Add-on IRC "Users in Chat" Widget

[Teapot]

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For my own purposes, I recently created a "Users in IRC" widget for the Widget Framework, which is designed to keep a reasonably up-to-date list of users in an IRC chatroom in widget form, so it can be placed anywhere on a forum. It has two main parts:​

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Firstly, I have coded a Supybot IRC bot plugin - although I could easily create a similar plugin for other IRC bots such as Eggdrop - to maintain a text file with a list of usernames in it. It does this at a user-specified interval, but normally every few minutes.​

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The second part is a Widget Framework widget, which is powered by a small cron job to collect the aforementioned text file - either from a local file or via HTTP, if your bot is located remotely - and cache it in the data registry. By default it does this every five minutes, but due to the nature of XenForo's cron system, it can be set up to run more or less often than this. The widget itself then simply collects the user list from the data registry and displays it, so it effectively does less than most other widgets. Due to the cron job, the widget is really fast - no additional strain is placed on the server in a typical page view.​

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My question, and the point of this thread, is this: Would anyone else be interested in this widget? If so, I'm happy to package it up and put it on the Resource Manager, and possibly provide additional IRC-related functionality such as providing another widget for the current topic, or provide an accompanying plugin for other IRC bots. I could also try and port the widget to XenPorta if that would be useful.​

 

[topcat]

I would be interested

So could this display current irc users in the xenforo sidebar?

I use eggdrop bot in my irc, I presume with this i would need to use an additional bot in my channel.

I found this as I was looking to see if there was anyway of having latest threads posted in an irc channel via a bot.

There's actually quite a lot I would like to have linked to the forum but I don't have the knowhow

 

[Teapot]

So could this display current irc users in the xenforo sidebar?

Indeed - the widget's a Widget Framework widget tied to a small addon, so it acts just like any other widget would.

I use eggdrop bot in my irc, I presume with this i would need to use an additional bot in my channel.

As I mentioned, I'd be happy to provide an Eggdrop plugin if I could get one working - the concept is very simple, so it should be doable. Although I personally use a Supybot, there's nothing on the XF end that cares what bot's producing the list. The upshot of all that is that you should just be able to install a plugin into your existing bot.

I found this as I was looking to see if there was anyway of having latest threads posted in an irc channel via a bot.

There's actually quite a lot I would like to have linked to the forum but I don't have the knowhow.

Not strictly related, but I have my bot posting news from my forum through a generic RSS reader bot plugin, which could easily be pointed at the global RSS feed - although a more comprehensive, XF-based integration is something I'd be interested in producing sometime down the line. Mind you, I wouldn't hold your breath for it anytime soon as I have a lot of bespoke stuff I'm already in the process of coding . Right now the add-on is literally a widget, but more comprehensive IRC integration would be something that I'd be very interested in looking into. What else do you think would prove useful to an XF forum in terms of IRC bot integration?

 

[topcat]

If you could get the eggdrop to work I would like it

you probably think this is pointless lol but,

Ideally my channel would be invite only so only members of the forum would be able to enter. its password protected but if anyone knows the password or banned members etc can still join

I would like to create a custom profile field called irc key where members put a password in there.

basically members of my forum would need to use this key to enter the IRC channel

eg.

/msg botname invite <password in the profile>

Then members cant enter unless the nickname and irc key match

 

[Sway]

Oh i like this. I use irc often to communicate with plugin developers, and that's usually the only place you can find me if you really need something. I'd love to get my members into our irc channel. This may help with that.

Would it be possible to get this working on Xenporta or do we need the widget framework?

 

[RobParker]

Xehabla supports this on xenporta doesn't it?

 

[Teapot]

Would it be possible to get this working on Xenporta or do we need the widget framework?

I'm sure I can make it into a XenPorta widget for you if that'd be easier - the underlying code doesn't care how the widget itself is coded. Do you have an IRC bot already? If you don't, you'd need one for this to work, for which you'll need an always-on server somewhere that doesn't mind you running an IRC bot. You also need to make sure your network allows bots, so be sure to check your MOTD or network rules before deploying one. And when that's all said and done, I'd recommend you use (because this add-on is coded for) a Supybot or a variant - the one I use is Limnoria.

Xehabla supports this on xenporta doesn't it?

It does, but only if your channel is on GeekShed and using the Flash chat; my channel is neither. Hence the IRC bot solution. Because none of the integration works, XenHabla isn't particularly useful to me - I'd rather just use a XenForo page for now.

Either way, it's nice to see some interest in this. I'll try and make some time to clean this up, package it, and release it soon.

 

[Sway]

-Snip-

Esper does allow use of bots, but they must be voiced. I do not currently have a bot in my channel, but i can add one just for this.

 

[topcat]

As mentioned I have my own server and i have a bot using eggdrop. Would be great if you could do this for eggdrop

 

[StarArmy]

I'm interested in this too.

 

[dehness]

Did anything ever come of this?

 

[topcat]

nope: I wanted it developing for eggdrop bot and offered to pay for a custom mod making, we agree a price and then nothing was ever made