Wootbot
From NeoWiki
wootbot was an automated PHP[1] robot application put together by User:Eric that provided useful features to the NeoturbineNET Internet Relay Chat network. The application took form as the nickname "wootbot" joining the #neoturbine channel. The features of wootbot were used by sending certain commands in the #neoturbine channel. Sending "@help" into the IRC channel would list the commands used to access wootbot's features. The "@" (at sign) was the trigger character due to another bot on the channel (lucy) being a whore.
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[edit] Features
wootbot provided the following features:
- Time & date countdowns
- NeoRadio reporting
- Google definitions
- Wikipedia searches
- Last.FM last song reporting [2]
- Urban Dictionary definitions [3]
- Google "Feeling Lucky" searches
- Package tracking (via Boxoh.com [4])
- Weather reporting (via Google.com XML API [5])
- Whois lookups (via DomainTools.com XML API [6])
- Reverse phone number lookups (via WhitePages.com XML API [7])
-
Stock prices (via Finance.Google.com [8])Google kept changing their page causing it to break - Reported the product from Woot.com [9] and its various sub-sites (Sellout [10], Kids [11], Wine [12], and Shirt [13])
[edit] History
wootbot's backend of PHP scripts actually began life as an AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) robot. It's major function on AIM was providing updates to the visitors of the chatroom "wootoff" during sales at Woot.com.
"As the features gradually increased, so did my tendency to use Internet Relay Chat (IRC). I eventually stopped using AIM entirely and decided to find a way to make wootbot run on IRC. I stumbled across a PHP class (called Ak-Bot, on a forum [14]) that's designed to connect to IRC. The only downside to the Ak-Bot PHP class is not supporting Secure Socket Layer (SSL-encrypted) connections to IRC; otherwise it's quite easy to work with and blend new features into."
--Eric
[edit] Technical
[edit] Language
The choice of PHP for an interactive, always-on type of application like wootbot is actually a very bad idea. PHP isn't meant to run always-on applications.
"The only reason it's PHP is because that's the only language I know. It's a terrible choice."
--Eric
[edit] Data
wootbot made use of many different third party applications and websites for obtaining the information it relayed. Some of it's features involved simply reading RSS or XML feeds that come with an API for developer access, but most of the features were implemented through the cURL [15] module of PHP. The cURL module of PHP basically allows screen-scraping of websites and then the data retrieved was parsed through to relay relevant, readable information.
