XGM Notifier

by Alex Sosnovsky

This project is a work-in-progress, and all features are subject to change in the future.

Overview

XGM Notifier is an automated Discord bot, which collects information about PGM servers, and sends users notifications when their favorite games are playing.

Technical

• The bot is written entirely in Go, and stores information about games and notifications in a local SQLite3 database.
• Game information is obtained by pinging PGM servers for server status data, available in JSON format.

Dependencies

• go-sqlite3: https://github.com/mattn/go-sqlite3
  • Interfaces between the Go code and your SQLite3 database.
• DiscordGo: https://github.com/bwmarrin/discordgo
  • Interfaces between the Go code and the Discord API.
• GoJSONQ: https://github.com/thedevsaddam/gojsonq
  • Used to parse PGM server data JSON.

Installation

• Clone (or download) the repository.
• Install the dependencies according to their instructions (linked above).
• In the main directory, create a bot_token.txt file that contains your bot's token, found in the Discord Developer Portal.
• If you are interested in receiving extra information about what is happening behind the scenes, set the DEBUG value in main.go to true prior to compiling.
• Run go build to compile the bot. An executable titled XGMNotifier should be created in your main directory.

Usage

• Run ./XGMNotifier to start the bot. A file named xgm.db will be created the first time you run it, and contains the SQLite3 database used to store maps and user preferences.
• While the bot is running, the terminal functions as an administrative console; a full set of commands can be found below.
• The bot repeatedly pings the specified PGM server, and whenever a match cycle is detected, any users subscribed to the new game will be messaged by the bot.
  • If a game that is not present in the database is detected, it is automatically added to the database and subsequently selectable by users.
• Users can message the bot to add or remove maps from their notification lists.
• To stop the bot, input stop into the administrative console.

User Commands

(Messaged to the Bot)

For any commands that accept map names, separate the maps with spaces, and replace all spaces in the maps' names with underscores.

• add <map1> <map2> etc. The bot adds the specified maps to the user's notification list, if they are present in the map list.
• remove <map1> <map2> etc. The bot deletes the specified maps from the user's notification list.
• removeall: The bot deletes all maps from the user's notification list.

Administrative Commands

(Terminal Input)

For any commands that accept map names, separate the maps with spaces, and replace all spaces in the maps' names with underscores.

• stop (alias exit): The bot closes its Discord session and stops running.
• load <map1> <map2> etc.: The maps specified in the arguments are loaded, and subsequently selectable by users.