owner.

overactor

I'd have said the same

ArtOfCode

$>module disable define

user153821

11:45 AM

@ArtOfCode Module disabled.

ArtOfCode

$>module disable random_

user153821

@ArtOfCode No such module, or it (or its container) has already been disabled.

ArtOfCode

$>module disable random

user153821

@ArtOfCode Module disabled.

overactor

$>listcommands

user153821

11:46 AM

@overactor Command not found. Did you mean: listcommands?

user153821

Commands:
alive, utc, listcommands, help, cat, read, getcurrentusers, ping, stop, disable, enable, ban, unban, delete, module

overactor

did you mean is awesome :)

$>help ping

user153821

@overactor Pings a list of users for you. Syntax: $>ping user [...]

ArtOfCode

Is there a command that tells us what module a command is in?

overactor

$>ping Art

user153821

11:47 AM

@overactor @Art

ArtOfCode

yep

overactor

there is?

ArtOfCode

as in, yes that pinged me

I'm looking for the command

overactor

$>cat {{ping Art}} does this work?

user153821

@overactor @Art does this work?

ArtOfCode

11:48 AM

@KarmaBot yep

overactor

I don't remember anything like that...

ArtOfCode

we made a good bot

overactor

that we did

ArtOfCode

OK, I've set up onload module disables. Restarting...

$>restart

user153821

@ArtOfCode Command not found. Did you mean: read?

ArtOfCode

11:49 AM

was that a thing?

nope :)

$>stop

user153821

@ArtOfCode Bot terminated.

ArtOfCode

rolls eyes I forgot how to form modules

user153821

Bot started.

overactor

github.com/ProgramFOX/SE-Chatbot/blob/master/templates/…

github.com/ProgramFOX/SE-Chatbot/blob/master/ModuleManifest.py

ArtOfCode

@KarmaBot Bot crashed, you mean, because I can't Python.

overactor

11:52 AM

to Python or not to Python

user153821

Bot started.

ArtOfCode

@KarmaBot Crashed.

overactor

What changes did you make?

ArtOfCode

@overactor How do you iterate a dictionary again? It's not for k, v in dict.iteritems(), because iteritems() doesn't exist apparently.

user153821

Bot started.

ArtOfCode

11:53 AM

...nor is it iter().

overactor

does for k, v in dict not work?

Do you have itertools imported?

user153821

Bot started.

ArtOfCode

Hey, got it. dict.items()

$>xkcd

user153821

@ArtOfCode Command not found.

ArtOfCode

Success! OK, so modules get disabled on load. That's cool.

user153821

11:56 AM

Bot terminated.

ArtOfCode

@overactor github.com/ArtOfCode-/TwitterBot

overactor

cool indeed

ArtOfCode

What's your username on GH? I'll give you collaborator access

overactor

same as here

overactor

ArtOfCode

ding ding ding

overactor

12:02 PM

I need to get git on the computer

ArtOfCode

What else do we need to do for this bot?

Add the other stuff, clearly. Lemme see if I can get apipy in

overactor

Should we maybe move the module that does the actual twittering to its own repo?

ArtOfCode

@overactor shrug. More repos and submodules. I'd be inclined to leave it all in one, to be honest.

overactor

It does allow people to add the twitter module to other SE Bots without too much hassle

ArtOfCode

@overactor True, but then again they can also just copy the dir. I'm putting everything about the twittering in its own directory.

overactor

12:07 PM

either way works I suppose

ArtOfCode

Okay, apipy's in

ArtOfCode

12:22 PM

The Twitter API will be slightly more challenging. There's OAuth to get round, which I can't say I've used before.

overactor

@ArtOfCode do we absolutely need it?

ArtOfCode

@overactor If we're posting tweets from the bot, then yes.

overactor

s

@ArtOfCode then we'll have to I suppose :)

ArtOfCode

Aye. They do have reasonable docs, and I suppose we could always outsource...

Okay, we should outsource.

These guys have done it all for us.

overactor

Bot started.

ArtOfCode

12:29 PM

>>hi

overactor

Oh cool

ArtOfCode

heh, what's your prefix?

overactor

@>

ArtOfCode

@>hi

overactor

@ArtOfCode Command not found.

ArtOfCode

12:29 PM

Ugh, submodules. It'll be worth it, I suppose.

overactor

@ArtOfCode For twitter api, I'd bet on that

I'm overactor_bot, overactor's chatbot. You can find the source code on GitHub. You can get a list of all commands by running @>listcommands, or you can run @>help command to learn more about a specific command.

Bot terminated.

ArtOfCode

Okay, now we hit the hard part. Naming. What do we call this bot, for the purposes of the Twitter application?

It'll be shown on tweets as 'via X', so we've gotta have something decent.

overactor

@ArtOfCode You're getting the app key from twitter?

ArtOfCode

I'm playing with some combination of "twitter", "tweet", "world", "building", "bot.

@overactor Yeah

overactor

Will this not be different for every instance of the bot?

ah, for the worldbuilding one

ArtOfCode

12:35 PM

Oh, yeah. That's what I'm working on at the moment.

overactor

mercury bot?

too tacky?

ArtOfCode

Planet names, could work

Oh yeah, 32 chars max.

overactor

mercury is also the messenger of the gods :)

ArtOfCode

I'm tempted to use the chemical symbol... HgBot

overactor

Cryptic, I like it

ArtOfCode

12:39 PM

Let's go with that. We can always change it later. Maybe. I think.

overactor

it's not like it'll be impossible to switch along the line

We can always make it a new app

ArtOfCode

True that

Oooh, we can design a logo

overactor

Hg hydrargyrum water silver

On it

I love dabbling with design

png?

what dimensions?

ArtOfCode

700k, JPG, GIF or PNG. Square.

overactor

How large will it typically be displayed?

ArtOfCode

12:44 PM

The placeholder is 73px square, but I don't know what the typical is. Design it at 256 or more, if you can.

overactor

alpha channel desired I suppose

ArtOfCode

Preferable. So PNG.

overactor

12:56 PM

logo designing is hard >_<

too bad we don't have a site logo yet.

ArtOfCode

Yep :)

I might have a dabble later on. If we both end up with something half-good, we can merge the ideas and create a good logo.

That's how it works right?

overactor

@ArtOfCode yeah, we just take the left half of yours and the right half of mine

blur the middle

ArtOfCode

Works for me :)

overactor

boom

@ArtOfCode I feel it reads quite nicely at various sizes

ArtOfCode

2:08 PM

Ooh fancy

overactor

right?

ArtOfCode

I like it

bilbo_pingouin

it somehow reminds me the gauloise cigarettes

probably the wings

overactor

That makes sense

gauloise is in reference to gauls I bet

bilbo_pingouin

gaulois is the French name of the Gauls, yes

and adding e, is to make it female

overactor

2:13 PM

Gauls wore winged helmets and winged helmets are often associated with Mercury

ArtOfCode

Icon added.

overactor

@bilbo_pingouin I figured as much

cool

@ArtOfCode can we see it on a page somewhere?

something public

ArtOfCode

Can you see this? apps.twitter.com/app/9481384/show

overactor

@ArtOfCode nop, but I can see that it's for HgBot

bilbo_pingouin

Error
Not authorized to use this endpoint.

overactor

2:16 PM

Access denied
You are not authorized to access this page.

no biggie

so @ArtOfCode, what's next?

ArtOfCode

Can't find anything obviously public.

Next? Um. Not sure. I'm back on mobile now, so I don't have access to all the stuff so easily.

Next is probably to start writing the code to do all the things it needs to do. I've got both libraries into it, so now we need to write our own bits.

overactor

We could start by making a simple tweet command I suppose

ArtOfCode

Maybe we start by trying to make OAuth work?

overactor

That's a good idea :)

could we divide things up?

ArtOfCode

We need a tweet method, not so much a command. People shouldn't be able to tweet from chat directly.

overactor

2:21 PM

@ArtOfCode I did mean more for testing purposes