Auto post new forum topics to Gitter

[stpaultim]

Lately, I've been watching for new topics in the forum and either replying myself and/or posting a link in Gitter to let other folks know about the topic. I think that one way to engage new folks in Backdrop is by being responsive in the forum.

Recently, @laryn suggested that we might be able to automatically post new forum topics in Gitter. He (and I) are not sure if this is a good idea, but I thought it worth posting for discussion.

In my opinion, this is probably not a good idea over the long term (if the forum gets busier), but it might make sense for the time being, while resources are limited and the active community remains fairly small. If the forum does get busier, the problem of responsiveness will hopefully solve itself.

[klonos]

I do not object this for now (while we are still a small community), but at a later point it might become an issue if forum topics are created every minute 😄 ...but we can alway disable this if it becomes an issue.

[serundeputy]

PR: https://github.com/backdrop-ops/forum.backdropcms.org/pull/93

Ready for Review.

• Added new module borg_gitter
• Checks for new forum_topic node
• on node_insert posts to gitter channel backdrop/backdrop-issues

A new post is on the forum: {{ gitter xi }: https://forum.backdropcms.org/forum/gitter-xi

Pitching in on the forum is a great way to feel good and contribute to the Backrop Community.

:smile: :heart: 

Deploy

• [x] pass QA; merge PR and pull code to f.b.org server
• [x] Need a gitter API token in settings.local.php or whatever file is on the sever that is not in version control
  • during testing I was using my API token ; which posts as me
  • we should create a ForumBot account and get it an API token and put that in the settings file

// Gitter api token
$settings['gitter_token'] = 'FORUMBOT_API_TOKEN';

• [x] enable the borg_gitter module

[stpaultim]

Not sure if there is anything I can do on this yet. Maybe if I had a local version of forum working, but I don't yet. Might try to make that happen today.

[jenlampton]

Merged the PR. Still Untested. See below.

we should create a ForumBot account and get it an API token and put that in the settings file

We already have a DragonBot GitHub account we use for this purpose. I spent about a half hour trying to find or request a "Gitter API token" but didn't come across any info. @serundeputy Can you please post a link to some docs?

[jenlampton]

It just occurred to me that the DragonBot account posts to gitter all the time via hubot. I don't think I have access to the Roku, but @serundeputy I think you do. Maybe you can grab whatever token it's currently using and test with that? And then maybe you can post some docs here so someone else can test this feature too :)

[serundeputy]

Gittter API: https://developer.gitter.im/apps whatever user you sign in as it will generate a token for that user; I can not sign in as DragonBot as I don't have those creds.

I can't find DragonBot on the localize server which is the one I have access to.

I found a DragonBot token on my local install of hubot (which is not the one on the server), and it works (tested locally).

I don't have write access to the forum/settings.local.php file so I could not wire it up in there.

@jenlampton I'll send you the token through some secret transfer service

[jenlampton]

Tested locally, works like a charm! Deploying now :)

[jenlampton]

Deployed :)