“Other Commands Don’t Work After on_message” in Discord Bots

Discord bots have become an integral part of many communities, serving a variety of functions such as moderation, entertainment, and information. However, as with any technology, things can go wrong. One common issue that users may encounter is that other commands don’t work after the on_message event has been triggered. In this article, we will explore the causes of this issue and provide solutions for resolving it.

Various causes of “Other Commands Don’t Work After on_message”

There are several reasons why other commands may not work after the on_message event has been triggered. One common cause is the use of the return statement in the on_message event handler.

Using return statement

When the return statement is used, it stops the execution of the event handler, preventing any further commands from being processed. For example, in the following code snippet, the bot only processes the first command and exits the event handler, which causes other commands to not work.

@client.event
async def on_message(message):
    if message.content.startswith('!hello'):
        await message.channel.send('Hello!')
        return
    if message.content.startswith('!goodbye'):
        await message.channel.send('Goodbye!')

Even global variables can interfere

Another cause may be the use of global variables in the on_message event handler. These variables can interfere with the execution of other commands and cause them to fail. For example, the following code snippet uses a global variable command_count to keep track of the number of commands processed by the bot. However, this variable interferes with the execution of other commands and causes them to not work.

command_count = 0

@client.event
async def on_message(message):
    global command_count
    if message.content.startswith('!hello'):
        await message.channel.send('Hello!')
        command_count += 1
    if message.content.startswith('!goodbye'):
        await message.channel.send('Goodbye!')
        command_count += 1
    if command_count > 5:
        return

Not using “bot.process_commands()”

When this event is triggered, it takes over the bot, and it may not be able to process the commands. The code given below shows an example of it:

import discord
from discord.ext import commands

bot = commands.Bot()

@bot.event
async def on_ready():
    print('Logged in as')
    print(bot.user.name)
    print(bot.user.id)
    print('------')

@bot.event
async def on_message(message):
    if message.content.startswith('-debug'):
        await message.channel.send('Debug message')

@bot.command()
async def ping(ctx):
    await ctx.send('Pong!')

bot.run("TOKEN")

In this example, the on_message event is being used, but the bot.process_commands(message) method is not being called after the if statement. This means that when the event is triggered, it takes over the bot, and the commands are not processed. This will result in the bot running without any exceptions, but the ping the command will not work.

Using proper command prefix

Another possible cause is the use of an improper command prefix. A command prefix is the character or set of characters that a user types before a command invokes it. If the prefix is not set correctly, the bot may not recognize other commands and fail to execute them. The following code snippet uses the prefix '!' for commands, however, if the user uses a different prefix, the bot will not process the command.

@client.event
async def on_message(message):
    if message.content.startswith('!hello'):
        await message.channel.send('Hello!')
    if message.content.startswith('!goodbye'):
        await message.channel.send('Goodbye!')

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[Fixed] typeerror can’t compare datetime.datetime to datetime.date

What if the request is too much

Lastly, it can also be caused by rate-limiting. If the bot receives too many requests, it may not be able to handle them all. Thus, stopping the processing of commands.

Solutions for “Other Commands Don’t Work After on_message”

To resolve the issue of other commands not working after the on_message event has been triggered, there are several solutions that can be implemented.

Use pass instead of return

Firstly, it is important to ensure that the return statement is not used in the on_message event handler. Instead, use the pass statement to allow the execution of other commands to continue. The following code snippet shows how the return statement has been replaced with the pass statement, allowing other commands to be processed.

@client.event
async def on_message(message):
    if message.content.startswith('!hello'):
        await message.channel.send('Hello!')
    if message.content.startswith('!goodbye'):
        await message.channel.send('Goodbye!')
    pass

Not using global variables

Secondly, it is important to avoid the use of global variables in the on_message event handler. Instead, use local variables that are specific to the event handler. The following code snippet shows how the global variable command_count has been replaced with a local variable count that is specific to the event handler.

@client.event
async def on_message(message):
    count = 0
    if message.content.startswith('!hello'):
        await message.channel.send('Hello!')
        count += 1
    if message.content.startswith('!goodbye'):
        await message.channel.send('Goodbye!')
        count += 1
    if count > 5:
        pass

Use bot.process_commands() function

Also, we need to call the bot.process_commands(message) method after the if statement in the on_message event. This tells the bot to process any commands that are included in the message.

import discord
from discord.ext import commands

bot = commands.Bot()

@bot.event
async def on_ready():
    print('Logged in as')
    print(bot.user.name)
    print(bot.user.id)
    print('------')

@bot.event
async def on_message(message):
    if message.content.startswith('-debug'):
        await message.channel.send('Debug message')
    await bot.process_commands(message)

@bot.command()
async def ping(ctx):
    await ctx.send('Pong!')

bot.run("TOKEN")

Keep a check on the command prefix

It is also very important to set the command prefix correctly. This can be done by using the startswith() method to check if the command starts with the correct prefix. The following code snippet shows how the prefix ! has been used to check if a command is being processed by the bot.

@client.event
async def on_message(message):
    if message.content.startswith('!'):
        if message.content.startswith('!hello'):
            await message.channel.send('Hello!')
        if message.content.startswith('!goodbye'):
            await message.channel.send('Goodbye!')

Keep an eye on too many requests

Lastly, to handle rate-limiting, you can use a rate-limiter library like discord.ext.commands.cooldown or aio-rate-limiter which helps in handling multiple requests and preventing the bot from crashing.

FAQs

Conclusions

The issue of other commands not working after the on_message event has been triggered can be caused by several factors such. By understanding the cause of the problem, developers can use the solutions provided in this article to ensure that their bot functions correctly.