To get started, all you need to know are some very basic programming skills (any language would do) and web space to host your "bot".
For this example, I have created a dummy bot called "insecure" that listens to your IM messages. To see this live, add insecure@bot.im to your GTalk buddy list and start chatting.
If you like to write a personal IM bot, just follow these simple steps:-
Step 1: Go to www.imified.com and register a new account with a bot.
Step 2: Now it's time to create a bot which is actually a simple script that resides on your public web server.
It could be in PHP, Perl, Python or any other language.
Example Hello World bot:
The example below illustrates just how easy it is to create a bot.
This example is coded in PHP.
switch ($_REQUEST['step']) {
case 1:
echo "Hi, what's your name?";
break;
case 2:
echo "Hi " . $_REQUEST['value1'] . ", where do you live?";
break;
case 3:
echo "Well, welcome to this hello world bot, " . $_REQUEST['value1'] . "<br>from " . $_REQUEST['value2'] . ".<reset>";
break;
}
?>
Step 3: Once your script is ready, put it somewhere on your web server and copy the full URL to the clipboard.
Step 4: Now login to your imified account, paste the script URL
Screen Name: insecure@bot.im
Bot Script URL: http://www.insecure.in/imbot.php
Step 5: Add that im bot your friends list. That's it.
This is a very basic bot but the possibilities are endless.
For instance, you could write a bot that will send an email to all your close friends via a simple IM message. Or you could write one that will does currency conversion.
