CDS Paper Bot

This is a Twitter bot written in python (version 3) that reads the RSS feeds of the CERN Document Server (CDS) and creates tweets/toots of new publications.

It currently works pretty well for the ATLAS and CMS feeds listed in feeds.ini, could probably easily be extended to the LHCb and ALICE ones listed in the file already.

Follow the bots on twitter @CMSpapers, @ATLASpapers/@ATLAS_results, and @LHCb_results. Or follow on Mastodon: @cmspapers@botsin.space.

To get it to work as a bot, an auth.ini file containing information in the following format:

[CMS]
BOT_HANDLE = @CMS_results
CONSUMER_KEY = xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
CONSUMER_SECRET = xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ACCESS_TOKEN = xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET = xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

For more details on authentication, refer to the Twitter Developer Platform.

For using the tool with a Mastodon bot, auth.ini should contain:

[CMS]
MASTODON_BOT_HANDLE = @CMSpapers@botsin.space
MASTODON_ACCESS_TOKEN = xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

You can obtain the access token by creating a new application on your Mastodon account's application settings (here provided for botsin.space).

For information on running the bot, do

python cds_paper_bot.py --help

Note: if this doesn't work on MacOS, make sure to brew install freetype imagemagick and export MAGICK_HOME=/opt/homebrew/opt/imagemagick.

Docker image

If you would like to run the bot in an isolated environment, e.g. on a Raspberry Pi, you can try to use the Dockerfile. Build the container using:

docker build -t cds_paper_bot .

Then run it from the repository directory:

docker run --rm -ti -v "$(pwd)":/home/app -w /home/app cds_paper_bot python cds_paper_bot.py

Deploying the bot to GitLab CI/CD

Using the CERN GitLab installation and its CI/CD capabilities, you can run the bot such that it regularly checks for new analyses. Follow the instructions here.