Meme

This Cog enables the bot’s meme-sending capabilities. It uses asyncpraw, or the Asynchronous Python Reddit API Wrapper, to get images from Reddit.

Hint

To enable this cog, set the ENABLE_MEME variable.

Requirements

Packages

  • The asyncpraw package:

python3 -m install -U asyncpraw

py -m pip install -U asyncpraw

env variables

  • Create a directory to store the List files and set MEME_DIR accordingly.

  • MEME_ITEM_LIMIT indicates how many memes the bot can retrieve at once. See How it works below for an explanation on how that works. The default is 10 items.

  • The variables starting with REDDIT correspond to a Reddit bot’s credentials. According to the docs, to use asyncpraw we need:

    • A Reddit account: to create a new account, head to reddit.com. You can create an account without providing an email address (just omit it), but be aware this means there’s no way to recover the account if the password is lost.

    • A Client ID and Secret: see this guide.

    • A User Agent: this Cog already generates one following the format provided by Reddit’s API guide. Thus, I recommend letting the bot take care of that with the information provided by .env. Note that the APP_VERSION is set arbitrarily; I use the same version as the bot’s.

New in version 2.0.0.

  • You can decide whether to download the memes or just send them using their URL by setting the MEME_DOWNLOAD variable. To turn off downloads, leave the variable commented or set it to a falsy value. To turn it on, set it to a truthy value.

How it works

List files

These are the files created when the command is used for the first time in a server or DM. They contain a list of the names of all the files sent to that server/DM. This allows the bot to check whether a meme was already sent to that context, and thus avoid sending duplicates. These list files are saved in the directory pointed by MEME_DIR.

Asyncpraw

When starting, the bot creates an asyncpraw.Reddit instance. This instance fetches the top MEME_ITEM_LIMIT posts from the Hot category of a subreddit. If the post is actually an image (not a mod post, nor a video, nor a text-only post), it checks if it already sent it to that context (server or DM).

If it did, it skips that post and checks the next one fetched. So it can eventually run out of posts to check.

If you use the meme command frequently with the same subreddit, you should increase the item limit so the bot can send more new memes before reaching this cap.

Downloading memes

Since version 2.0.0, you can choose skip the download of the memes to send. This uses the fact that discord.Embed can use a URL to include an image directly.

You can still enable the download of the images, which are then used to send the messages. These are saved in the directory set in MEME_DIR.

A meme’s filename is derived from its i.redd.it URL. For example, from i.redd.it/thisisnotameme.jpg we get thisisnotameme.jpg.