smf mosbot discuss

[profile]

I installed mambot using mambo administration, published it, and also placed smf_mosbot_help.php in the mambo root.  I don't see additional details regarding how to make this work.  I also searched "discuss".  Any leads?  TIA

[Orstio]

Hmm... That should be in the file called "READ.THIS.FIRST".

Basically, put this code into an article:

{mos_smf_discuss:Board Name}

Where Board Name is the name of the board where you want the topic to appear.

[profile]

Here's the READ.THIS.FIRST.txt

## SMF Discuss Mambot ##

Version: 1.0
Release Date: 11/19/2004
Copyright: (c) 2004 Theodore Hildebrandt, based on original by Two Shoes Mambo Factory
Author: Theodore Hildebrandt
Original Author: Arno Zijlstra <[email protected]>
License: GNU GPL


Prerequisites:
Mambo 4.5.1 or up;
SMF 1.0 RC2 or later

How to install:
Unzip the package and install discussbot.zip file as any mambot from the admin backend.

Upload the smf_mosbot_help.php file to your Mambo root.  This is just a little utility that displays the code you can
copy/paste into your article to display the link.

and you're done!

Disclaimer:
Always, yes, that's right, always (!!) back up your database and site prior to installations and test any additions you
make to your site locally first and do NOT add anything to your livesite unless tested thoroughly, extensively, securely
and wisely!

Note:

This bot is set to quote the first 700 characters of the article, and so it may not work correctly if the {mos_smf_discuss:}
appears in those first 700 characters.

Sorry, does a new topic or new board need to be created for each article?  I don't think it was made clear in the 'READ.THIS.FIRST.txt' file.

[Orstio]

Sorry, you're right.

It creates a new topic with each article.  You don't have to create the topic, the bot will do that for you with the first post.

You must specify a board that already exists, however, or you will get an error when you click the link.

[profile]

The problem with the bot creating the first post is that it includes most of the article (including pics) in the reply box, which may be confusing.  When I tried to comment, it included everything in the reply box, not knowing it wasn't a bug, I deleted everything inside the reply box and typed a test message.  The AKO comments bot was great and made every article very simple to discuss/comment.

[Orstio]

The problem there is security.  You don't want a script-kiddy writing a little bot that posts 100 messages/minute to your forum.  As far as SMF is concerned, that would be what the discussbot was trying to do:  start a topic, and then reply instantly.

So, it cannot be done that way without compromising security.

[profile]

Thanks for your help.  Since the bot includes a part of a section and even includes the photos, how easy/hard would it be to customize it to include only a certain amount of lines and also to strip out images.

[Orstio]

Not hard at all, if you know anything about regular expressions.

Check the code.  It's a huge find/replace array.

[profile]

Sounds complicated, so I'll skip it.  Being a non script person, that's the main reason why I chose to try mambo+ smf as I don't have any skills with code stuff.

[Orstio]

I need to add some parameters for the Mambo backend on this anyway.  I'll probably make the number of characters customizable, the image URL, and support for multiple languages.  I can add the inclusion of images as optional as well.

Anything else for the discussbot?

[Slack]

Maybe an option to take you to either the top OR the bottom of the topic listing? 

[chadness]

Anything else for the discussbot?

An option to specify a forum to add to every posted article would be useful to many, I think.  There's a number of people who have a specific "News discussions" forum, I believe.

[profile]

parameter suggestions:
option to display image (on or off)
option to change link name (ie: discuss, comment, etc.)
option to show 'discuss' in the intro text view

[Orstio]

option to show 'discuss' in the intro text view

I'm not quite certain what you're asking for here.  Can you explain a bit?

[profile]

option to show 'discuss' in the intro text view

I'm not quite certain what you're asking for here.  Can you explain a bit?

When you have news articles with single/two/three-colum, you have the option of showing the intro text (teaser i guess), but if you include the discuss bot at the bottom, the intro text viewable on the frontpage doesn't indicate if you have comments on the article or not (similiar to akocomment).  Sorry if I'm not making this clear.

[xenovanis]

So, just put the tag at the top in your intro-text box before your article, like I did @ http://www.taxibalk.nl

[Orstio]

When you have news articles with single/two/three-colum, you have the option of showing the intro text (teaser i guess), but if you include the discuss bot at the bottom, the intro text viewable on the frontpage doesn't indicate if you have comments on the article or not (similiar to akocomment).  Sorry if I'm not making this clear.

Move the bot code up higher in the article so it appears in the intro text. 

Warning, however:  If the first click on the link is from the homepage, the forum will link back to the homepage.

[profile]

If you do that, it will also have {mos_smf_discuss:} included in the forum as well as seeing it in the article itself.  With akocomment, you don't see that, so I thought there must be a way.

[xenovanis]

Okay, you have a point there 

[Kindred]

AkoComment does not re-quote the news item....  it just tacks on messages after the item itself. Sort of a poor man's message thread.

the DiscussBot take the akocomment a step further, starting a discussin thread in the attached message board and quotes the item to start with....

There may be a way around it...   to put the {discussbot} message in the "intro" and then drag the quote form the main section...

(Of course, I still can not get the damned discussbot to work right on my site...   I get errors, with any (or no) mambot editor installed...)