Add cooldown / timer to on_message [Discord.py]

Question

I got into making a Discord bot in Python very recently (testing the grounds of Python with it) and created a functioning one with several commands myself. To widen its uses, I have added a level/XP system, which is working so far.

[...]
@bot.event
async def on_message(message):
        user_add_xp(message.author.id, 2)
        await bot.process_commands(message)

# commands go here

def user_add_xp(user_id, xp):
    if os.path.isfile('users.json'):
            try:
                    with open('users.json', 'r') as fp:
                            users = json.load(fp)
                    users[user_id]['xp'] += xp
                    with open('users.json', 'w') as fp:
                            json.dump(users, fp, sort_keys=True, indent=4)
            except KeyError:
                    with open('users.json', 'r') as fp:
                            users = json.load(fp)
                    users[user_id] = {}
                    users[user_id]['xp'] = xp
                    with open('users.json', 'w') as fp:
                            json.dump(users, fp, sort_keys=True, indent=4)
    else:
        users = {user_id: {}}
        users[user_id]['xp'] = xp
        with open('users.json', 'w') as fp:
                json.dump(users, fp, sort_keys=True, indent=4)
[...]

But to prevent users from just flooding/spamming some channels and rocketing to the top, I want to add a cooldown/timer on the awarding of XP. I have tried to add @commands.cooldown(1, 120, commands.BucketType.server) to both @bot.event and user_add_xp , but both do not get me the desired result. I have no other idea how to add this cooldown/timer.

In the end, I want the bot to only grant XP once every two minutes.

Answer 1

Not sure if it's possible with just discord.py , but you can store the last time a message was awarded XP to a user in your dictionary.

The below code stores the number of seconds since a static start date ( epoch ) when a message awards XP. It then checks against this time when a new message event happens.

[...]
import datetime

epoch = datetime.datetime.utcfromtimestamp(0)

@bot.event
async def on_message(message):
    user_add_xp(message.author.id, 2)
    await bot.process_commands(message)

# commands go here

def user_add_xp(user_id, xp):
    if os.path.isfile('users.json'):
        try:
            with open('users.json', 'r') as fp:
                users = json.load(fp)

            time_diff = (datetime.datetime.utcnow() - epoch).total_seconds() - users[user_id]['xp_time']
            if time_diff >= 120:
                users[user_id]['xp'] += xp
                users[user_id]['xp_time'] = (datetime.datetime.utcnow() - epoch).total_seconds()
                with open('users.json', 'w') as fp:
                    json.dump(users, fp, sort_keys=True, indent=4)
        except KeyError:
            with open('users.json', 'r') as fp:
                users = json.load(fp)
            users[user_id] = {}
            users[user_id]['xp'] = xp
            users[user_id]['xp_time'] = (datetime.datetime.utcnow() - epoch).total_seconds()
            with open('users.json', 'w') as fp:
                json.dump(users, fp, sort_keys=True, indent=4)
    else:
        users = {user_id: {}}
        users[user_id]['xp'] = xp
        users[user_id]['xp_time'] = (datetime.datetime.utcnow() - epoch).total_seconds()
        with open('users.json', 'w') as fp:
            json.dump(users, fp, sort_keys=True, indent=4)
[...]