Botversary

Botversary is a Telegram Bot that, given a set of anniversaries, sends a message if there is a birthday today.

Therefore, it needs to be executed everyday.

Download or clone

1. Download the repository and open the main folder or simply execute the following commands:

git clone https://github.com/henrycoas/Botversary.git
cd Botversary

Dependencies

2. This program is written in Python, and requires the following library:

sudo apt install pipenv
pipenv install --ignore-pipfile

You will also need to have Python installed. I used 3.8 version. Install it in order to be able to run the previous commands.

Token setup

3. A TELEGRAM_TOKEN is needed for the bot to work. This corresponds to the bot API Token, so you will need to create a bot using BotFather and retrieve your bot's API Token.

I found this tutorial online which may be helpful if you don't know how to do it:

How to Create and Connect a Telegram Chatbot

4. Also, you will need your TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID. To get it:

• In your browser, enter this Chat ID Link and replace YOUR_TOKEN with the Telegram API Token from your bot:

https://api.telegram.org/YOUR_TOKEN/getUpdates?offset=0.

• In your Telegram app, send your bot a message.
• Again in your browser, update the page, identify your message and look for your id attribute: that's your TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID.

Modify birthdays

Database example in botversary/bdays_file.csv:

first_name,last_name,day,month,year,note
Enric,Condal,19,3,2001,
Mr,Leap,29,3,,optional comment

• Iff you fill the year attribute, the message will also contain the age of the birthday person.
• The note attribute is also optional, no obligation to add it.
• If there are no birthdays in the current day, the bot won't send any message.

5. To update the database with the changes done to the bdays_file.csv, remove the botversaryDB.db file (if it exists) and then run:

PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:$(pwd) pipenv run python botversary/runner.py --mode SEED --file botversary/bdays_file.csv

Run

6. Execute the command:

TELEGRAM_TOKEN=<your_bot_telegram_token> TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID=<your_telegram_chat_id> PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:$(pwd) pipenv run python botversary/runner.py

You can also set both tokens in the config.py file, so you'll be able to shorten the previous command.

Thanks

Tutorial from Automagic I followed for the initial version

Extensions

• [Done] Add how old is the birthday person
  • Comments: May be easy for University or School friends but not for everyone, so it should be optional
• Run it once every morning
  • Comments: In which server?
• Better messages
  • Comments: Different colors, erase repetitive info related to today's date