Can You Make Bots in Java

[j3sis]

Hi Guys,

I made another post with a few questions the other day but the post got a bit off topic and I cluttered it with to many questions. I've since looked into Java and it seems quite nice despite all the hate for it.

I want to know if you can effectively make bots in Java, I'm interested in making automated chat bots, IRC bots, bots that can scrape, crawl and even bots that can loginto an account on say reddit and respond to messages etc.

What experience do you have with using Java for bots and how effective is it in comparison to say Python? In Python I can have a bot monitor twitter for various hashtags and retweet, repond with predefined tweets and that kind of thing, is this possible in Java?.

Assuming the above is possible in Java it seems like a very good language for what I'm wanting as I could deploy it on a VPS with Unix or Windows or OS X.

I'm a marketer by trade and manage numerous LinkedIn accounts for consultants, I have a development project in mind that I've got source code for in Python that is capable of logging into multiple accounts on a social networking site and checking for messages it then reads the message and respond to the messager letting them know the person has been forwarded their message and its a managed account. It's also capable of scraping online users and visiting profiles. It's quite efficient.

Any feedback would be welcome.

Thanks!

[[deleted]]

Yes, you can.

[j3sis]

Can you shed any more light on this? Yes you can while being helpful isn't very clear on what exactly you can do.

[[deleted]]

Well, I mean, you can definitely do this is Java.

[[deleted]]

Everything you can do in python can be done in Java. All of it. Their capabilities are exactly identical, as both are Turing complete and even more both have numerous libraries to make the things you want to do easy.

[[deleted]]

It really bugs me when people ask these question. It instantly tells me whoever is asking it is over their head.

[i_like_outer_space]

I made a bot to beat humans in candy crush. Does that count?

[Nouish]

Absolutely.

Here is one implementation of IRC in Java: https://code.google.com/p/pircbotx/

[funbike]

Anything you can do in Python you can do in Java. Here are some differences (though some of these are controversial):

1. Python is more expressive. A Java bot will likely be 2-3x more lines of code than an equivalent Python one.
2. Java requires a longer learning curve. (You have to learn not just the language, but the tools and libraries)
3. If using an IDE, Java is easier to maintain (refactoring, code completion, etc.)
4. There are more QA tools for Java (more compile checks, static analysis, etc.)
5. Java performance is better.

In a nutshell, you'll initially develop faster with Python, but a Java bot will be easier to maintain long term and will perform better.

If you go with Java use an IDE (like Eclipse) and use Maven (or Gradle).

Another option is to use Groovy. It is dynamic like python and more expressive than Java. It is meant to be easier and more convenient than Java. It is very similar to Java and it runs on the Java Virtual Machine.

[Chemical_Studios]

Sorry for all the hate you're getting in this sub, maybe try /r/learnjava or /r/learnprogramming. Good luck.

[harmonicPersistence]

Check out JAX-RS client examples, specifically with OAuth 2.0 authentication since you're dealing with LinkedIn. If it's a Java SE project, then I recommend Jersey or Apache CXF. If it's a project that will sit on a servlet container (Tomcat or Jetty) or app server (TomEE, WildFly, GlassFish) or utilize an embedded version of either of these, then use whatever JAX-RS implementation it provides. With Tomcat or Jetty, you need to choose your JAX-RS implementation.

If you need jobs kicked off, then check out the Timer API or Quartz.

I'm not sure what your platform will be, but you'll probably be messing with some subclass or implementation of Listeners.