irc-meeting-bot

A simple IRC bot to record meeting minutes

Usage

$ mkdir irc-bot
$ cd irc-bot
$ git clone https://github.com/JeremiePat/irc-meeting-bot.git .
$ npm install
$ node index.js -f config.json

Command line options

-h --help     Help about command line options
-s --server   Indicate the IRC server to connect with
-p --port     Indicate the port to use
-o --output   Indicate the output format to use (one of those available in ./lib/format)
-u --username The user name to use to connect
-r --realname The real name to use to connect
-a --channels A channel to join
-d --dir      Indicate in which directory generated minutes must be stored (Default: './logs')
-l --locale   Indicate the locale the bot must use when speaking and recording stuff (Default: 'en')
-f --config   The location of the configuration file to use

If used, those command line options always override those set in a configuration file.

Configuration

To fine tune your bot, the best way to do it is to set a configuration file. examples are available in the conf directory. Such configuration is a json object with the following properties:

Property	Value	Notes
server	string	The IRC server to connect to. Must be set through cli if not define
channels	array or string	A channel or list of channels the bot must join. Must be set through cli if not define
port	number	The port of the IRC server (Default: 6667)
userName	string	The user name to use (Default: 'MeetingBot')
realName	string	The user real name (Default: 'MeetingBot')
commands	object	A list of named command object (see below) defining command to be used during the meeting (Default: start, end and help are defined)
output	string	Define the output format: wikimedia, markdown, HTML, or raw (Default: 'raw')
locale	string	The default locale to use (used for time formating and L10NString) (Default: en)
speech	object	A speech object (see below) to handle the strings to be used when the bot is acknowledging commands

Command object

When connected, a bot can handle some commands. All those command can be customized through command object:

Property	Value	Notes
type	string	(Mandatory) There are five type of command : record put the msg in a list at the end of the log; section start a new section in the minutes; begin start recording the meeting; end end recording the meeting; help provide help on how to use the bot
match	string	A string (which will be turned into a case insensitive RegExp) to match in a message in order to call the command (Default: Any message starting with the command's name)
call	true or false	Indicate if the message must be prefix with the name of the bot and a colon to look for the command (Default: true)
label	string	The label of the corresponding record section within the generated minutes (Default: the command's name)
help	string	The help text for the command, it can be either a string, , an array of string, an L10NString, or an array of L10NString
speech	string	A speech id (from the speech object below) to handle the bot answers when the command is invoked (Default: the command's type)

NOTE: The command's name is the key use to reference the command within the object attach to the commands property of the configuration object.

Speech object

A speech object is used to customized the various bot output. Each key of the object is used as a reference. It can be any key reference by a command object or one of the keys normalized below.

The value for each key can be either:

• A string
• An array of strings
• An L10NString definition (see below)
• An array of L10NString definition

If the values are a string or an array of strings, they are considered to be written in the locale provide by the configuration.

Note that when an array is provided, if it has more than one string, the string to display is picked at random. On the other hand, An empty array or empty string indicate that the bot will remain silent.

Normalized key:

NOTE: Some keys accept parameters. parameters, enclosed within double brackets, are placeholder filled automatically

Key	Default	Parameters
begin	Meeting is recorded now.	none
end	Meeting is over.	none
format	Minutes has been formated ({{format}}).	format: The format used to produce the minutes
help	{{help}}	help: The help string for the requested commands
hi	Hi! I'm ready to record your meeting	none
nohelp	Sorry, no help available!	none
reconnect	Sorry, I've been kicked out!	none
record	Record done.	none
section	> {{title}}	title: The title of the new section

L10NString object

An L10NString object is a string defined for several locale. It makes easy to configure bots able to speak different languages.

Such an object is a collection of key/value pairs, where the key is the locale name and the value the associated string.