tellybot

jstott.me.uk > TellyBot

TellyBot is an IRC bot that provides an interface to TV listings information from an IRC channel. It currently allows you to search for programmes, find out about programmes and set reminders for programmes. It uses Paul Mutton's PircBot package.

Bear in mind that TellyBot is still in development, so check back often for updates. To contact me about TellyBot, send an e-mail to tellybot@jstott.me.uk.

The current version of TellyBot is 0.1 (14th April 2004). This is a work in progress release and not everything is guaranteed to work!

How to Run TellyBot

First off, you need to use an XMLTV grabber to generate an XML file in XMLTV format. See http://membled.com/work/apps/xmltv/ to download the XMLTV grabbers. Alternatively, I have put a sample XMLTV file here - I can't promise that I will keep it updated at the moment, so use it at your own risk as the listings schedule will eventually expire. Once you have your XML file you need to upload it to a web server somewhere (local access will be added later!). You will then need to download PircBot from http://www.jibble.org/pircbot. Then, assuming that pircbot.jar and tellybot-0.1.jar are in the current directory, run the following command:

java -cp pircbot.jar;tellybot-0.1.jar
     uk.me.jstott.tellybot.Main
     -n <botname>
     -s <server>
     -c <channel>
     -r <reminder_file>
     -x <xml_url>
     -m<max_results>

where botname is the name of the bot, server is the URL of the server to join, channel is the name of the channel to join, reminder_file is the path and filename of the file to store reminders in, xml_url is the URL to the XMLTV file and max_results is the maximum number of search results to return from searches (keep this reasonably low in order to stop TellyBot from flooding the channel).

TellyBot commands

Here is a list of commands that TellyBot understands:

about - Display the current version number for TellyBot.
help - Display the list of commands that TellyBot understands.
channels - Display a list of all the channels that TellyBot knows about.
find <string> - Search programme titles and descriptions for the search string.
info <result> - After doing a search, this will display detailed information for the specified search result.
now <channel|all> - If a channel is specified, TellyBot will display the next four programmes on that channel. If "all" is specified then TellyBot will display the next four channels on all the channels that it knows about.
remind <result> - After doing a search, this will set a reminder so that TellyBot will remind you to watch the specified search result.
when <string> - Similar to find but only returns programmes whose title exactly matches string.

Requirements

Java v1.4.2
PircBot v1.4.0

Version History

0.1 - 14th April 2004
- Initial Version.

Licensing and Warranty

This software product is available under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Source code and documentation are provided in the jar file and on the website.

This software is provided without warranty of any kind and I cannot be held responsible for any loss occured by errors in the software.