Reddit-Space_Launches

This is a bot designed to create a stickied post when a space launch is scheduled within the next 24 hours.

• Runs daily, stikies posts with relevant info
• Uses a timedelta of 24 hours.
• Logs stickied post ID and unstickes the next morning
• Logging is sent through a Discord Webhook.

Setup

Setup a Linux Host

I'm using Ubuntu LTS on an Oracle Cloud VM. There are free-tiers available as of today. Google Compute and Amazon AWS are similar products. You can also roll your own host with an old PC or a Raspberry Pi. You'll need to know a bit of Linux CLI or you'll need to be ready to learn! Run these commands through the CLI.

Setup Git

1. Create a Github account.

2. Go here and install Git if you don’t have it already.

3. Assuming you're reading this on the repo page, select ‘fork’ to create a copy of it to your Github account.

4. From your new repo, select Code and then under Clone copy the HTTPS URL (e.g. https://github.com/SaltySOMAdmin/Reddit-Space_Launches.git) to download a local copy

5. Navigate to a folder you want a local copy of the repo to live, and clone the Github repo to your host:

   1. It's up to you where to put the repo - recommended in a folder like /home/YourUserAcct/Github/ or /home/YourUserAcct/. Once you clone the directory it will create a subfolder with the name of your fork.
   2. git clone <url>
      1. e.g. git clone https://github.com/SaltySOMAdmin/Reddit-Space_Launches.git

Install necessary software prerequisites:

1. Install Python3

   sudo apt install python3
   

2. Create a python virtual environment in a directory

   /usr/bin/python3 -m venv /home/ubuntu/Reddit-Space_Launches
   

3. Use the virtual python3 environment

   source /home/ubuntu/Reddit-Space_Launches/bin/activate
   

4. Install PIP Prereqs

   pip3 install requests pytz praw
   

5. Setup Discord Webhook - Right click the channel in Discord --> Edit Channel --> Integrations --> Create Webhook. Paste your webhook into webhook.txt. (webhook="http://yourURL")

   sudo nano /home/ubuntu/Reddit-Space_Launches/webhook.txt
   

Configure the script.

• There are several sections you need to customize in the main script (SpaceLaunches.py).

• Logging paths, subreddit_name, and config.py will need to be updated with your credentials.

Crontab Settings

This is where you will set your schedule to run. My script runs every Sunday. To open your cron settings type this into your terminal: crontab -e

• Run main script

    0 7 * * 0 /bin/bash -c "source /home/ubuntu/Reddit-Space_Launches/bin/activate && python3 /home/ubuntu/Reddit-Space_Launches/SpaceLaunches.py" >> /home/ubuntu/Reddit-Space_Launches/cron_log.txt 2>&1
    0 6 * * 0 /bin/bash -c "source /home/ubuntu/Reddit-Space_Launches/bin/activate && python3 /home/ubuntu/Reddit-Space_Launches/unsticky_old_posts.py" >> /home/ubuntu/Reddit-Space_Launches/cron_log.txt 2>&1
  

• Upload logs after 10 7 * * * /home/ubuntu/Reddit-Space_Launches/forward_cron_log.sh 15 7 * * * /home/ubuntu/Reddit-Space_Launches/forward_error_log.sh

Setup Continuous Deployment with Github Actions

Allows you to deploy your code via Github vs logging into the VPS and updating the code/uploading a new file. Allows for easier collaboration as well. I followed a guide similar to this one: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/use-cases-and-examples/deploying/deploying-with-github-actions