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JavaChat / OakBot

A Java-based chat bot for Stackoverflow Chat
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bot chat-room chatbot jaba java stack-exchange-chat

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OakBot

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OakBot is a chat bot for Stack Overflow Chat that's written in Java. It is named after the first name given to the Java programming language before it became "Java".

OakBot is most active in the Java chat room.

Requirements

Build Instructions

To build the project, first clone and install the SOChat4j library:

git clone https://github.com/mangstadt/sochat4j.git
cd sochat4j
mvn install

Then, inside of the cloned OakBot folder, run mvn package. This command will build the project and package it into an executable, shaded JAR. A shaded JAR file contains all of the project's dependencies. The shaded JAR file is saved here: target/OakBot-VERSION.jar.

Deploy Instructions

  1. Copy the following files to the server. Put them in the same directory:
    1. target/OakBot-VERSION.jar: The executable, shaded JAR file that contains OakBot's code and dependencies.
    2. bot-context.xml: This file contains configuration data and command definitions. A sample file is located in the root of this project.
    3. logging.properties (optional): The configuration file for the Java Logging API. A sample file is located in the root of this project.
  2. Run OakBot: java -jar OakBot-VERSION.jar
  3. Once the bot has fully started up, it will instruct you to press Ctrl+Z, then type the bg command. In Linux, this will move the program into the background and free up the shell.

db.json

This is the file OakBot uses to persist information, such as how many commands it has responded to and what rooms it has joined. It is located in the bot's working directory. The file will automatically be created if it doesn't exist.

bot-context.xml

Contains various configuration settings for the bot. Open the sample bot-context.xml file at the root of this project for a description of each setting.

OakBot must be restarted if any of these settings are changed while OakBot is running.

Adding/Removing Commands

All of the bot's commands are defined in the bot-context.xml file.

Commands can be added by creating a class that extends the Command interface, and then adding the class to bot-context.xml (you must also, of course, include your class in the Java classpath when running the bot).

This file uses Spring's IoC container library.

All of OakBot's commands are listed on the wiki.

CLI Arguments

Argument Description
--context=PATH The path to the Spring application context XML file that contains the bot's configuration settings and commands (defaults to "bot-context.xml"). Note: Absolute paths must be prefixed with "file:".
--mock Runs the bot using a mock chat connection for testing purposes.

A text file will be created in the root of the project for each chat room the bot is configured to connect to. These files are used to "send" messages to the mock chat rooms. To send a message, type your message into the text file and save it.

Messages are entered one per line. Multi-line messages can be entered by ending each line with a backslash until you reach the last line. You should only append onto the end of the file; do not delete anything. These files are re-created every time the program runs.

All messages that are sent to the mock chat room are displayed in stdout (this includes your messages and the bot's responses).
--quiet If specified, the bot will not output a greeting message when it starts up.
--version Prints the version of this program.
--help Prints descriptions of each argument.

Questions/Feedback

Please submit all questions, bug reports, and feature requests to the issue tracker.