Redditer

Redditer allows you to stream Posts and Comments matching a configurable set of filters.

It adds user-provided comment to Posts matching a desired pattern and also replies to comments that match the pattern.

Setup

git clone https://github.com/shobhits147/redditer.git
cd redditer/
virtualenv -p python3 venv
venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt

Usage

1. Create an App in reddit using the instructions mentioned here

2. Create a yml file storing the user credentials generated above in the following format:

   client-id: <your-client-id>
   client-secret: <your-client-secret>
   app-name: <your-app-name>
   username: <your-user-name>
   password: <your-password>

3. Following is the format of the configuration file used by redditer:

   keywords:
     - sheldon
     - cooper
   response: Bazinga!!
   credsPath: /Users/shobhits/Documents/redditer/creds.yml
   submissionsFile: /usr/local/share/filtered-submissions.csv
   commentsFile: /usr/local/share/filtered-comments.csv
   exclude:
     subreddits:
       - valorant
       - mario
     authors:
       - ElonMuskOfficial

4. In redditer/config.yml file substitute the path of the file created in Step 2 in the field credsPath

5. Modify other fields in config.yml as per your need

6. Start redditer:

   cd redditer/app/
   ../venv/bin/python aggregator.py

How it Works

1. Loads configuration from redditer/config.yml

2. Loads credentials from the credsPath specified in redditer/config.yml

3. Resets result files that are specified by the following fields in redditer/config.yml:

   1. submissionsFile
   2. commentsFile

4. Creates redditHelper object using the configurations provided and praw python package.

5. Initializes Aggregator object. Aggregator initializes the following before returning the object:

   1. Initialize filters object - The job of filters is to apply user-provided filters to all posts or comments that the aggregator aggregates.
   2. Initialize postMan object - Postman reads the response provided by the user and applies that response to all the filtered out posts and comments.
   3. Initialize dumper object - The job of dumper is to dump all the filtered out submissions and comments to files specified by the user in CSV format. Refer to Results format section to know more about results structure.

6. The job of Aggregator is to:

   1. Stream posts and comments at 10 seconds interval
   2. Filter out data that doesn't match the base filters and custom filters
   3. Add the given response to matched posts and comments
   4. Dump data about the filtered posts and comments to submissionsFile and commentsFile

7. Spawn two threads:

   1. One thread to stream submissions based on filters provided
   2. One thread to stream comments based on filters provided

8. Aggregator tracks only those subreddits that the configured user is subscribed to and is not excluded in config.yml

9. Reddit doesn't allow you to post comments more than once every 5 seconds. So to avoid being blocked by reddit, Aggregator polls reddit for new Posts or Comments with a sleep of 10 seconds.

10. For any matching Submission, aggregator adds a comment to that post and dumps the original post's details to submissionsFile

11. For any matching Comment, aggregator adds a reply to that comment and dumps the original comment's details to commentsFile

Results format

Submissions file:

shobhits-mbp:~ shobhits$ tail -f /usr/local/share/filtered-submissions.csv
jh5wb9,shobhit-s,https://www.reddit.com/r/testingground4bots/comments/jh5wb9/new_post_24/

Format: submission-id,submission-author,submission-url

Comments file:

shobhits-mbp:~ shobhits$ tail -f /usr/local/share/filtered-comments.csv
g9vr02q,shobhit-s

Format: comment-id,comment-author

Since we are dumping a CSV, this can be easily loaded into analytics systems and used in Pandas Dataframes.

Existing Filters

1. It extracts only those posts or comments that include all of the keywords specified in redditer/config.yml

2. Subreddits mentioned in exclude section of redditer/config.yml are ignored even if the user is subscribed to it

3. Posts or comments made by authors mentioned in exclude section of redditer/config.yml are ignored.

How to add custom filter logics

1. To add a new filter to the collected submissions and comments, you need modify redditer/app/filters.py

2. Define your own class of filters, e.g.:

   class ComplexLogic
      def __init__(self):
          # initialize some stuffs
          pass
      
      # applyToComment takes comment object as argument and returns the modified comment object
      def applyToComment(self, comment):
          # your fancy logic
          # return comment object if it matches your filter else return None
          pass

3. Call ComplexLogic's filters from applyToComment method of Filters class:

   class Filters(BaseFilter):
       def __init__(self, config):
          BaseFilter.__init__(self, config)
          self.complexLogic = ComplexLogic()
   
       def applyToComment(self, object):
          object = self.basicCommentFilters(object)
          if object:
              object = self.complexLogic.applyToComment(object)
          # call other filters if required e.g.:
          # object = SomeNewFilterClass.someNewFilter(object) if object is not None else None
          return object

4. New filters can be applied to submissions in the same manner

Let's see it work

1. Let's say I want to respond Bazinga!! to any post or comment made to any subreddit I am subscribed to if the post/comment contains keywords sheldon and cooper

2. Redditer will respond Bazinga!! to any post or comment it finds matching the filters specified.

3. The following images should make it a bit clear:

   New post containing required keywords:

   

   Comment added by Redditer to matched posts

   

   New comment containing required keywords

   

   Reply added by Redditer to matched comments

   

   Relevant logs generated by Redditer

   

   Comment by blacklisted user ignored