Gilfoyle

Gilfoyle is a helpful chat bot that lives in the Prairie Tech Slack instance.

What is Gilfoyle?

Gilfoyle is written in Coffeescript on node.js. He is based on the Hubot framework originally written by Github.

What can Gilfoyle do?

Gilfoyle can do a few things out of the box like posting images, and following people on twitter, but the real fun happens when you add your own scripts.

Gilfoyle could be programmed to do all sorts of things:

• Update JIRA issues
• Deploy to prod
• Check the bus schedule for you
• Tell you if its raining outside
• Take a food order for your team

The possibilities are endless!

How do I write my own scripts?

It's easy to get started, follow the hello world example below

Dependencies

• Node.js (version 0.10+)

Get the Code

• Fork the repository to your own github account
• Clone the repo from your local fork to your machine

Hack on the code

• Before you begin, you need to know that whitespace matters in coffeescript!
• Open up src/jokes.coffee.
• In the below code, when someone says @gilfoyle i am tired, he will respond with Have a coffee ☕️.

module.exports = (robot) ->
  robot.respond /i am tired/i, (msg) ->
    msg.send "Have a coffee :coffee:"

• Let's add to the script below. We'll add a listener so that when Gilfoyle hears anyone say McDonalds, he will insist that he needs a big mac.

module.exports = (robot) ->
  robot.respond /i am tired/i, (msg) ->
    msg.send "Have a coffee :coffee:"
    
  robot.hear /mcdonalds/i, (msg) ->
    msg.reply "Ooh! get me a big mac!"

• There are 2 different ways Gilfoyle can 'listen' for commands

  • robot.respond - Gilfoyle will be triggered only when his name is mentioned before the command.
  • robot.hear - Gilfoyle will be triggered by simply hearing the command.

• There are 2 different ways Gilfoyle can 'respond' to commands

  • msg.reply - Gilfoyle will reply to the user in the room.
  • msg.send - Gilfoyle will give a generic reply in the room.

• Let's test out our new commands before committing our code. Run Gilfoyle locally with bin/hubot

gilfoyle> gilfoyle i am tired                                                                                                          
Have a coffee :coffee:                                                                                                       

gilfoyle> @John, do you want to go get McDonalds?                                                                                      
Shell: Ooh! get me a big mac!      

• After you are satisfied with your new command, commit the code, and push it to your fork.
• Create a pull request to have your new code be merged back into this repository.
• Profit!!

3rd party scripts

• The Hubot scripting community is full of awesome scripts that are easy to install and have great functionality.
• You can browse hubot scripts here

Installing a 3rd party script

• We'll walkthrough the steps we need to install a 3rd party script called hubot-pwned
• Fork this Gilfoyle repo (if you haven't already) and clone it to your local machine
• Install the hubot-pwned script and save it to package.json

npm install hubot-pwned --save

• Add hubot-pwned to the array in external-scripts.json

[
  "hubot-pwned"
]

• Let's test out the new script we just added. Run Gilfoyle with bin/hubot

gilfoyle> has [email protected] been pwned?                                                                                                  
gilfoyle> Yes, [email protected] has been pwned :sob:
000webhost.com
acne.org
adobe.com
dropbox.com

• Commit the code, and push it to your fork of the Gilfoyle repo.
• Create a pull request to have your new code be merged back into this repository.

A note about 3rd party scripts:

Some scripts need environment variables set for API keys or other secrets. If you want to install a scripts that has special requirements, reach out to the #chatops channel in the Prairie Tech Slack Instance and someone there can help you out.

Testing

You are encouraged, but not required, to write tests for your contributions to this bot. Tests are located in the test directory and you can run them with npm run test

$ npm run test

  jokes hubot script
    i am tired
      ✓ should respond with caffeine
    mcdonalds
      ✓ should insist a big mac is delivered
  
  2 passing (16ms)

For more info on testing Hubot, you can check out the following resources:

• Testing Hubot Scripts - Article by Andrew Mussey
• hubot-test-helper npm package
• Testing a listener code example
• Mocking external HTTP calls code example

What's next?

• Check out the Hubot scripting guide for more details on how to get more out of your scripts.
• Check out the scripts directory to see more examples.

Need help?

There are a few ways to get assistance:

• Create a Github Issue.
• Reach out to the #chatops channel in the Prairie Tech Slack Instance
• Ask Gilfoyle for help:

gilfoyle> @gilfoyle help                                                                                                                                                              
gilfoyle echo <text> - Reply back with <text>                                                                                                                                         
gilfoyle follow <@user> - gilfoyle will follow the specified twitter user and post to the current channel                                                                             
gilfoyle help - Displays all of the help commands that gilfoyle knows about.                                                                                                          
gilfoyle help <query> - Displays all help commands that match <query>.                                                                                                                
gilfoyle ping - Reply with pong