ebooks-bot

google script that lives behind a spreadsheet. the spreadsheet enables anyone to make a markov twitter bot with zero knowledge of code.

inspired by @zachwhalen/ssbot

go to code docs

credit: amelie! (@almondette on github and other places)

special thanks: everyone who's ever blogged about their markov chain experiences. they're a great reference for beginners like me!

features

• no coding or knowledge of scripting languages necessary!
• runs in the background, thanks to being hosted on your google drive
• says things weird
• replies on a limited basis EXPERIMENTAL
• filters out usernames and links in the final created tweets
• doesn't
  • auto like, respond to new follows, auto-rt

pre-requisites

to use the spreadsheet for a psuedo-markov ebooks twitter bot, you need to do and/or have these things:

• a new twitter account for your bot
• a TAGS archive
• the ebooks bot spreadsheet

creating a new twitter account

• go to twitter.com, create a new account for your bot if you haven't
  • you might need a phone number for verfication purposes, but you can get a free number over at google voice
• verify your new account and stay logged in

setting up a twitter app

• go to https://apps.twitter.com
• head to the settings tab
• fill out your app's name, app's description, and website.
  • ex: my bot, a bot that tweets every x hours/minutes/days, https://example.com
  • leave the callback url blank for now. the spreadsheet will generate it for you.
  • make sure "Allow this application to be used to Sign in with Twitter" is checked
• head to the keys and access tokens tab
  • generate your access tokens and consumer secret
  • make sure your app has both read and write access
• stay on the keys and access tokens page. you'll need your token and secret for your spreadsheet

setting up the ebooks bot spreadsheet

double click on each cell to fill in the appropriate information correctly. i'm still not used to that, myself...

• fill in your bot's username to serve as a reminder when you're editing the sheet. i also recommend changing the name of your new spreadsheet to "[username] bot".
• follow the instructions on the left side of the sheet. they prompt you to fill in the appropriate information.
• make sure to get the entire url of your TAGS sheet by opening it up and copying what appears in your address bar.
  • you don't need to change sharing permissions or anything. ie, your TAGS sheet isn't shared with anyone and can only be viewed by you.
• the ebooks bot sheet will ask you for permission to access files on your google drive, accept to let ebooks bot read your TAGS archive!
• a callback url will be generated after pasting your script id into the correct field. copy the callback url into your app's details on https://apps.twitter.com

generate a preview. this will populate the preview sheet. go to bot > send a test tweet. you may be prompted to visit a link and send a test tweet again. if your bot tweeted after authenticating, congrats! go to bot > start posting tweets to activate timed tweets on the timer that you set via a dropdown.

ebooks bot functions

the script file uses a few functions to:

1. create a markov chain of words
2. authenticate the spreadsheet as an app
3. tweet on a timer
4. add a new bot menu in the sheet menubar

markov chaining

retrieve the source material, in this case, it's the TAGS archive

var ebooks = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
  var sheet = ebooks.getSheetByName('settings')
  var archiveUrl = sheet.getRange('D32').getValue();
  
  var ss = SpreadsheetApp.openByUrl(archiveUrl);
  
  var archive = ss.getSheetByName('Archive');
  var lastRow = archive.getLastRow();
  
  var startwords = [];
  var endwords = {};
  var tweets = {};
 
  var allTweets = archive.getRange( 'C1:C'+ lastRow ).getValues();  

split each tweet into words by delimiter whitespace. set up arrays of words that most often begin and end tweets

 for (var i = 0; i < allTweets.length; i++) {
    var words = allTweets[i][0].split(' ');
    endwords[words[words.length - 1]] = true;
    startwords.push(words[0]);
    for (var j = 0; j < words.length - 1; j++) {
        if (tweets.hasOwnProperty(words[j])) {
            tweets[words[j]].push(words[j+1]);
        } else {
            tweets[words[j]] = [words[j+1]];
        }
    }

make a function that randomly chooses the following words

  var choice = function(w) {
    var i = Math.floor(w.length * Math.random());
    return w[i];

push those words into the sentence

var shitpost = function (min_length) {
    word = choice(startwords);
    var msg = [word];
    while (tweets.hasOwnProperty(word)) {
        var next_words = tweets[word];
        word = choice(next_words);
        msg.push(word);
        if (msg.length > min_length && endwords.hasOwnProperty(word)) break;
    }
    if (msg.length < min_length) return shitpost(min_length);
    return msg.join(' ');
  };

make sure tweets are more than 4-5 words when min_length is called

var msg = shitpost(5 + Math.floor(5 * Math.random()));

urls, hashtags, and mentions are not tweeted. i'm not changing that.

foo.replace(/https?:\/\/t\.co\/[a-z0-9]+/ig, '').replace(/@[a-zA-Z0-9_]+/g, '').replace(/RT /, '').replace(/#[a-zA-Z0-9_]+/g, '');

twitter oauth

used the google scripts oauth1 library

google script documentation

good stuff

replies (experiemental)

polls twitter/search every 5 minutes

if(service.hasAccess()) {
    var search = ('https://api.twitter.com/1.1/search/tweets.json?q=to%3A' + username);
  } else {
    var authorizationUrl = service.authorize();
    msgPopUp('<p>Please visit the following URL and then re-run "Send a Test Tweet": <br/> <a target="_blank" href="' + authorizationUrl + '">' + authorizationUrl + '</a></p>');
  }