Google talk: Conference bot

About

The google talk conference bot was written by me to address the lack of MUC server for google talk. Without s2s I couldn't run my own MUC server, so I wrote something similar. A conference bot.

The conference bot works runs as a normal google talk user that relays everything said to it to everyone on its contact list. It supports some simple commands (like )names), and has a basic admin interface to deal with abusers. The bot is written in python, and is tested under Linux, although apparently it works fine under Windows too.

Commands

This is a list of commands supported by the bot. You can use "/" or ")" to prefix commands. Some clients use "/" internally for their own commands.

)help: This shows a list of the commands you hava available to you
/me emote: This command can be used to show an emote. For example, /me sighs appears to other users as * yournick sighs
)quit message: This command removes you from the bots contact list, and therefore removes you from the conversation. A message can be used to show people why you left.
)msg person message: This command lets you send a private message to another user. For example to tell Isomer that he is cool you would use )msg Isomer You are cool
)names: This command lists all the users in the conferencebot's buddy list, effectly showing everyone who is in the conference. Admins have a "@" before their name, and users who are away are in brackets and appear at the end of the list

There are some admin commands that can be used to control the bot.

Bots

Account Name	Topic	Last Seen Active^*	Users	Version
ewucan@gmail.com	egu	29 minutes ago	2/14	1.31
www.crystalrays.org@gmail.com	Welcome to http://www.crystalrays.org/forum	31 minutes ago	19/342	1.31
zodiacchatonline@gmail.com	ZoidacCyberCafe	1 hours 26 minutes ago	24/5023	1.31
gggrouphunan@gmail.com	google group in hunan	3 hours 2 minutes ago	5/15	1.31
group.shell@gmail.com	message	5 hours 52 minutes ago	3/41	1.31
mmcptcplayers@gmail.com	Myanmar Cupid Torncity Players	10 hours 25 minutes ago	2/92	1.31
idshare@gmail.com	火狐世纪Googletalk分群	11 hours 30 minutes ago	8/415	161
chenxing.tech@gmail.com	晨星科技	17 hours 11 minutes ago	4	1.31
fffan.tuan@gmail.com	private	17 hours 18 minutes ago	1/22	1.31
ShiyuChat@gmail.com	Chat Group	18 hours 34 minutes ago	1/15	1.31
trainee.cdpgroupltd@gmail.com	Life in 2009	19 hours 26 minutes ago	2/24	1.31
my8themail@gmail.com	test message	20 hours 58 minutes ago	1/90	1.31
homoloffice@gmail.com	homolo office	21 hours 11 minutes ago	1/4	1.31
group0755@gmail.com	shuishen31@gmail.com	1 days 21 minutes ago	3/26	1.31
autobot@flashbangstudios.com	Flashbang Automation	1 days 12 hours 9 minutes ago	2	1.6
Mistruster@gmail.com	Mistruster Application Inc.	1 days 18 hours 19 minutes ago	8	1.31
flash.flex.py@gmail.com	This chat group is the sister of "FLASH,FLEX,PS,JS,PY" which hold by "Jiu-Jiu"	1 days 23 hours 56 minutes ago	3	1.9.2
italianbot@gmail.com	test bot	2 days 13 hours 6 minutes ago	1/60	1.31
wxfgroup@gmail.com	wxf friends group	2 days 13 hours 20 minutes ago	1/6	1.31

^* Activity is only checked every 4 hours.

Download

The bot is available under the GPL. To configure it you need to make sure you have a copy of python installed. Then download the latest version. Then run the "confbot.py" script. The bot will prompt you for the bots gmail account name and password, as well as a topic to describe the bot. Then it should all be working! You might want to edit the confbot.ini file later to change some of the settings.

Note when upgrading to 1.6: You will need to delete your confbot.ini file and let the bot generate you a new one.

conferencebot is also available in subversion

Changelog

1.28

Version 1.28 was primarily done by limodou.

Add listemotes command
Add addemote <action> <representation> command
Add setoption <option> value command you can control private, hide_status, debug, topic, sysprompt
Add listoptions
Add delemote <emote> command
Add lang <language> command to switch native lanauge for one user
Add switch multilang functionality on the fly
Add logfileformat option, so you can put one day log into one file
Add listlangs command shows available translation languages, en is default
Add restart command
logfile can be create new file as day past by
Remove listadmins and listbans command, because /names is ok
Add status command, so you can set bot's status
Fix bugs
Change restart to reconnect, it's more clearly
Change some command according to IRC: status->whois, nochat->away
Change away command just like irc, if has a msg, add 'away' flag to user, if no msg, remove 'away' flag
Add mode command to set some option, just like skip system prompt /mode +s On /mode -s Off
Redesign the process of /help command, make cmd_x function docstring in help infomation
Add auto reconnect mechanism as network delay is too long
Change Config4Obj to dict4ini
Add the bot start time in logfile
Auto send bot status per 2 minitues
Resume the /nochat and /chat command for convenience
If someone has set his flag 'away', but as he send a message to bot, the 'away' flag will be auto removed
Versioning system changed to use subversion repository $Revision$ instead of the releases. This should make it easier to keep up.

1.6

Version 1.6 was done by limodou.

Feature: Multilanguage support
Feature: Add debug flag
Feature: Add logpath option
Feature: Add language option
Feature: Add emotes option
Feature: Add Chinese translation po file
Feature: Add sysprompt option and add systoone systoall function
Feature: Add super admin flag
Feature: Add 'nochat' flag
Feature: Add /chat /nochat /status /version command
Feature: Redesign the configuration system

1.5

Bug fix: Don't crash when creating the initial config file
Feature: Add support for hide_status updates (away, available etc)

1.4

Bug fix: Don't turn the conference room private all the time!
Feature: Reload the config with )reload. The idea was given to me by http://www.donews.net/limodou

1.3

Bug fix: When people remove the bot from their roster, remove them from the bots roster too!
Feature: Display the topic when users join.
Feature: Don't hardcode @gmail.com so much, use "server".
Feature: Show the last 5 lines when people join.
Bug fix: "has left" should be prefixed by ***
Feature: New Configuration system.
Configuration is now kept in an .ini file, instead of the confbot.py. If the .ini file is not found the bot will ask you some questions on startup to create it. Older adminlist files are automagically converted.
Feature: Bans added
Feature: Private rooms added
Feature: invite admin command added
Feature: Log file now called "xmpp.log" rather than "xmllog"
Bug fix: The bot will now warn you if you are away, and you send a message to the conference.
Feature: Change ")help" to just )help to see if more people understand what's going on.

1.2

The bot now correctly answers google's health check. This means that the bot won't time out after 5 minutes of inactivity.
The usual minor bug fixes

Google Talk: Conference Bot