This tutorial will guide you on how to get started creating bots for Steemit. The bot will be written in HTML & JavaScript so you DO NOT need a complex web server or development environment. All of this can be done from a typical desktop or laptop computer with a web browser, text editor and the internet. This guide should be easy to follow for a novice web developer. I am using Windows 10, NotePad & Google Chrome, but any operating system (Mac/Linux) should work just fine if you can translate. Here is a more advanced tutorial that involves NodeJS & GitHub https://steemit.com/javascript/@money-dreamer/nodejs-steemit-bot-tutorial for intermediate developers.
Let's start by creating a folder on your desktop:
Open this folder and create a file called “index.html” without the quotes.
Make sure you turn off the option “Hide extensions for known file types “ by following the directions at http://kb.winzip.com/kb/entry/26/ otherwise your “index.html” file will actually be “index.html.txt” but the “.txt” will be hidden! This will prevent your bot from executing.
You can create this file by right clicking then “New → Text Document” in the pop-up windows:
The “index.html” file will contain code for your first steemit bot. You will need to open this file with Notepad by right clicking then “Open with → Choose another app” like in the following image:
Now scroll down and select “Notepad” and then click OK.
This is the code for your sample bot:
<html>
<head>
<script src="https://cdn.steemjs.com/lib/latest/steem.min.js"></script>
<script>
steem.api.getAccounts(['money-dreamer'], function(err, response){
console.log(err, response);
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
Hello Steem!
</body>
</html>
Highlight, copy, then paste this code into NotePad and then save it.
You can click it and it should open in your default browser. If not, right click then “Open with → Google Chrome” and then click your favorite browser such as Google Chrome.
Now that you have your bot opened in your web browser, you will need to open the developer tools by clicking the 3 circles on the top right of the page then clicking “More Tools → Developer Tools”. This will split the browser window into two panels.
Click the “Console” tab in the “Developer Tools” panel like here:
You will see the null → Array(1) text in the window. If not, refresh the page and it should be there. You can scroll through it to see all the data that is returned from the JavaScript call. Click the arrows on the left to open down a tree with all of the data returned. The code copied above contains my username “money-dreamer”, but you can replace it with you or anyone's screen name.
Now that we have the basics down, let's get the data to display on the web page. Copy and paste this code into the NotePad window for the “index.html” file, save it and then refresh your browser.
<html>
<head>
<script src="https://cdn.steemjs.com/lib/latest/steem.min.js"></script>
<script>
steem.api.getAccounts(['money-dreamer'], function(err, response){
//console.log(err, response);
document.getElementById("name").innerHTML = response[0]['name'];
document.getElementById("balance").innerHTML = response[0]['balance'];
document.getElementById("created").innerHTML = response[0]['created'];
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
Hello <span id="name">Steem</span>!
<div>You have <span id="balance">0 Steem</span>.div>
<div>Your account was created on <span id="created">2000-01-01T00:00:00</span>.div>
</body>
</html>
The webpage in your browser should look like this:
This bot is very simple and this guide is just to get you started. Follow Me for more tutorials on building bots for steemit. I am working on a more advanced tutorial using Node.js.
Find the documentation for more function calls here: https://steemit.github.io/steemit-docs/
Here is the steemit GitHub: https://github.com/steemit/steem
Here is the steemit Node Package: https://www.npmjs.com/package/steem
You can use this sample to get started on building your more complex bot. I hope you found this tutorial helpful. Follow me for more tutorials on building bots for steemit!
Here is a more advanced tutorial that involves NodeJS & GitHub https://steemit.com/javascript/@money-dreamer/nodejs-steemit-bot-tutorial