Goverflow: a twitter bot to power @goverflow

Searches the StackExchange API and tweets new questions.

You need a twitter account and you need to create a new App https://apps.twitter.com/.

You do NOT need a StackExchange account. The search API can be used up to 300 request per 24h. That means to check every 288 seconds for new questions.

Binaries: https://github.com/SchumacherFM/goverflow/releases

What can I search on the StackExchange API?

Please see https://api.stackexchange.com/docs/search

config.json file

{
	"host": "https://api.stackexchange.com",
	"apiVersion": "2.2",
	"searchParams":	"order=desc&sort=creation&tagged=go&site=stackoverflow",
	"twitterConfigFile": "config.twitter.json",
	"tweetTplFile": "tweet.tpl.txt"
}

Leave host and apiVersion unchanged or you know what you are doing.

searchParams is the string which you can generate here

fromDate not listed in the config.json file but this parameter will be set automatically from goverflow.

twitterConfigFile path to your twitter config file where all the API keys are stored.

tweetTplFile path to your twitter template file. All useful variable are already in the template. There are more. Have a look in seapi/resources.go. Make sure the template is within a tweet length. URLs are automatically converted to a t.co URLs which are at the moment 20 character long.

config.twitter.json

{
	"consumerKey": "12lljBydHmwOoObZuvRUfh9AP",
	"consumerSecret": "twH61R4fDGBP32PL0XyUQnwGbvZKH9euH3en0TRDJpRMNt6FOT",
	"accessToken": "2255586299-AgR4i7hE3D0SVMZkw3YQVl54XZ7I8g238LCJTYv",
	"accessTokenSecret": "Fz3O1HJEttYHwxSs8PnoN84TJKehudvXn7iLw31rjIVc4"
}

Your personal tokens can be generated at https://dev.twitter.com/

ProTip: You have to provide your mobile phone number for write access to the API. In some countries (like in Australia) it is not possible to enter your phone number in the web interface and get a verification. So turn on your iOS, BB or Android device, add your new/existing twitter account and also add there your mobile phone number. You will receive a SMS verification code and your done. Switch to the dev.twitter.com website and generate your new tokens. Enter those tokens into this file.

Of course those API keys above are my original ones ;-)

tweet.tpl.txt

{{.Title}}
{{.Link}}
#golang

You can replace the hash tag with any other wordings. Stick to the max length of a tweet like described in section tweetTplFile.

For advanced templating please a look here: http://golang.org/pkg/text/template/

Run

$ ./goverflow
NAME:
   goverflow - Searches the stackexchange API and tweets new questions. App runs in the background or daemon.

USAGE:
   goverflow [global options] command [command options] [arguments...]

VERSION:
   0.x.x

COMMANDS:
   run, r	Run the goverflow app in the current working directory. `help run` for more information
   help, h	Shows a list of commands or help for one command

GLOBAL OPTIONS:
   --help, -h		show help
   --version, -v	print the version

$ ./goverflow help run
NAME:
   run - Run the goverflow app in the current working directory. `help run` for more information

USAGE:
   command run [command options] [arguments...]

OPTIONS:
   --seconds, -s '288'			Sleep duration in Seoncds, recommended: (3600*24)/300; quota is 300 queries / day
   --logLevel, -l '0'			0 Debug, 1 Info, 2 Notice -> 7 Emergency
   --logFile, -f 			Log to file or if empty to os.Stderr
   --configFile, -c 'config.json'	The JSON config file

To run it in the background on any *nix system:

$ ./goverflow run -f mylog.log &

Build

Using https://github.com/laher/goxc

Setup go/src for darwin, linux and windows http://dave.cheney.net/2013/07/09/an-introduction-to-cross-compilation-with-go-1-1

Run make build.

Contributing

If you see something say something or better send me a PR or open an issue :-)

As my Golang coding skills are below Junior level I highly appreciate short comments, fixes, etc.

License

General Public License

http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

Author

Cyrill Schumacher - My pgp public key

@SchumacherFM

Made in Sydney, Australia :-)

If you consider a donation please contribute to: http://www.seashepherd.org/