Bot of the Month - Chazbot

Courtesy of Baron Sweetman

As always, when you check this information out, be careful to only download programs and files from people you trust, to eliminate the chance of getting a virus.

Writing Chazbot came about when friends in AW complained to me that database functions in most freely available bots was lacking or underdeveloped.

At first it was just meant as a simple gatekeeper bot which would store visitors details in an easy to access database. However it ballooned out to a multipurpose bot as i found that most world owners use several bots to perform functions that could easily be performed by one botinstance, thus creating problems with the standard 3 bot limit. Therefore i wrote the present version of Chazbot so as to fit as many frequently used functions into 1 bot instance. Also i tried to let it do those functions with minimal user intervention, thus making hoping to make complex botfunctions easily accesible to nonprogrammers. The GUI interface is guided by popup textballoons which explain the various fields/buttons.

The bot is written using Borland CBuilder, and uses an old but very easy to manage database format, Paradox. Paradox is fast and light on resources for the tasks the bot requires it to do, store/retrieve small amounts of data frequently. The code has been mostly handoptimized to make it able to handle as many functions as it does without a severe performance penalty.

It's major feature is that it performs most worldmanagement tasks, acts as a GateKeeper, Greeter, Tourguide, Weather&Lighting, Trivia bot using simple GUI dialogs to set the parameters of these botfunctions adding full database access to those functions. The bot can monitor many worlds and keeps track of people over the various worlds remembering all their rights even when using the same name/citnumber in those worlds.

The database is automatically multiuser over a network, but can be configured for local multiuser use making it possible to monitor as many world at once as your computer can carry.

It gives Unlimited Interworld Chat/Whisper Relay using tcp/ip protocol, Remote control of bot, BotMonitoring (whereby another bot takes over automatically if the main bot goes offline) and various other functions without the need for any scripting.

Chazbot has an extensive chat command capability (presently 123 predefined commands), which is divided in 3 sections: those for general use, those for PK /GK use and those for Caretaker use. All commands can also be accessed using the build in Chatwindow thus obviating the need to run AWBrowser. The Chatwindow offers a full access to the world monitored, and gives more or less the same possibilties as the AWBrowser only without the 3D component, thus freeing up processor time for other tasks whilst at the same time enabling the WorldManager to fully control the world.

Chazbot can also be minimized to the tray, either in silent mode or not silent. In the last case the bot will popup balloons at your current cursorposition when a visitor enters and leaves.

Chazbot is now in the pre-release stage awaiting user feedback to finalize it and the more people feedback the better product it will be. You can visit the bot's website at: www.petrossa.com/Chazbot.

Do you have a bot or know of one that you would like to see featured in the newsletter? Contact us at: newsletter@activeworlds.com.