TeleBotNotifier

TeleBotNotifier is a Python tool written using FastAPI to interact with a telegram bot.

This was created out of the desire for a simple self-hosted notification system which could send a message just by sending a single http request.

Configuration

The app is configured through the use of environment variables. The reason for this is it is designed to be run in a container, and configuration is simple when using environment variables in a container.

Required Parameters

The app requires the following environment variables to be set.

Parameter	Description
TELEBOTNOTIFIER_BOT_TOKEN	The http token provided when creating the bot.
TELEBOTNOTIFIER_CHAT_ID	The chat ID or channel name which you want to send messages to.

Optional Parameters

Parameter	Default	Description
TELEBOTNOTIFIER_DEBUG	0	Set to 1 to enable debugging. Any other value will be ignored.
TELEBOTNOTIFIER_USE_HTTP	0	Set to 1 to prefer http over https when making requests to api.telegram.org. Any other value will be ignored.

Setup

Telegram Bot

To use this service, you first need to create a telegram bot. Check the Telegram documentation for more details.

Once the bot is set up and you have your bot's http token, send a message to the bot using the Telegram mobile/desktop app.

Then make a request to https://api.telegram.org/bot<BOT_TOKEN>/getUpdates to get your chat ID.

Docker Setup

Docker repo: https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/eddi16/telebotnotifier

An example docker-compose configuration would look like:

version: '3.6'

services:
  telebotnotifier:
    image: eddi16/telebotnotifier
    container_name: telebotnotifier
    environment:
      - TELEBOTNOTIFIER_BOT_TOKEN=<BOT HTTP TOKEN>
      - TELEBOTNOTIFIER_CHAT_ID=<CHAT ID>
      # Any optional env variables here
    ports:
    - 8000:8000

Or without docker-compose:

docker run -d -e TELEBOTNOTIFIER_BOT_TOKEN=<BOT HTTP TOKEN> -e TELEBOTNOTIFIER_CHAT_ID=<CHAT ID> -p 8000:8000 --name telebotnotifier eddi16/telebotnotifier

Manual Setup

The API is started in the typical FastAPI fashion, by running the below command:

uvicorn telebotnotifier:app

See https://www.uvicorn.org/ for more options on configuring listening port, etc.

Usage

Once the service is up and healthy, you are able to send a message from your bot in the specified chat/channel. e.g:

• In a browser:

• Using curl

curl -G -X GET localhost:8000/msg --data-urlencode "msg=Hello, this is your bot speaking!"

• Sending file contents or other multi-line output

curl -G -X GET http://localhost:8000/msg --data-urlencode "msg=$(cat docker-compose.yml)"

Additional Info

Healthcheck

The service has a healthcheck function as the API was designed to be run in a container.

The healthcheck routine:

• Checks that the bot token is valid.
• Checks that the chat ID is valid for that bot.