Setting up parkertron on ServerPrism

parkertron is a simple chatbot bot for Discord. This guide covers how to create your bot application, invite it to your server, and configure it to run on your ServerPrism instance.

Create your bot in Discord Developer Portal

1. Go to the Discord Developer Portal.
2. Click New Application.
3. Give your application a name (e.g., parkertron) and click Create.
4. In the left sidebar, click Bot.
5. Click Add Bot, then Yes, Do it!.
6. Under TOKEN, click Reset Token, then Yes, Do it! to reveal your bot's token. Copy this token immediately. You will need it for your ServerPrism configuration.
7. Scroll down to Privileged Gateway Intents.
8. Enable the Message Content Intent toggle. parkertron needs this to read messages and respond.

Invite the bot to your server

1. In the left sidebar, click OAuth2.
2. Click URL Generator.
3. Under SCOPES, select bot.
4. Under BOT PERMISSIONS, select Send Messages and Read Message History.
5. Copy the generated URL at the bottom of the page.
6. Paste the URL into your browser and press Enter.
7. Select the Discord server you want to add the bot to and click Authorize.

Order on ServerPrism

You've already ordered your Discord Bots product and selected parkertron as your runtime. Your server is now deploying or already deployed. parkertron is a lightweight bot, and the default 1 GB RAM allocation is more than sufficient. Your chosen region will host your bot.

Configure startup variables

1. Navigate to your server's panel on ServerPrism.

2. Click on the Startup tab.

3. You will see several environment variables that you need to set:

   • BOT_TOKEN: Paste the bot token you copied from the Discord Developer Portal here.
   • PREFIX: Set this to your desired command prefix. A common choice is ! or ?. For example, if you set it to !, you would use !hello to interact with the bot.
   • OWNER: Enter your Discord user ID here. You can get your user ID by enabling Developer Mode in Discord (User Settings > Advanced) and then right-clicking your username and selecting Copy ID.

4. Ensure all required variables are filled.

First start

1. After configuring your startup variables, go to the Console tab in your ServerPrism panel.
2. Click the Start button.
3. Watch the console output. A successful startup will show messages indicating the bot is connecting to Discord and is ready. You should see output similar to [INFO] parkertron is online!.
4. Check your Discord server; your bot should appear online in the member list.
5. Try a command like !hello (or whatever your PREFIX is) in a channel your bot can see to confirm it's responding.

Common issues

• Bot token rejected/Invalid Token: Double-check that you copied the token correctly from the Discord Developer Portal and pasted it into the BOT_TOKEN variable on the Startup tab without any extra spaces or characters. If you regenerate the token, update it immediately in your ServerPrism panel.
• Bot online but no response: Ensure you enabled the Message Content Intent in the Discord Developer Portal under your bot's settings. Without this, the bot cannot read your messages.
• Bot not going online: Review the console logs for specific error messages. Common issues include incorrect tokens or missing environment variables.

Next steps

Explore the basic commands for parkertron by using your defined prefix. Since parkertron is a simple chatbot, its features are straightforward. For more detailed information or to explore its source code, you can visit the official parkertron GitHub repository.