andrewthetechie/err-topic-a-day

An errbot plugin to post a topic a day to a channel for discussion

err-topic-a-day

An errbot plugin to post a topic a day to a channel for discussion

Configuration

topic-a-day reads its config from a combination of environment variables and config files. This is due to the complexity of expressing some config options as env variable strings.

Config options:

• TAD_CHANNEL: str, channel name to use as your topic channel
• TAD_SCHEDULE: str, schedule to post on, expressed as a crontab. This uses apscheduler, which starts its cron day counts on monday, rather than sunday
• TAD_APSCHEDULER_CONFIG_FILE: str, optional. Path to a config file for AP Scheduler's config. If left blank, we setup a basic, working config
• TAD_TZ: What timezone to set. Only used if TAD_APSCHEDULER_CONFIG_FILE is false.
• TAD_ENABLE_WEBHOOK: bool, default false. If enabled, use a webhook + curl to perform posting. Allows using the AP scheduler sqlalchemy backend
• TAD_WEBHOOK_URL, str, url for the Topic a day webhook. Defaults to localhost:3142/post_topic_rpc
• AUTH_POST_WEBHOOK: bool, default True. If true, webhook only works if auth'd properly
• AUTH_POST_WEBHOOK_TOKEN: str, default generated token. The token for our webhook auth

err-topic-a-day's Issues

Can't update topic if bot isn't in the channel

Should notify admins or automatically join the channel so it can post

List shows topics having been posted on "None"

Previously posted topics:
bc19ea2a: What compliment do you still remember being given? -- Posted on None
a05ca71e: What makes a good neighbor? -- Posted on None
1452e8d4: What positive things happened because of COVID-19? This can to be you personally or to society -- Posted on None
ab7e1753: What is something that you find unforgiveable? -- Posted on None
633710b9: What is your favorite word or catch phrase? -- Posted on None
0ffebee2: What is your favorite meme? -- Posted on None
47d8035f: Who was your celebrity crush growing up? -- Posted on None
5b7c408e: Is a hot dog a taco? -- Posted on None

Write better Config Validation

The config validation method could use some love

Add unit tests

This plugin needs unit tests.

https://errbot.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user_guide/plugin_development/testing.html

Make this plugin less dependent on Slack features

This plugin would only work with the Errbot Slack backend. Make it more general so that it can be used with other chat system back ends.

Bot spams channel if there's an issue

Had an issue where the bot was not in the channel. I investigated about 12 hours later, moved the bot into the slack channel, and it proceeded to spam a bunch of topic changes.

Investigate why this happened and fix it.

Add admin approval system for adding topics

It would be great if anyone can add a topic, but only admins can approve them to be posted

Add documentation

This needs a readme!

Come up with a better topic storage system

Currently we use my hacky implementation on top of errbot's storage. This could be replaced by something much better. Consider using an orm that can use sqlite as well as other external databases.