xkcdbot

Synopsis

This is a bot for Mastodon which publishes the latest xkcd comic when there is an update. It is also designed to listen to messages mentioning it, currently powering its "subscribe" feature.

User Guide

• If you would like to see xkcd comics pop up on your home timeline, simply follow @[email protected].
• If you want xkcdbot to mention you at every comic update, toot the following text: @[email protected] #subscribe.
• In case you want to be unlisted (a.k.a. unsubscribe), toot the following text: @[email protected] #unsubscribe.

Either you subscribed or unsubscribed, you will receive a direct message from xkcdbot with the content @<your username> successfully [un]subscribed. within five minutes. If xkcdbot does not respond in ten minutes, try again. If this also fails, the bot probably crashed, or is down. Better check its profile page to see its status. If it says "UP" but experimentally isn't, please contact me.

Hosting Guide

NYI = Not Yet Implemented

Node.js

xkcdbot is powered by Node.js. The Node.js toolchain is required.

Access Token

You will need to obtain an access_token from your mastodon instance. It's in the Development pane under Preferences. You will need to grant the bot these permissions:

• read:notifications
• read:statuses
• write:media (upload xkcd image)
• write:notifications (dismiss subscription notification)
• write:statuses

config.json

Because it contains credentials, the config.json I am using is not uploaded, and is listed in .gitignore. To use this bot, you need to rename the shipped config_default.json to config.json. Then, fill out config.json. Here is the shipped file:

{
    "api": {
        "api_url": "",
        "access_token": ""
    },
    "personnel": {
        "maintainer": "",
        "operators": []
    },
    "intervals": {
        "poll_xkcd": 5,
        "get_notifications": 5
    },
    "enable": {
        "record_subscription": true,
        "mention_subscribers": true
    },
    "debug": false,
    "debug_options": {
        "test_xkcd": false,
        "test_notifications": false
    },
    "subscribers_file": "./subscribers.json",
    "alt_text_char_limit": 400,
    "comment_for_subscribers_prompt": "A heads-up for my subscribers:",
    "notification_per_page": 50,
}

• api_url: the API's base URL, e.g. https://botsin.space/api/v1/.
• access_token: the access token you obtained.
• maintainer: when in debug mode, xkcdbot publishes xkcd comics as direct messages. The maintainer is addressed in such message.
• operators: [NYI] list of operators, i.e. users with admin access to this bot.
• poll_xkcd: interval between two xkcd fetches, in minutes.
• get_notifications: interval between two notification GET reqs. As for now only used to check subscription. Expect huge changes.
• record_subscription: [NYI] self-explanatory.
• mention_subscribers: [NYI] toggle mention-subscribers service.
• debug: boolean indicating whether to run in debug mode.
• test_xkcd: when set to true, xkcdbot fetches xkcd once, and publishes it regardless of whether there is an update.
• test_notifications: when set to true, xkcdbot gets notifications once and executes actions (subscribe etc.)

Debug mode:

1. See description for maintainer above
2. Prints more verbose logs

• subscribers_file: the file to record subscribers.
• alt_text_char_limit: some xkcd's, such as 1363: xkcd Phone, have tediously long alt-text. However, a toot has to fit in (usually) a maximum of 500 chars, and for the image description (used to replicate the "hover text" effect), 420. This cuts the alt-text into the size limit. Recommended value: 300 - 410.
• comment_for_subscribers_prompt: the text starting all comments addressing subscribers, so that they don't get confused.
• notification_per_page: value of the limit param sent to GET /notifications.

subscribers.json

The subscribers file is shipped as subscribers_default.json. Rename it to subscribers.json before it can work.

The Run And Go

After that, you can start this bot with node xkcdbot.js or npm run test or use your process manager for production.