telegram-bot-bootstrap

telegram-bot-bootstrap

A bootstrap for Telegram bot with directly deployable sample bot and JS-wrapped API methods.

See the full API documentation of this project.

Installation

If you wish to use only the wrapped Telegram API, do either of

npm install telegram-bot-bootstrap
git clone https://github.com/kengz/telegram-bot-bootstrap.git

Either way you'll get a module with the Telegram bot API wrapped in Node, and a bootstrapped, deploy-ready project.

If you haven't already, get a bot from BotFather and remember your bot token!

Features

• Wrapped API methods take either a JSON object or multiple parameters, properly serialized for HTTP formData.
• API methods return promises (uses q) for easy chaining and flow control.
• Complete documentation and examples usages.
• Bootstrapped and directly deployable bot.

Usage: only the API

See the full API documentation of this project.

API.js contains the Telegram Bot API wrapped in Node. The methods will return a promise for easy chaining, and will take either a whole JSON, or multiple parameters for convenience. For the latter, everything will be serialized properly for you to send over a HTTP POST method.

If you wish to use just the API or test the bot methods, here's an example

var bot = require('telegram-bot-bootstrap');

var Alice = new bot(token);

Alice.getUpdates().then(console.log)
// → you'll see an update message. Look for your user_id in "message.from.id"

// Once you get your id to message yourself, you may:
Alice.sendMessage(your-id, "Hello there")
// → you'll receive a message from Alice.
.then(console.log)
// → optional, will log the successful message sent over HTTP

Usage: Bootstrapped, Deployable Bot

We distinguish the bot from the API: bot.js extends API.js, and will be the deployed component.

This whole project is bootstrapped and deploy-ready: all the details of HTTP and server stuff taken care of for you. I deploy this git project onto my Heroku and voila, my bot is alive.

Setup

In addition to the token, you'll need a webhookUrl. If you deploy your Node app to Heroku, then the webhookUrl is simply your Heroku site url. Set both of them in the .env file:

TIMES=2
PORT=8443
TOKEN=your-Telegram-bot-token
WEBHOOK=your-webhook-url

The sample available is an echo-bot. To make your bot do interesting stuff, head over to bot.js, under the handle method, start writing your own from below the Extend from here comment.

The bot inherits all the API methods, so you can simply call them for example by this.sendMessage.

Deployment

The server is deployed in index.js, and a bot is constructed to handle all HTTP POST calls from Telegram.

I use Heroku. This shall work for any other services too. Once I'm done setting up, I do:

git push heroku master

And done. Start talking to the bot.