ApplicationBot

ApplicationBot is a Discord bot for guilds and other online communities to manage applications.

Setup

I recommend hosting the bot on a free-tier EC2 instance.

Part 1. Set up the application and validate it runs locally.

1. Set up application in the Discord Developer Portal.
2. Add a bot user to the application. Copy the token. Don't share or commit it. Adjust .gitignore if needed.
3. Invite bot to server. Recommended permissions
4. Download files and test the bot locally.

npm install
tsc
node dist/src/index.js

Part 2. Run the application on an EC2 instance.

5. Launch instance and save the key pair provided.
6. Convert .ppk to .pem with PuTTYgen.
7. Connect to EC2 server with WinSCP (or any FTP client).
8. Upload files.
9. Install node & package dependencies.

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install nodejs
$ sudo apt-get install npm
$ npm install

10. Install forever module $ sudo npm install forever -g. I highly suggest reading the logging options and also specifying logging files.

11. Run application $ forever start index.js

EC2 Tips

• Never have more than one running instance (especially for a long period of time)
• Set up billing notifications
• Free instances last 1 year before they are not free (on that account)

Usage

To customize the bot for your community, a few edits will be needed.

1. Create your appSettings. Start by copying the appSettings to a new file. Customize the data accordingly. I usually set up appSettings.dev.json and appSettings.prod.json (one with keys for a dev Discord server, another with the "main" server).

2. Create the channels and roles as described in appSettings. Currently, channel flexibility is limited.

3. In index.ts, point the app to the appSettings you wish to use. e.g. import * as appSettings from '../appSettings.prod.json';

Recompile tsc.

Commands

/apply (in apply channel)

Admin

/archiveapp (in application-NAME channel)

Moves app conversation to archive.

/test (to bot in DMs)

Will respond 'Bot running.' if running.

/restore (to bot in DMs)

Will manually restore and move an application if votes do not go through due to bot downtime.

/restore "Member Name [Application Acceptance Status Here]" application-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-1-1-2021.json

Application backups are saved automatically to /backups. File may need to be moved before it can be successfully restored (or adjust path accordingly).