How to install and host your own bot instance

Clone/download the repository here -> https://github.com/eduardozgz/member-counter-bot​

If you have any problem during the process, join in this discord server and feel free to ask in the support channel

You must have already a bot account created in the Discord Developer Portal and enabled all the priviliged intents

Recommendations:

• Have patience

• Be familiarized with the CLI (cmd.exe, bash)

• Use linux if you wanna host this bot 24/7 (unless you already know how to do it in your OS)

1. Get a mongoDB database and install node.js​

You need nodejs 14.0 or higher

You can downlaod and install the mongoDB community server for free or rent a mongoDB Atlas instance (there is also some free plans) I strongly recommend to install mongoDB in your machine due to a easier and faster access.

2. Set environment variables

​

Copy and paste the .env.example file and rename it to .env , then create a dist folder and move the .env file there, and open it with a text editor. Below I will explain what does each necessary varaible.

• DISCORD_TOKEN Paste here your bot's token, and remember to keep it secret!

• DISCORD_CLIENT_ID Paste here your bot's id and add an * at the end.

• DB_URI If you installed mongodb, this varaible should be set to mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/memberCounter.

• DISCORD_DEFAULT_LANG There are 3 available languages: English (en_US), Spanish (es_ES) and Portuguese (pt_BR).

• DISCORD_PREFIX feel free to change its value to your favorite bot prefix, but be careful to don't use the same as other bots

• BOT_OWNERS Right click your username in the discord client and press "Copy ID" and paste it here and add an * at the end, you can add as many users as you want separated by a comma (,). Any user added here will have always full access to the bot's commands without any restriction.

• UPDATE_COUNTER_INTERVAL (Seconds) This value will change the frequency of some counter updates.

3. Install dependencies and build

npm install
npm build

4. Check that it works

1. Start it in your terminal with 'npm start' or 'node index.js'

2. Add the bot to your server (you can generate a link in the Discord Developer Portal -> click in your bot, click in OAuth2, in the scope section click 'bot' and then will appear more options, click in 'Administrator' and copy the generated link)

3. Testing the bot: (remember to replace mc! with your custom prefix)

   • Send mc!help

   • Send mc!guide

   • If you were able to run the commands succesfully without any error, congrats, the bot wroks.

5. Keep it running, forever.

Linux (with systemd):

1. cd to the bot folder and then cd to the distfolder

2. Check that index.js has execution permissions for you (and try it by running the bot directly in ther terminal with ./index.js)

3. Edit the res/member-counter-bot.service file, change the path of ExecStart and WorkingDirectory to the real one and change the User and Group values to yours.

4. Copy this file to /etc/systemd/system

   sudo cp res/member-counter-bot.service /etc/systemd/system

5. Enable the service and start it

   sudo systemctl enable member-counter-bot.service && sudo systemctl start member-counter-bot.service

6. Check the logs with journalctl

   sudo journalctl -u member-counter-bot.service

7. Repeat the steps of 4.3​

8. Discard changes of member-counter-bot.service of this repo to avoid conflicts if you update the bot in a future.

   git checkout res/member-counter-bot.service