Category: Social Media

I am currently using a version of the following PHP code to automate the posting of content from World War II Database to the Mastodon social network. First, please note that you will need the following https://mastodon.social/ information that you can set up after logging on to your Mastodon account.

• Client ID
• Client Secret
• Access Token

There are two more things left to configure.

• URL to the RSS Feed
• File Path/Name for a Log File – This is used to avoid posting duplicate content on Mastodon

Below is the code. Note that in Step 2 there is a hard-coded value of “100” to note that the log file (to keep track of which RSS content has already been posted) will keep track of the most recent 100 records; Step 4 posts in the format of title-space-link, which you may wish to adjust based on your RSS feed structure.

$clientId = 'client_id_here';
$clientSecret = 'client_secret_here';
$accessToken = 'access_token_here';
$redirectUri = 'urn:ietf:wg:oauth:2.0:oob';
$rssUrl = 'rss_feed_url_here';
$postedIdsFile = 'rss_to_mastodon_posted_ids.txt';

// Change the following to "N" to output some debugging information
$silentMode = "Y";

// Step 1: Establish a function to fetch RSS feed
function fetchRss($rssUrl) {
    $rss = simplexml_load_file($rssUrl);
    return $rss;
}

// Step 2: Establish a function to check the log file to avoid duplicates
function checkAndUpdatePostIds($postId, $file) {
    $postedIds = file_exists($file) ? file($file, FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES) : [];
    if (in_array($postId, $postedIds)) {
        return false;
    }
    array_push($postedIds, $postId);
    if (count($postedIds) > 100) {
        array_shift($postedIds);
    }
    file_put_contents($file, implode("\n", $postedIds) . "\n");
    return true;
}

// Step 3: Establish a function to post to Mastodon
function postToMastodon($accessToken, $content) {
    $url = "https://mastodon.social/api/v1/statuses";

    $data = [
        'status' => $content,
    ];

    $options = [
        CURLOPT_URL => $url,
        CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
        CURLOPT_POST => true,
        CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => http_build_query($data),
        CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
            "Authorization: Bearer $accessToken",
            "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded",
        ],
    ];

    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt_array($ch, $options);
    $response = curl_exec($ch);
    curl_close($ch);

    return $response;
}

// Step 4: Put eveything together
if (!$accessToken) {
    die("Error: Unable to obtain access token. Exiting...");
}

$rss = fetchRss($rssUrl);

foreach ($rss->channel->item as $item) {
    $postId = (string) $item->guid;
    $content = (string) $item->title . " " . (string) $item->link;

    if (checkAndUpdatePostIds($postId, $postedIdsFile)) {
        if ($silentMode == "N") {
            echo "Posting: $content\n";
        }
        $response = postToMastodon($accessToken, $content);
        if ($silentMode == "N") {
            echo $response . "\n";
        }
    } else {
        if ($silentMode == "N") {
            echo "Duplicate detected, skipping: $content\n";
        }
    }
}

As far as usage goes, you can refactor the various pieces to fit into your existing PHP-based management tool. As a shortcut, you can also take the above code as-is and run it via cron or other similar job schedulers.

My implementation of this code posts contents to the WW2DB Mastodon page at the URL https://mastodon.social/@ww2db.

I am currently using a version of the following PHP code to automate the posting of content from World War II Database to the Bluesky social network. First, please note that you will need the following Bluesky information.

• Bluesky Username – Likely the email address you use to log in to Bluesky
• Password
• Repository Name – Likely your Bluesky name followed by “bsky.social”; for example, “ww2db.bsky.social”

There are two more things left to configure.

• URL to the RSS Feed
• File Path/Name for a Log File – This is used to avoid posting duplicate content on Bluesky

Below is the code. Note that in Step 3 there is a hard-coded value of “100” to note that the log file (to keep track of which RSS content has already been posted) will keep track of the most recent 100 records; in Step 4 there is some code to handle hashtags and URLs that may be present in the RSS content; Step 5 contains the code to obtain an access token which will be used for the actual posting; finally, Step 6 posts in the format of title-space-link, which you may wish to adjust based on your RSS feed structure.

$username = 'username_here';
$password = 'password_here';
$repoName = 'repo_name_here';
$rssUrl = 'rss_url_here';
$postedIdsFile = 'rss_to_bksy_posted_ids.txt';

// Change the following to "N" to output some debugging information
$silentMode = "Y";

// Step 1: Establish a function to get Bluesky access token
function getAccessToken($username, $password) {
    $url = 'https://bsky.social/xrpc/com.atproto.server.createSession';
    $data = [
        'identifier' => $username,
        'password' => $password
    ];

    $options = [
        CURLOPT_URL => $url,
        CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
        CURLOPT_POST => true,
        CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode($data),
        CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
            "Content-Type: application/json"
        ]
    ];

    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt_array($ch, $options);
    $response = curl_exec($ch);
    curl_close($ch);

    $response_data = json_decode($response, true);
    return $response_data['accessJwt'];
}

// Step 2: Establish a function to fetch content from a RSS feed
function fetchRss($rssUrl) {
    $rss = simplexml_load_file($rssUrl);
    return $rss;
}

// Step 3: Establish a function to check if post ID exists in the log file, and to update the log file
function checkAndUpdatePostIds($postId, $file) {
    $postedIds = file_exists($file) ? file($file, FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES) : [];

    if (in_array($postId, $postedIds)) {
        return false;
    }

    array_push($postedIds, $postId);
    if (count($postedIds) > 100) {
        array_shift($postedIds);
    }
    file_put_contents($file, implode("\n", $postedIds) . "\n");
    return true;
}

// Step 4: Establish a function to handle Bluesky facets for hashtags and URLs
function extractFacets($content) {
    preg_match_all('/#(\w+)/', $content, $hashtags);
    preg_match_all('/https?:\/\/[^\s]+/', $content, $urls);

    $facets = [];

    foreach ($hashtags[0] as $hashtag) {
        $startPos = strpos($content, $hashtag);
        $facets[] = [
            'index' => [
                'byteStart' => $startPos,
                'byteEnd' => $startPos + strlen($hashtag)
            ],
            'features' => [
                [
                    '$type' => 'app.bsky.richtext.facet#tag',
                    'tag' => $hashtag
                ]
            ]
        ];
    }

    foreach ($urls[0] as $url) {
        $startPos = strpos($content, $url);
        $facets[] = [
            'index' => [
                'byteStart' => $startPos,
                'byteEnd' => $startPos + strlen($url)
            ],
            'features' => [
                [
                    '$type' => 'app.bsky.richtext.facet#link',
                    'uri' => $url
                ]
            ]
        ];
    }

    return $facets;
}

// Step 5: Establish a function to post to Bluesky
function postToBluesky($accessJwt, $repoName, $content) {
    $facets = extractFacets($content);

    $url = 'https://bsky.social/xrpc/com.atproto.repo.createRecord';
    $data = [
        'repo' => $repoName,
        'collection' => 'app.bsky.feed.post',
        'record' => [
            'text' => $content,
            'createdAt' => date('c'),
            'facets' => $facets
        ]
    ];

    $options = [
        CURLOPT_URL => $url,
        CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
        CURLOPT_POST => true,
        CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode($data),
        CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
            "Content-Type: application/json",
            "Authorization: Bearer $accessJwt"
        ]
    ];

    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt_array($ch, $options);
    $response = curl_exec($ch);
    curl_close($ch);

    return $response;
}

// Step 6: Put everything together

$accessJwt = getAccessToken($username, $password);
$rss = fetchRss($rssUrl);

foreach ($rss->channel->item as $item) {
    $postId = (string) $item->guid;
    $content = (string) $item->title . " " . (string) $item->link;

    if (checkAndUpdatePostIds($postId, $postedIdsFile)) {
        if ($silentMode == "N") {
			echo "Posting: $content\n";
		}
        $response = postToBluesky($accessJwt, $repoName, $content);
		if ($silentMode == "N") {
			echo $response . "\n";
		}
    }
	else {
		if ($silentMode == "N") {
			echo "Duplicate post detected, skipping: $content\n";
		}
    }
}

As far as usage goes, you can refactor the various pieces to fit into your existing PHP-based management tool. As a shortcut, you can also take the above code as-is and run it via cron or other similar job schedulers.

My implementation of this code posts contents to the WW2DB Bluesky page at the URL https://bsky.app/profile/ww2db.bsky.social.

I am currently using a version of the following PHP code to automate the posting of content from World War II Database to the Reddit social network. First, please note that you will need the following Reddit information that you can set up after logging on to your Reddit account. You will also need to establish an app at https://www.reddit.com/prefs/apps, and the User Agent name you will set up will also be part of the configuration. And of course, you will need to enter the name of your own subreddit to post to; if you are posting to someone else’s subreddit, be sure to obey that particular community’s rules.

• Client ID
• Client Secret
• Username
• Password
• User Agent Name

There are two more things left to configure.

• URL to the RSS Feed
• File Path/Name for a Log File – This is used to avoid posting duplicate content on Reddit

Below is the code. Note that in Step 3 there is a hard-coded value of “100” to note that the log file (to keep track of which RSS content has already been posted) will keep track of the most recent 100 records; Steps 4 and 5 makes the posts in the format of a “link” type Reddit post, which you may wish to adjust based on your needs.

$clientId = 'client_id_here';
$clientSecret = 'client_secret_here';
$username = 'username_here';
$password = 'password_here';
$userAgent = 'user_agent_here';
$rssUrl = 'rss_feed_url_here';
$subreddit = 'r/subreddit_name';
$postedIdsFile = 'rss_to_reddit_posted_ids.txt';

$silentMode = "Y";

// Step 1: Establish a function to fetch an access token
function getAccessToken($clientId, $clientSecret, $username, $password, $userAgent) {
    $url = 'https://www.reddit.com/api/v1/access_token';
    $postFields = http_build_query([
        'grant_type' => 'password',
        'username' => $username,
        'password' => $password
    ]);

    $options = [
        CURLOPT_URL => $url,
        CURLOPT_POST => true,
        CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
        CURLOPT_USERPWD => "$clientId:$clientSecret",
        CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => $postFields,
        CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => ["User-Agent: $userAgent"]
    ];

    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt_array($ch, $options);
    $response = curl_exec($ch);
    curl_close($ch);

    $response_data = json_decode($response, true);
    return $response_data['access_token'] ?? null;
}

// Step 2: Establish a function to fetch content from the RSS feed
function fetchRss($rssUrl) {
    return simplexml_load_file($rssUrl);
}

// Step 3: Establish a function to track and avoid duplicate posts
function checkAndUpdatePostIds($postId, $file) {
    $postedIds = file_exists($file) ? file($file, FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES) : [];
    if (in_array($postId, $postedIds)) {
        return false;
    }
    array_push($postedIds, $postId);
    if (count($postedIds) > 100) {
        array_shift($postedIds); // Keep the file small
    }
    file_put_contents($file, implode("\n", $postedIds) . "\n");
    return true;
}

// Step 4: Establish a function to post to Reddit
function postToReddit($accessToken, $subreddit, $title, $url, $userAgent) {
    $apiUrl = "https://oauth.reddit.com/api/submit";
    $postData = [
        'sr' => $subreddit,
        'title' => $title,
        'url' => $url,
        'kind' => 'link'
    ];

    $options = [
        CURLOPT_URL => $apiUrl,
        CURLOPT_POST => true,
        CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
        CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => http_build_query($postData),
        CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
            "Authorization: Bearer $accessToken",
            "User-Agent: $userAgent",
            "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
        ]
    ];

    $ch = curl_init();
    curl_setopt_array($ch, $options);
    $response = curl_exec($ch);
    curl_close($ch);

    return json_decode($response, true);
}

// Step 5: Put it all together
$accessToken = getAccessToken($clientId, $clientSecret, $username, $password, $userAgent);
if (!$accessToken) {
    die("Error: Unable to obtain access token. Exiting...\n");
}

$rss = fetchRss($rssUrl);
if (!$rss) {
    die("Error: Unable to fetch RSS feed. Exiting...\n");
}

foreach ($rss->channel->item as $item) {
    $postId = (string) $item->guid;
    $title = (string) $item->title;
    $url = (string) $item->link;

    if (checkAndUpdatePostIds($postId, $postedIdsFile)) {
        if ($silentMode == "N") {
            echo "Posting to Reddit: $title ($url)\n";
        }
        $response = postToReddit($accessToken, $subreddit, $title, $url, $userAgent);
        if ($silentMode == "N") {
            echo "Reddit Response: " . json_encode($response) . "\n";
        }
    } else {
        if ($silentMode == "N") {
            echo "Duplicate detected, skipping: $title ($url)\n";
        }
    }
}

As far as usage goes, you can refactor the various pieces to fit into your existing PHP-based management tool. As a shortcut, you can also take the above code as-is and run it via cron or other similar job schedulers.

My implementation of this code posts contents to the WW2DB subreddit at the URL https://www.reddit.com/r/ww2database/.