WWW::Myspace::Comment(User Contributed Perl DocumentatWWW::Myspace::Comment(3)NAMEWWW::Myspace::Comment - Auto-comment your MySpace friends from Perl
scripts
VERSION
Version 0.16
WARNING
WARNING - DO NOT USE THIS MODULE FOR MASS MESSAGING OR COMMENTING.
Myspace will cripple or disable your account:
Older accounts:
Messages will appear in your Sent folder but not in the receiver's
inbox, although they'll be able to see it if they're paging through
from another message. The receiver will get a "New Comments"
notification and be able to see your comment, but it won't appear on
the profile page.
Newer accounts:
If you created your myspace account in or after June 2006
(approximately), and you use a "bot" (including this module) to send
messages, your message sending ability will be disabled and your
account may be deleted. This is due to security features myspace has
implemented to prevent spam abuse by people using multiple accounts.
SYNOPSIS
Simple module to leave a comment for each of our friends. This module
is an extension of the Myspace module.
my $myspace = new WWW::Myspace;
my $comment = WWW::Myspace::Comment->new( $myspace );
my $result = $comment->post_comments( "Just stopping by to say hi!" );
Due to MySpace's security features, the post_comments method will, by
default, post 50 comments each time it's run. It logs the result of
each posting in a file so that it can be re-run daily without
duplicating posts. The file defaults to $myspace->cache_dir/commented.
It also checks each friend's profile page before posting to make sure
we haven't already left a comment there. This also prevents duplicates,
but is mostly designed to preserve posts (see note below).
See the documentation for the post_comments method below for an example
script to comment all friends using a loop.
Also see the comment_myspace script that is installed with the
distribution.
METHODS
new( $myspace )
Initialze and return a new WWW::Myspace::Comment object. $myspace is a
WWW::Myspace object.
Example
use WWW::Myspace; use WWW::Myspace::Comment;
my $myspace = new WWW::Myspace;
my $comment = WWW::Myspace::Comment->new( $myspace );
message
Retreives/sets the message we're going to leave as a comment.
friend_ids
Retreives/sets the list of friendIDs for whom we're going to leave
comments.
$message->friend_ids( 12345, 12347, 123456 ); # Set the list of friends
@friend_ids = $message->friend_ids; # Retreive the list of friends
exclusions
Returns a list of the friends we're not going to comment (because we
already have). Returns the list in numerical order from lowest to
highest. You probably only need this method for communicating with the
user. Note that the post_comments method will also skip people with a
link to our profile (i.e. in a comment) on their page. The exclusions
list is 1) a safety that stops us from re-posting to pages that need to
approve comments, 2) prevents us from having to read hundreds of
profiles every time we run.
Example
( @exluded_friends ) = $comment->exclusions;
commented
Returns a reference to a hash of friendIDs we've commented and the
status of the attempted commenting. Reads the data from the exclusions
cache file if it hasn't already been read.
cache_file
Sets or returns the cache filename. This defaults to "commented" in the
myspace object's cache_dir ($myspace->cache_dir/commented).
For convenience this method returns the value in all cases, so you can
do this:
$cache_file = $commented->cache_file( "/path/to/file" );
exclusions_file
This is a shortcut to "cache_file", which you should use instead.
exlucsions_file is here for backwards compatibility.
max_count
Sets or returns the number of comments we should post before stopping.
Default: 50.
Call max_count( 0 ) to disable counting. This is good if you can handle
CAPTCHA responses and you want to stop only when you get a CAPTCHA
request (i.e. if you're running from a CGI script that can pass them
back to a user).
html( [1] [0] )
Sets to display HTML-friendly output (only really useful with "noisy"
turned on also).
Call html(1) to display HTML tags (currently just "BR" tags). Call
html(0) to display plain text.
Text output (html = 0) is enabled by default.
Example
$comment->html( 1 );
delay_time
Sets the number of seconds for which the post_all method will sleep
after reaching a COUNTER or CAPTCHA response. Defaults to 86400 (24
hours).
noisy( [1] [0] )
Retreives/Sets "noisy" output. That is, print status messages for each
post. If "html(1)" is called first, BR tags will be placed after each
line so you can display it as, say, the output of a CGI script.
If "noisy" is off, the post_comments method will run silently until it
hits a CAPTCHA response or until it hits its max_count.
set_noisy is off (0) by default.
set_noisy
Shortcut for noisy, which you should use instead. set_noisy is here for
backwards compatibility.
interactive
If set to 1, and running on MacOS X, will pop up a CAPTCHA image in
Preview and prompt the user to enter it. (not yet implemented).
myspace
Sets/retreives the myspace object with which we're logged in. You
probably don't need to use this as you'll pass it to the new method
instead.
post_comments( [ $message ], [ @friend_ids ] )
Posts comments to friends specified by @friend_ids. If none are given,
post_comments retrieves the list of all friends using the WWW::Myspace
object's get_friends method.
post_comments will automatically skip all friendIDs in the "exclusions"
list (see the exclusions method above). It will also scan each profile
page before posting, and if a link to our profile exists on the page,
it will not post. It will post until it has posted "max_count"
successful posts, or until it receives a CAPTCHA request ("please enter
the characters in the image above").
post_comments returns a status string indicating why it stopped:
CAPTCHA if a CAPTCHA image code was requested. COUNTER if it posted
max_count comments and stopped. DONE if it posted everywhere it could.
Example
The following script will send the message "Hi!" to all of your
friends, and then reset the exlusions file.
use WWW::Myspace;
use WWW::Myspace::Comment;
my $myspace = new WWW::Myspace;
my $comment = WWW::Myspace::Comment->new( $myspace );
my $response = "";
# We're sending a message, doesn't matter if we've posted before
$comment->ignore_duplicates(1);
# Post our comment until we're done - may take several days if we're
# popular.
while ( 1 ) {
$response = $comment->post_comments( "Hi!" );
last if ( $response eq "DONE" );
if ( $response eq "CAPTCHA" ) {
#[ do nothing, or get the form, post it yourself, and continue ]
#( Hint: the page is in $myspace->{current_page}->content )
}
# (If response is CAPTCHA or COUNTER, we wait then continue
# until we're done). Note that you can probably sleep for 12 hours
# instead of 24.
sleep 24*60*60; #Sleep for a day, or run using cron
}
# We're done sending this message - reset the exclusions file
# completely.
$comment->reset_exclusions('all');
Note that because of the log post_comments keeps, this script could be
interrupted and restarted without re-posting anyone.
Example 2
This script will make sure you've always got a comment on your friend's
pages.
use WWW::Myspace;
use WWW::Myspace::Comment;
my $myspace = new WWW::Myspace;
my $comment = WWW::Myspace::Comment->new( $myspace );
my $response = "";
# Post our comment until we're done - may take several days if we're
# popular.
while ( 1 ) {
$response = $comment->post_comments( "Hi!" );
if ( $response eq "DONE" ) {
# We're done sending this message - reset the exclusions
# file, except for people who approve their comment posts.
# This causes us to start over, posting only if we don't
# already have a comment on their page (i.e. if it's been
# pushed off).
$comment->reset_exclusions;
last;
}
# (If response is CAPTCHA or COUNTER, we wait then continue
# until we're done). Note that you can probably sleep for 12 hours
# instead of 24.
sleep 24*60*60; #Sleep for a day, or run using cron
}
# (Also see post_all below, which implements this loop).
post_all
This convenience method implements the while loop script example in the
post_comments section above. If the response is "DONE", it exits.
Otherwise, it sleeps for the number of seconds set in "delay_time" and
calls post_comments again. It repeats this until it receives "DONE"
from the post_comments method. post_all does NOT reset the exclusions
file. If delay_time is 0, it returns instead of sleeping.
Returns the response code it gets from post_comments, which will always
be "DONE" unless delay_time is set to 0, in which case it could be any
of the codes returned by post_comments.
EXAMPLE
use WWW::Myspace;
use WWW::Myspace::Comment;
my $comment = new WWW::Myspace;
my $comment = new WWW::Myspace::Comment( $myspace );
# Send the message
$comment->message("This is a great message wraught with meaning.");
$comment->friend_ids( $myspace->get_friends );
$comment->post_all;
# Or
# Send the message
$comment->post_all( "This is a great message", $myspace->get_friends );
ignore_duplicates( [ 1 | 0 ] )
By default post_comments will not post on a page if it detects that a
previous comment by the user as whom it's logged in has been posted
there. If you call:
$comment->ignore_duplicates(1)
before calling post_comments, it will post without checking the page
for previous comments. It will still check the exclusions list however.
Call $comment->ignore_duplicates(0) to return to checking for comments
before posting (this is the default).
Use this option if you're posting a new, specific comment (like "Merry
Christmas", "Check out my new album") and you don't care if there's
already another comment by you on people's pages.
reset_exclusions
reset_exclusions( 'all' )
Resets the exclusions file, leaving only friends with "PA" (posted,
requires approval) status. If called with "all", resets the entire
file.
The reason for leaving friends with "PA" status is probably best
described with an example. Say you have 700 friends. You want to hit
each of their pages with "Just stopping by to say hi!". So you set
your comment script to run every day at 11am until you get a return
status of "DONE" (with 700 friends that'd take 14 days). After that you
want to keep running the script, posting only to pages that your
comment has dropped off of. Conveniently, post_comments will do that
for you by default. So you call reset_exclusions. If someone requires
comments to be approved, your comment might not appear on their page
(yet). If you keep the script running daily, resetting exlusions
(because it'd hit "DONE" every day), you'd spam that poor person every
day. So, by default, reset_exclusions will clear everything EXCEPT
friends that approve comments.
If you want to override that behavior, call reset_exclusions( 'all' ).
You'd use this if, for example, you were sending a specific comment to
all of your friends (i.e. "Merry Christmas" or "Check out my new
album!"). It doesn't matter if you then send another comment. In this
case, you probably want to call ignore_duplicates(1) also.
SEE ALSO
perldoc comment_myspace - The comment_myspace script is installed with
the WWW::Myspace distribution and uses this module.
AUTHOR
Grant Grueninger, "<grantg at cpan.org>"
BUGS
Please report any bugs or feature requests to "bug-www-myspace at
rt.cpan.org", or through the web interface at
http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=WWW-Myspace
<http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=WWW-Myspace>. I will
be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on
your bug as I make changes.
KNOWN ISSUESNOTES
CAPTCHA: WWW::Myspace allows 50 to 55 posts before requiring a CAPTCHA
response, then allows 3 before requiring it again. Not sure what the
timeout is on this, but running 50 a day seems to work.
Note that the main points of leaving comments are:
- Keep ourselves in our fans memory,
- Be "present" in as many places as possible.
We want to appear to "be everywhere". Since we can only post to about
50 pages a day, we maximize our exposure by checking each page we're
going to post on to see if we're already there and skipping it if we
are.
TO DO
- Provide a CGI interface so band members can
coordinate and type in the CAPTCHA code. Interface
would act as a relay: for each person we'd auto-post
to, display the filled in comment form and have them
customize it and/or fill in the captcha code. Could run
in semi-automatic mode where it'd only display the page
for them if it got a code request.
SUPPORT
You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.
perldoc WWW::Myspace::Comment
You can also look for information at:
· AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation
http://annocpan.org/dist/WWW-Myspace <http://annocpan.org/dist/WWW-
Myspace>
· CPAN Ratings
http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/WWW-Myspace
<http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/WWW-Myspace>
· RT: CPAN's request tracker
http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=WWW-Myspace
<http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=WWW-Myspace>
· Search CPAN
http://search.cpan.org/dist/WWW-Myspace
<http://search.cpan.org/dist/WWW-Myspace>
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSCOPYRIGHT & LICENSE
Copyright 2005, 2006 Grant Grueninger, all rights reserved.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.
perl v5.14.1 2006-09-16 WWW::Myspace::Comment(3)
