Eggdrop Tcl Archive

Extended Description File

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 :::: /________\ ::::: [alice.tcl] ::::::

 alice.tcl v1.4.0 - by strikelight ([sL] @ EFNet) (March 2, 2004)

 =-=-=-=-=
 Contents:
 =-=-=-=-=

 1....contact.................contact information
 2....description.............about alice.tcl
 3....requirements............minimum eggdrop requirements
 4....installation............how to install the script
 5....usage...................how to use the script
 6....history.................changes made to script
 7....variable settings.......variable configuration descriptions
 8....faq.....................frequently asked questions
 9....greetings...............greetings and salutations

 =-=-=-=-=-=
 1. Contact:
 =-=-=-=-=-=

 - E-Mail: strikelight@<no_spamorama>tclscript.com
 - WWW   : http://www.TCLScript.com
 - IRC   : #Scripting @ EFNet

 Note: DO NOT CONTACT ME IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE ENTIRE
       CONTENTS OF THIS README FILE. ANY MAILS THAT ARE ANSWERED
       IN THIS FILE WILL BE IGNORED. BE WARNED. I DO NOT HAVE
       TOLERANCE FOR THE LAZY.


 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 2. Description:
 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

 This is a TCL to turn your bot into an artificially intelligent
 chatterbot.

 This is done via communication with a web engine (which does all
 of the real work) which is located at http://www.alicebot.org
 (not just alicebot.org anymore, since 1.1.0, other alice-engines
  are now used as well, depending on user's choice.)
 Since v1.2.0, the user may choose to use the console line 
 program instead of the web interfacing (which can be obtained
 from http://hippie.sf.net).

 On a side note, the communication with web engines can be thought
 of as using your eggdrop bot as a web browser, it is no different
 then if one was actually at the webpage with IE, Netscape, or such.
 There is simply a bit more interpretation done by this script
 to make the content actually viewable for the medium (IRC) it is
 being used on.

 
 =-=-=-=--=-=-=-=
 3. Requirements:
 =-=-=-=--=-=-=-=

 1) Eggdrop1.1.5-Eggdrop1.6.x
 2) egghttp.tcl v1.0.3 or higher (TO BE LOADED BEFORE THIS SCRIPT!!)
    -OR- bgexec.tcl v1.1 or higher if using Hippie command line
    interface

 =-=-=-=--=-=-=-=
 4. Installation:
 =-=-=-=--=-=-=-=

 Place script in your scripts directory
 Edit the Configuration options at the top of the script
 Add the line: source scripts/alice.tcl to your eggdrop config
   (See Note)
 Note: !! _AFTER_ THE LINE THAT LOADS EGGHTTP.TCL or BGEXEC.TCL !!
 Done.


 =-=-=-=-=
 5. Usage:
 =-=-=-=-=

 1) Message the bot and start conversing with it ..or..
 2) Say the bot's name in a (defined) channel along with some text
    and converse away from there
 3) Depending on configuration, bot's name may or may not be
    required at all times to get a response from it in channel.
 4) To have the bot stop talking to you in channel, tell it to
    "be quiet", or "shut up", or something along those lines.
      (seriously)


 =-=-=-=-=-=
 6. History:
 =-=-=-=-=-=
 (3/2/04)/v1.4.0   - Fixed a bug with timer calls
                   - Fixed communication with all of the
                     pre-programmed alice_engines
                   - Added alice_ignoreprivate variable to stop the
		     bot from responding to messages that start with
                     words defined in this variable
                   - Added alice_ignorepublic variable to stop the
                     bot from responding to channel text that start
		     with words defined in this variable
                   - Added runabot.com as an alice_engine, which
		     uses AOL Instant messanger AI Bots
                   - Added variable alice_relaypriv, which will
		     display to the partyline what the bot is
                     saying to a user in private chat
                   - Other small fixes

 (6/1/03)/v1.3.0   - Fixed communication with alice_engine's 0,3,4
                   - Added pandorabot's engine, which users can use
                     to setup and configure their own server engine
		     (www.pandorabots.com -> MUST use the included
                     template html file though!)
                   - Added dcc command '.flushcookies' to expunge
                     engine cookies for all stored users.

 (10/14/02)/v1.2.3 - Fixed communication with alice_engine #4 again
                     (hippie.sourceforge.net). (Added option to
                     manually set url variable for this engine if
		     url changes)
                   - Added info about using Hippie command line
                     interface to the FAQ section of this file
                     (Thanks to Spider)

 (10/7/02)/v1.2.2  - Fixed communication with alice_engine #4
                     (now: lol.afraid.org)
                   - Moved engine #'s around a bit to facilitate
		     an addition
                   - Added option to have bot communicate with your
		     own Hippie CGI interface

 (9/20/02)/v1.2.1  - Fixed communication with alice_engine #4
                     (neodave.civ.pl)
                   - Fixed problem with talking to bots with
                     special characters in their nicks in channels

 (9/16/02)/v1.2.0  - The Hippie (Program-C) Alice project has been
                     brought up to AIML 1.x specification, so this
                     script now allows you to use the hippie
                     command line interpretter instead of having to
                     communicate over the web if you don't wish to,
                     you can grab Hippie from
		     http://hippie.sourceforge.net
                     New variables related to usage of hippie
                     command line executable: alice_hippie_path ,
		     alice_hippie_inipath , alice_hippie_logpath
                     There is an irc_alice.tcl that can be used
                     with Hippie, but it lacks the features that
		     this alice.tcl provides.
                     Note: Usage of Hippie command line executable
                           means that alice.tcl does NOT require
                           egghttp.tcl, however, bgexec.tcl IS
                           needed to communicate with the program
			   in non-blocking mode.  This can be
			   obtained from the same location as
                           egghttp.tcl: www.TCLScript.com
                   - Added new channel flag for eggdrop versions
		     1.5.x and higher: +/-alice, which means the
                     bot will respond to people who mention its
                     name in +alice channels
		     (.chanset #channel +alice  or
                      .chanset #channel -alice  to turn off)
                   - Added logging of conversations with bot:
                     New variables: alice_logging ,
		                    alice_log_path
                   - Added neodave.civ.pl (Hippie) alice engine
		     server
                   - Added a program E (Phillip) alice engine
		     server
                   - Removed the harvard sofia alice engine
                   - Fixed communication with server 0
		     (alicebot.org)

 (7/24/02)/v1.1.4  - Changed egghttp version requirement to v1.0.3
                     as there was a problem if you specified your
                     own programD server and were using a TCL 
                     version higher than 8.0
                   - Updated FAQ a bit

 (7/7/02)/v1.1.3   - Fixed output replies from the Jaczone engine

 (7/1/02)/v1.1.2   - Strip mIRC codes before sending text to server
                     (Thanks to Wcc for the short regsub line to
		      do so)

 (6/27/02)/v1.1.1  - Alice-Engine #0 (alicebot.org) should work
                     again (until they change something else
		     anyways...)
                   - Added a small bit of text to the FAQ

 (6/18/02)/v1.1.0  - New features.. skipped releasing 1.0.4 to
                     public
                   - Can now choose which site to use as its
		     alice-engine
                   - Two new variable settings:
                     1) alice_respondwithnick -> whether or not to
                          always respond with a user's nick
                     2) alice_respondrequirenick -> whether or not
                          bot's nick is always required to be said
                          for it to respond to a user.
                   - Bit more documentation included now (FAQ)

 (6/14/02)/v1.0.4  - Ok, I lied, no new features this version...
                   - Let's ignore msg commands (ie. passwords)
                   - Bug fix.. rogue 'return' statement outside
		     of proc

 (6/13/02)/v1.0.3  - Fixed up strip_html procedure
                     (Next release should include new features)

 (5/22/02)/v1.0.2  - Fixed problem with &amp; html code
                   - Fixed a caching cookie problem

 (5/14/02)/v1.0.1  - Fixed typo for required egghttp.tcl
                     version (1.0.0)
                   - Let's not let the bot have a conversation
		     with itself or other bots for that matter
                   - Update a user's cookies timestamp so they
                     won't be expired for not being used

 (5/13/02)/v1.0.0  - Initial Release


 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 7. Variable Settings:
 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

 alice_cookiesfile
 - File to save alice-engine web cookies to

 alice_cookiesexpire
 - Define the number of days of inactivity at which cookies
   will expire

 alice_respondpriv
 - Allows or disallows your bot from responding to private
   messages (0 = No, 1 = Yes)

 alice_respondchan
 - Allows or disallows your bot from responding to public
   channel messages when its nick is mentioned (0 = No, 1 = Yes)

 alice_respondrequirenick
 - If alice_respondchan is set to 1, this will require (or not
   require) that the bot's nick be mentioned in all lines of a
   conversation by a user after the initial conversation
   engagement. (0 = No, 1 = Yes)

 alice_respondwithnick
 - If alice_respondchan is set to 1, to prevent confusion, you may
   turn this feature on, to have the bot respond with the user's
   nick that it is speaking to. (0 = No, 1 = Yes)

 alice_channels
 - If alice_respondchan is set to 1, define the channels that the
   bot will engage conversations in. Separate multiple channels
   with a space, or use "*" for all channels.

 alice_timeoutchat
 - If alice_respondchan is set to 1, define the number of minutes
   that the bot will wait for user's text in a channel after the
   first contact has been made, before giving up on the
   conversation.

 alice_logging
 - If alice_logging is set to 1, logs will be kept of
   conversations with your bot in a location you specify
   in the next variable setting.

 alice_log_path
 - If alice_logging is set to 1, set this variable to the location
   of where you want to store the log files.  Note: The path must
   already exist.  Also, you must place the trailing / at the end.

 alice_engine
 - Define the engine to use to power the bot's responses
   This list is:
   0 = www.alicebot.org       (Alice)
   1 = www.agentruby.com      (Ruby)
   2 = www.tfxsoft.com        (A program-E server)
   3 = www.jaczone.com        (Cyber-Ivar)
   4 = your own Aine CGI server
   5 = Your own program-D Alice Server
   6 = Your own program-C CGI (Hippie CGI) Alice Server
   7 = Your own actual Hippie program-C Alice command line
       interface
   8 = Your own engine hosted at www.pandorabots.com
   9 = A runabot.com AOL Instant Messenger bot web interface
       (www.runabot.com)

   For #4, you may download the software for such a server from
   http://www.bitesizeinc.net/index.php/ainebot.html
   As for setting up the cgi script, I leave that to you
   and the docs that come with the software you download.
   I did NOT write it, so do NOT contact me for help with it.

   For #5, you may download the software for such a server from
   http://www.alicebot.org, and while it does provide an IRC client
   as well as the web server, the IRC client lacks many features of
   a typical eggdrop, thus not making it very useful.
   As for setting up the server if you choose #5, I leave that to
   you and the docs that come with the software you download. I
   did NOT write it, so do NOT contact me for help with that.

   For #6 and #7, you may download the software for the hippie
   command line engine from http://hippie.sourceforge.net, and
   while it may or may not come with a file called irc_alice.tcl
   to use with eggdrop, it lacks the features that this script
   provides. As for installing the software, read the documentation
   that comes with Hippie.  If you still have problems setting
   Hippie up, do NOT contact me, as I did not write the Hippie
   software.
   
   For #8, you may sign up for a free account to host your engine
   at http://www.pandorabots.com.  However, to allow it to work
   with this script, you will have to configure your engine there
   to use the included alice.html file that came with this
   alice.tcl distribution.  I leave it up to you to figure out
   how to do this. (It's not that hard, just read the configuration
   pages).

   For #9, you may sign up and download their software so that
   alice.tcl can communicate with your AI AOL bot through the
   web.  You will then need to provide the url to the alice_url
   variable by first looking at the html source for your bot's
   html chat page
      http://www.runabot.com/cgi-bin/webcom/caim?botname=(your bot)
   and finding a url that starts with:
      http://www.runabot.com/perl/webcaim/(numbers here)
   You must then add on to the end of that the following:
      &botname=(your bot)

 alice_url
 - If you choose #4, #5, #6, #8, or #9 for the alice_engine, then
   enter the url to where you set it up, for this variable.

 alice_hippie_path
 - If you choose #7 for the alice_engine, then enter the path on
   your shell to where you have installed the Hippie command line
   program.

 alice_hippie_inipath
 - If you choose #7 for the alice_engine, then enter the path on
   your shell to where the alice.ini file is located after you
   have installed Hippie.

 alice_hippie_logpath
 - If you choose #7 for the alice_engine, then enter the path on
   your shell to the location where the Hippie engine stores data
   on users it converses with.
   Note: You must enter the trailing / at the end.
 
 alice_ignoreprivate
 - Have the bot ignore private messages that start with the words
   defined in this variable

 alice_ignorepublic
 - Have the bot ignore public chat that starts with the words
   defined in this variable

 alice_relaypriv
 - Relay the responses the bot sends to a user in private messages
   to the partyline

 =-=-=-=
 8. FAQ:
 =-=-=-=

 1) Q: Where can I download egghttp.tcl or bgexec.tcl?
    A: http://www.TCLScript.com -- in the projects section

 2) Q: Why don't I get any response from my bot when I message it?
    A: 1) You didn't load egghttp.tcl BEFORE loading alice.tcl in
          your eggdrop config file
       2) The alice-engine you are using may be down. Try choosing
          another engine to power your bot's responses.
          (variable setting: alice_engine)
       3) The box your bot is on may be behind a firewall or router
          In which case, you might not be able to use alice.tcl
          with your bot, sorry.
       If the box your bot is running on is behind a
       firewall/router, 
       DO NOT ASK ME FOR HELP WITH IT!
     
 3) Q: Why do I keep getting 'I am restarting. Just a minute' as a
       response?
    A: Problems with the website that powers the script.
       This is beyond my control, so deal with it.

 4) Q: How do I set up my own alice-engine web server?
    A: Go to http://www.alicebot.org and read everything there and
       download the software from there as well.  Beyond that,
       I can not help you.  Look at the contact information in the
       software you download from there if you need assistance.
       Do NOT email -me- asking to help you set it up.

 5) Q: I'm having problems using alice.tcl with the hippie command
       line interface, any suggestions?
    A: Apparently, hippie will crash if the executable,logs,data
       files are not relative to the eggdrop path itself, so try
       putting (or installing) the hippie files in the eggdrop
       directory.

 6) Q: I'm using engine #4 (hippie.sourceforge.net) and it doesn't
       seem to be working?
    A: Try visitting http://hippie.sourceforge.net and find the
       link to the hippie web interface, and try setting the
       alice_url variable to this in the configuration section of
       the script. If there is still a problem, you will have to
       wait for an updated release of alice.tcl.

 7) Q: I can message my bot and it will respond, but when I try to
       talk to it in a channel, it doesn't respond.
    A: You did NOT read what the comments above the settings stated
       They stated: "If using eggdrop1.5.x or higher, then use
       .chanset #channel +alice , do NOT set the channels in
       this variable".  Enough said.

 8) Q: I've switched engines, and now the bot won't respond, what
       should I do?
    A: First, try using the partyline command: .flushcookies to
       clear out all stored cookies for users associated with the
       old engine. If that doesn't work, then the engine you have
       switched to probably isn't working, in which case,
       change to another engine.

 9) Q: I think I have found a bug that isn't addressed here, what
       should I do?
    A: First, check the website (www.TCLScript.com) for the latest
       version, and also check the news box on the main page.
       If the problem still persists and you are positive it isn't
       addressed in any of the formentioned locations,
       then you may e-mail me.


 =-=-=-=-=-=-=
 9. Greetings:
 =-=-=-=-=-=-=

 - Alybe, Auriga, BarkerJr, guppy, hellios, jam, MC_8, mikee,
   MORA, Mosher, oiad, Pixelz, PPSlim, prefect, raeky, simon,
   Tala, user, Wcc


 WARNING: Again, DO NOT EMAIL ME IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE ENTIRE
          README FILE. ANY QUESTIONS ASKED THAT ARE ANSWERED ABOVE
          WILL BE IGNORED.  I HAVE NO TOLERANCE FOR THE LAZY.
	  ENJOY.