python-telegram-starter-bot

A quick guide for setting up a telegram bot using ngrok.

Getting Started

Please read through the prerequisites and installation instructions to get started. Overall, this bot should give you a template for writing more complex bots.

Prerequisites

These are the known prerequisites I used to get this bot up and running.

1. Python 2.7.x
2. Telegram Bot
3. ngrok
4. Python packages:
   • virtualenv
   • Flask
   • python-telegram-bot
   • requests

Installation

1. Check python Version

This bot was created using Python 2.7.x. I have not rewritten/tested on Python 3.x

Check your Python version

# python -V
Python 2.7.6

2. Create Telegram Bot

If you don't have one already, join Telegram and create an account. Using the BotFather, create a new bot.

Record your bot's TOKEN. It should look something like this: 123456789:AbCd3ef4GH6ijk8lmN5Opq5rSTUvwXYZZZZZ

3. Download and install ngrok

ngrok is useful if you don't have your own public HTTPS endpoint. Telegram needs an HTTP or HTTPS endpoint in order to setup a webhook for your bot. ngrok creates a tunnel so that Telegram can communicate with your localhost.

You can download ngrok here.

We'll review ngrok later in the Implementation section.

4. Install Python Packages

The python-telegram-starter-bot requires the following packages to be installed.

• virtualenv (More details on installation and usage here) To install:

# sudo apt-get install python-virtualenv

Create a directory for your project and then create your virtualenv.

# mkdir /your/project/directory
# virtualenv venv

In your project's directory, enter your virtualenv

# . venv/bin/activate

Be sure to remain in your virtualenv as you install Flask and the remaining packages

• Flask (Same page from above on how to install Flask or reference Flask's documentation)

In your working project directory AND with your virtualenv activated, install Flask

# pip install Flask

• python-telegram-bot (More details on this package here)

# pip install python-telegram-bot

• requests (More details on this package here)

# pip install requests

Implementation

1. Start ngrok

With ngrok downloaded and installed, run: On Windows

ngrok.exe http 8443

On Linux

./ngrok http 8443

Your tunnel will start and you will see a screen like this:

ngrok by @inconshreveable                              (Ctrl+C to quit)

Session Status       online
Version              2.2.8
Region               United States (us)
Web Interface        http://127.0.0.1:4040
Forwarding           http://8e4cbaf8.ngrok.io -> localhost:8443
Forwarding           https://8e4cbaf8.ngrok.io -> localhost:8443

Connections          ttl     opn     rt1     rt5     p50     p90
                     52      0       0.03    0.03    0.31    1.72

Record the ngrok url. In my example this is 8e4cbaf8.ngrok.io

2. Modify python-telegram-starter-bot

Using the code from python-telegram-starter-bot.py, provide the required details for HOST and TOKEN.

Replace with your ngrok url. In my example, this would look like: HOST = '8e4cbaf8.ngrok.io'

Replace with your Telegram Bot Token. In my example, this would look like: 123456789:AbCd3ef4GH6ijk8lmN5Opq5rSTUvwXYZZZZZ

3. Start your bot

# ./python-telegram-starter-bot.py

4. Telegram

In telegram start a conversation with your bot. From the code, you can see it has a response for /start and /help.

5. Build your bot

Using this framework, start adding more elif statements to handle different user input!