A Python wrapper around the Telegram Bot API
Project description
A Python wrapper around the Telegram Bot API.
Stay tuned for library updates and new releases on our Telegram Channel.
Table of contents
Introduction
This library provides a pure Python interface for the Telegram Bot API. It works with Python versions from 2.6+. It also works with Google App Engine.
Status
Telegram API support
Telegram Bot API Method |
Supported? |
---|---|
getMe |
Yes |
sendMessage |
Yes |
forwardMessage |
Yes |
sendPhoto |
Yes |
sendAudio |
Yes |
sendDocument |
Yes |
sendSticker |
Yes |
sendVideo |
Yes |
sendVoice |
Yes |
sendLocation |
Yes |
sendChatAction |
Yes |
getUpdates |
Yes |
getUserProfilePhotos |
Yes |
getFile |
Yes |
setWebhook |
Yes |
answerInlineQuery |
Yes |
Python Version support
Python Version |
Supported? |
---|---|
2.6 |
Yes |
2.7 |
Yes |
3.3 |
Yes |
3.4 |
Yes |
3.5 |
Yes |
PyPy |
Yes |
PyPy3 |
Yes |
Installing
You can install python-telegram-bot using:
$ pip install python-telegram-bot
Or upgrade to the latest version:
$ pip install python-telegram-bot --upgrade
Getting the code
The code is hosted at https://github.com/python-telegram-bot/python-telegram-bot
Check out the latest development version anonymously with:
$ git clone https://github.com/python-telegram-bot/python-telegram-bot $ cd python-telegram-bot
Install dependencies:
$ pip install -r requirements.txt
Run tests:
$ make test
To see other options available, run:
$ make help
Getting started
View the last release API documentation at: https://core.telegram.org/bots/api
This library uses the logging module. To set up logging to standard output, put:
import logging logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG, format='%(asctime)s - %(name)s - %(levelname)s - %(message)s')
at the beginning of your script.
Note: The telegram.ext module will catch errors that would cause the bot to crash. All these are logged to the logging module, so it’s recommended to use this if you are looking for error causes.
API
Note: Using the Bot class directly is the ‘old’ method, but almost all of this is still important information, even if you’re using the telegram.ext submodule!
The API is exposed via the telegram.Bot class.
To generate an Access Token you have to talk to BotFather and follow a few simple steps (described here).
For full details see the Bots: An introduction for developers.
To create an instance of the telegram.Bot:
>>> import telegram >>> bot = telegram.Bot(token='token')
To see if your credentials are successful:
>>> print bot.getMe() {"first_name": "Toledo's Palace Bot", "username": "ToledosPalaceBot"}
Bots can’t initiate conversations with users. A user must either add them to a group or send them a message first. People can use telegram.me/<bot_username> links or username search to find your bot.
To fetch text messages sent to your Bot:
>>> updates = bot.getUpdates() >>> print [u.message.text for u in updates]
To fetch images sent to your Bot:
>>> updates = bot.getUpdates() >>> print [u.message.photo for u in updates if u.message.photo]
To reply messages you’ll always need the chat_id:
>>> chat_id = bot.getUpdates()[-1].message.chat_id
To post a text message:
>>> bot.sendMessage(chat_id=chat_id, text="I'm sorry Dave I'm afraid I can't do that.")
To post a text message with markdown:
>>> bot.sendMessage(chat_id=chat_id, text="*bold* _italic_ [link](http://google.com).", parse_mode=telegram.ParseMode.MARKDOWN)
To post a text message with Html style:
>>> bot.sendMessage(chat_id=chat_id, text="<b>bold</b> <i>italic</i> <a href="http://google.com">link</a>.", parse_mode=telegram.ParseMode.HTML)
To post an Emoji (special thanks to Tim Whitlock):
>>> bot.sendMessage(chat_id=chat_id, text=telegram.Emoji.PILE_OF_POO)
To post an image file via URL:
>>> bot.sendPhoto(chat_id=chat_id, photo='https://telegram.org/img/t_logo.png')
To post an image file from disk:
>>> bot.sendPhoto(chat_id=chat_id, photo=open('tests/test.png', 'rb'))
To post a voice file from disk:
>>> bot.sendVoice(chat_id=chat_id, voice=open('tests/telegram.ogg', 'rb'))
To tell the user that something is happening on bot’s side:
>>> bot.sendChatAction(chat_id=chat_id, action=telegram.ChatAction.TYPING)
To create Custom Keyboards:
>>> custom_keyboard = [[ telegram.Emoji.THUMBS_UP_SIGN, telegram.Emoji.THUMBS_DOWN_SIGN ]] >>> reply_markup = telegram.ReplyKeyboardMarkup(custom_keyboard) >>> bot.sendMessage(chat_id=chat_id, text="Stay here, I'll be back.", reply_markup=reply_markup)
To hide Custom Keyboards:
>>> reply_markup = telegram.ReplyKeyboardHide() >>> bot.sendMessage(chat_id=chat_id, text="I'm back.", reply_markup=reply_markup)
To download a file (you will need its file_id):
>>> file_id = message.voice.file_id >>> newFile = bot.getFile(file_id) >>> newFile.download('voice.ogg')
There are many more API methods, to read the full API documentation:
$ pydoc telegram.Bot
Extensions
The telegram.ext submodule is built on top of the bare-metal API. It provides an easy-to-use interface to the telegram.Bot by caring about getting new updates with the Updater class from telegram and forwarding them to the Dispatcher class. We can register handler functions in the Dispatcher to make our bot react to Telegram commands, messages and even arbitrary updates.
We’ll need an Access Token. Note: If you have done this in the previous step, you can use that one. To generate an Access Token, we have to talk to BotFather and follow a few simple steps (described here).
First, we create an Updater object:
>>> from telegram.ext import Updater >>> updater = Updater(token='token')
For quicker access to the Dispatcher used by our Updater, we can introduce it locally:
>>> dispatcher = updater.dispatcher
Now, we need to define a function that should process a specific type of update:
>>> def start(bot, update): ... bot.sendMessage(chat_id=update.message.chat_id, text="I'm a bot, please talk to me!")
We want this function to be called on a Telegram message that contains the /start command, so we need to register it in the dispatcher:
>>> dispatcher.addTelegramCommandHandler('start', start)
The last step is to tell the Updater to start working:
>>> updater.start_polling()
Our bot is now up and running (go ahead and try it)! It’s not doing anything yet, besides answering to the /start command. Let’s add another handler function and register it:
>>> def echo(bot, update): ... bot.sendMessage(chat_id=update.message.chat_id, text=update.message.text) ... >>> dispatcher.addTelegramMessageHandler(echo)
Our bot should now reply to all messages that are not a command with a message that has the same content.
People might try to send commands to the bot that it doesn’t understand, so we should get that covered as well:
>>> def unknown(bot, update): ... bot.sendMessage(chat_id=update.message.chat_id, text="Sorry, I didn't understand that command.") ... >>> dispatcher.addUnknownTelegramCommandHandler(unknown)
Let’s add some functionality to our bot. We want to add the /caps command, that will take some text as parameter and return it in all caps. We can get the arguments that were passed to the command in the handler function simply by adding it to the parameter list:
>>> def caps(bot, update, args): ... text_caps = ' '.join(args).upper() ... bot.sendMessage(chat_id=update.message.chat_id, text=text_caps) ... >>> dispatcher.addTelegramCommandHandler('caps', caps)
To enable our bot to respond to inline queries, we can add the following (you will also have to talk to BotFather):
>>> from telegram import InlineQueryResultArticle >>> def inline_caps(bot, update): ... # If you activated inline feedback, updates might either contain ... # inline_query or chosen_inline_result, the other one will be None ... if update.inline_query: ... query = bot.update.inline_query.query ... results = list() ... results.append(InlineQueryResultArticle(query.upper(), 'Caps', text_caps)) ... bot.answerInlineQuery(update.inline_query.id, results) ... >>> dispatcher.addTelegramInlineHandler(inline_caps)
Now it’s time to stop the bot:
>>> updater.stop()
Check out more examples in the examples folder!
JobQueue
The JobQueue allows you to perform tasks with a delay or even periodically. The Updater will create one for you:
>>> from telegram.ext import Updater >>> u = Updater('TOKEN') >>> j = u.job_queue
The job queue uses functions for tasks, so we define one and add it to the queue. Usually, when the first job is added to the queue, it wil start automatically. We can prevent this by setting prevent_autostart=True:
>>> def job1(bot): ... bot.sendMessage(chat_id='@examplechannel', text='One message every minute') >>> j.put(job1, 60, next_t=0, prevent_autostart=True)
You can also have a job that will not be executed repeatedly:
>>> def job2(bot): ... bot.sendMessage(chat_id='@examplechannel', text='A single message with 30s delay') >>> j.put(job2, 30, repeat=False)
Now, because we didn’t prevent the auto start this time, the queue will start ticking. It runs in a seperate thread, so it is non-blocking. When we stop the Updater, the related queue will be stopped as well:
>>> u.stop()
We can also stop the job queue by itself:
>>> j.stop()
Logging
You can get logs in your main application by calling logging and setting the log level you want:
>>> import logging >>> logger = logging.getLogger() >>> logger.setLevel(logging.INFO)
If you want DEBUG logs instead:
>>> logger.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
Examples
Here follows some examples to help you to get your own Bot up to speed:
echobot2 replies back messages.
clibot has a command line interface.
timerbot uses the JobQueue to send timed messages.
Welcome Bot greets everyone who joins a group chat.
Legacy examples (pre-3.0):
echobot replies back messages.
Simple-Echo-Telegram-Bot simple Python Telegram bot that echoes your input with Flask microframework, setWebhook method, and Google App Engine (optional) - by @sooyhwang.
DevOps Reaction Bot sends latest or random posts from DevOps Reaction. Running on Google App Engine (billing has to be enabled for fully Socket API support).
Other notable examples:
TwitterForwarderBot forwards you tweets from people that you have subscribed to.
Documentation
python-telegram-bot’s documentation lives at Read the Docs.
License
You may copy, distribute and modify the software provided that modifications are described and licensed for free under LGPL-3. Derivatives works (including modifications or anything statically linked to the library) can only be redistributed under LGPL-3, but applications that use the library don’t have to be.
Contact
Feel free to join to our Telegram group.
TODO
Patches and bug reports are welcome, just please keep the style consistent with the original source.
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