In this article, we’ll leverage the discord.ext.commands extension in discord.py
to refactor our somewhat complex on_message function.

Recap

The code up to our last session is as follows:
We added !omikuji and !quiz commands, which made the on_message function somewhat bloated.

In this post, we’ll introduce a method to wait for user replies and leverage it to add a new ‘Quiz’ feature to our chatbot.

A Recap of What We’ve Covered

Previously, we delved into how to reply to user messages.
We then employed this mechanism to incorporate a ‘fortune-telling’ feature.

In this article, we’ll expand our chatbot by enabling it to respond to user messages.
We’ll also introduce a fun ‘Fortune Telling’ feature to our chatbot.

A Recap of Our Progress

As of our previous session, our chatbot can now receive user messages in a chat.
Here’s what our chatbot.py script currently looks like:

In this article, we’ll finally dive into creating a chatbot in Python.

Firstly, ensure that your working directory, discord-chatbot, contains at least the following two components from our previous sessions:

• .venv directory: This is for a virtual environment.
  
  Related Content Building a Discord Chatbot with Python (2) - Setting Up the Development Environment
• .discord_token file: This file contains a Discord token.
  
  Related Content Building a Discord Chatbot with Python (3) - Adding Your Bot to Discord

1. Activating the Virtual Environment

1. Move to the discord-chatbot directory and activate the virtual environment:

In this article, we’ll walk through the Discord settings for your chatbot.

1. Create a Discord Account

If you don’t already have a Discord account, start by creating one.
For a guide on account creation, check out this link.

2. Create a Discord Server

Next, set up the Discord server where your chatbot will operate.

1. Click the ‘+’ icon in the top-left corner.

   

2. Choose “Create My Own”.

   

3. Select “For me and my friends”.

In this article, we’ll prepare the development environment to build a Discord chatbot in Python.

We’ll be utilizing the discord.py library.
Ensure you have Python version 3.8 or higher to use this library.

1. Create a Working Directory

Let’s begin by creating a working directory named discord-chatbot.
All our operations will be performed within this directory.