Jb: Jaimbizzle software

0.94 source released

the 0.94 source is released--the major enhancement is the addition of history for buddies--i.e. incoming actions (any IM's that translate properly into a JbAction) are kept in memory in a stack, to aid in multi-im commands. there probably won't be a 0.94 release other than the source; i wanted to mainly get this out there for anyone who doesn't use CVS to get source code.

Quick Doc on writing a handler :)

ok, i'm working on the documentation on writing a handler...:/ in the meantime here's a (very) quickstart:

The config files:

dist/conf/JbActionMap.conf

this file contains the handler name to java class mapping. add you r handler name and the class it will correspond to.

this class will implement the handle() method on the JbActionHandler interface.

look at

dist/conf/JbActionDict.conf

this is a file where you can put in aliases for the action names, i.e. if a user mistypes "hello" as "helo", this is where you can place alternate spellings of a handler's name. for example one of the lines is:

test=tist,tizzle,teezo,t

if a user sends an IM to your bot with the word "tist" or "t" or "tizzle" or "teezo", it would look up the class corresponding to the "test" handler in JbActionMap.conf. (thinking out loud wouldn't it be neat to just implement a fuzzy matching system in here?)

the Handlers:
look in the

dist/conf/handlers dir

there you'll find the various config for handler files. these can be named basically anything, as long as you refer to them in the handler you write. the values can be anything as well, they're just basic java properties files to help you to not hardcode everything.

writing a handler quickstart:
as stated above, handlers should implement the JbActionHandler interface, which has only one method, handle(JbAction). a JbAction is pretty simple--it consists of a name and data. the name portion corresponds to a name in the JbActionMap.conf file, and the data is any other data that you'll be passing to your handler.

i have to go right now, but hopefully that's a quick start. please leave any questions in the comments section below. thanks!

j.

0.93 released (phew!)

what a day--3 releases in a day. I thought I was finished with the first, then other things kinda came up--0.93 is pretty fresh, in that it now boasts a console interface--when you start up the bot, you have a prompt, where you can see online buddies, exit out the program, and even send IM's(*)! get it, play with it, take a look! If you wonder why the binary distribution has doubled in size, it's just because of the new Jbc.jar, which is a duplicate of Jb.jar, except it runs in console mode. The long-range plan is to eventually remove Jb.jar, since there is no real use for a non-console, non-gui Jb.

my goal for an official 1.0 release would be to have the documentation adequately describe what the software can do, adequate sample code, and some semblance of JbML available to easily just plug in and set up at the very least an auto-responder bot without implementing Java code.

release early, release often ;) (0.92)

Jb 0.92 is released, with a significant improvement on the runnable side--you can easily get your bot to run now, without having to "set up" using the encrypter. just unzip, get jaimlib and place jaimlib.jar in the same dir as the Jb.jar, edit Jb.conf, and run jb.bat.

jbml::coming up

Hi. Just started working on a simple markup language to handle requests for a jaimbizzle...this'll make it a little more accessible for the non-java types. In the planning stages are some "standard" modules as well, that will interoperate with the jbml to do some "common tasks" (database search, scraping blog entries, pieces of websites). I'll post up some snippets and doc on the markup and ask for comments shortly. Donations in programming time are always welcome ;) just hit me up and i can add you to the list at the sf.net site.

0.8 released

alrighty then--two updates in one day can you dig it? i've hidden the 0.7, 'cos you'll want to get this 0.8 version...the source is available, but I've also now made an installable runnable version available! basically just unzip somewhere, edit the conf/Jb.conf file, run jbe to encrypt your bot password into the Jb.conf file, and run! give it a go, and let me know what you think.

Screenshots

Some selected screenshots from the application.

Some selected screenshots from the application.

First, an AIM window chatting with a running Jb

and a shot of the GUI admin: