ULHacks Bot

A Discord bot for the ULHacks Discord server.

Setup

Clone the repository using Git and enter it using the commands below:

git clone https://github.com/GeeTransit/ulhacks-bot
cd ulhacks-bot

Install Python (minimum is 3.9) and create the virtual environment by running:

# On Windows
python -m venv .venv
# On Linux
python3 -m venv .venv

To enter the virtual environment, run the following. To leave the virtual environment, type deactivate and press enter.

# On Windows
call .venv\Scripts\activate.bat
# On Linux
source .venv/bin/activate

Install all dependencies by entering the virtual environment and running:

# On Windows
pip install -r requirements.txt
# On Linux
pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Config

The ULHacks bot takes all configuration using environment variables. Here's a table with the environment variables needed:

Name	Purpose
ULHACKS_BOT_TOKEN	Discord bot user's token. Should be around 59 characters long and look random.
ULHACKS_ENV	Environment the bot is running in. Defaults to local.

You can get your Discord bot user's token by going to your dashboard, clicking on your application, clicking Bot in the left sidebar, and pressing the Copy button under Token in the Build-A-Bot section.

If you don't have an application, click New Application on the top right and choose a name (you can change it later).

If you don't have a bot user, press Add Bot in the Build-a-Bot section and click Yes, do it!

To set an environment variable, run:

# On Windows
set NAME=value
# On Linux
export NAME=value

Usage

Enter the virtual environment and run:

# On Windows
python ulhacks_bot.py
# On Linux
python3 ulhacks_bot.py

More Config

Running Locally

If the ULHACKS_ENV environment variable is not set or is set to local, the bot will use a local data store.

Name	Purpose
ULHACKS_JSON_STORE_FILENAME	The filename the JSON store uses. Defaults to json-store.json.

Running on Heroku

If the ULHACKS_ENV environment variable is set to heroku, the bot will use a PostgreSQL data store.

Name	Purpose
DATABASE_URL	The URI the PostgreSQL store uses. Should start with postgres://.