code-stream-guard

A Chat Bot for Live Coding Streamers

Aim

To provide a chat bot that will offer features to live code streamers, such as those on livecoding.tv and the twitch.tv Creative channels. Currently only livecoding.tv is supported, using the XMPP chat connection.

Features

1. Connect to livecoding.tv chat channels
2. Welcome new viewers in the chat
3. Provides a transparent stream overlay window for notifications
4. Displays a popup welcome avatar image for viewers joining
5. Displays a popup welcome avatar image for new followers including a shower of fireworks
6. Displays a popup animation when someone submits a rating
7. Provides the following chat bot commmands:

• !help
• !cloc - Count lines of code
• !rate N - Rate the streamer between 0 and 100

1. Separate strings.json file for message customisation
2. Followers and ratings saved to json files between sessions

TODO

1. Add timestamps so people entering and leaving chat can't spam the popup or welcome text

• Decide on sensible defaults for repeat greeting and avatar popups
• Add a timestamp to each !command, so they can't be spammed (especially rate)

1. Clean up the window setup from new, postion and transparency are awkward
2. Add sound effects
3. Add more chat commands

• !spaces or !tabs
• !vote
• !joke
• !fortune

1. Allow multiple front end connections (for indicator lights or other hardware)

Inspiration

• https://github.com/LiveCodeMonkeys/lctvbot_module
• https://gist.github.com/powdahound/940969
• https://github.com/Cristy94/livecoding-chat-bot

Usage

Currently, the code has only been tested on Mac OS. It should run on Linux, but I have had trouble with transparency on the front end UI window (from Node Webkit).

You will need to make your own config.json file, which you can go by copying example-config.json and editing it. You need to make sure the values are set as described below.

$ npm install
$ cp example-config.json config.json

... Edit config.json with your details ...

$ ./run

This runs the bot using NW.js, see below for more details.

You can also use:

$ node app

but this will not open up the frontend UI window. However, you can open a web browser pointing to http://localhost:3000 in order to get the UI notifications.

Node Webkit (NW.js) Integration

If run using the Node Webkit integration (./run), you should get a window open up on screen, which loads the index.html page. This window contains 2 areas that are used to notify the streamer of people joining and leaving the chat channel, new followers, and also new ratings using the !rate command. By default, the window opens up without transparency, in the middle of the screen. It should be possible to move this window to somewhere appropriate on the screen, or indeed offscreen to a second monitor then close the window. Then restart the app and the window will appear in the place it was left.

Once the window is in the correct place, you can edit the package.json file and set the following values:

{
   "window": {
      "resizable": false,
      "frame": false,
      "transparent": true
   }
}

In order for the window to be transparent, you need to set this values. Also, see this page for more details.

Once the window is transparent, and off to one side or a second monitor, you can add it to your stream using OBS Window Capture source. Being transparent, you can put it where you like and the animations will appear when something happens.

config.json

{
   "livecoding.tv": {
      "domain": "chat.livecoding.tv",
      "channel": "longsteve",
      "nickname": "[email protected]",
      "password": "PASSWORD",
      "chatname": "Tim",
      "owner": "Steve",
      "followers-feed-url": "https://www.livecoding.tv/rss/longsteve/followers/?key=FEEDKEY",
      "cloc-command": "cloc --exclude-dir=node_modules,frameworks --exclude-lang=CMake --progress-rate=0 --csv --quiet /Users/USERNAME/Projects/PROJECT"
   }
}

• domain needs to be left as chat.livecoding.tv
• channel is the channel that the bot will join. This is normally going to be the username (without @livecoding.tv) of the streamer. I've used test before, and I think my bot joined the channel of a livecoding.tv user called test!
• nickname is the full @livecoding.tv username of the user the bot is going to log in as. You need to create a proper user to identify to the chat service as.
• password is the password of the chat bot user identified by nickname. Note this is not the password of the streamer.
• chatname is the name by which the bot refers to itself in it's message strings. For example, the default greeting when it joins a channel is "Hi everyone. I'm {name} the chat bot", and {name} gets replaced with the chatname config value.
• owner is the name by which the chat bot refers to the channel owner. eg. "{name}'s new rating is 100%"
• followers-feed-url is the url that can be used to get all the channel owner (streamers) followers. You get this by going to your Follows profile page when logged into livecoding.tv and clicking on the RSS icon. The bot uses this value to check for new followers.
• cloc-command is run when someone enters !cloc in the chat window. It needs to be formated like the example, because the code in cloc.js uses the csv format. The example ignores node_modules/ and frameworks/ folders to speed up the command, you just need to put in an appropriate project folder. Also make sure cloc is installed.