Telebot v1.0

Telebot is a simple project which forwards all Telegram messages sent to a bot into a chat (i.e. master chat) and vice-versa.

Create database tables

create table agents (
    chat_id int not null primary key,
    is_group boolean not null default false,
    name varchar(120) not null
);

create table updates (
    update_id int not null primary key,
    payload varchar(1200) not null
);

create table messages (
    chat_id int not null,
    message_id int not null,
    reply_chat_id int,
    reply_message_id int,
    timestamp timestamp not null,
    primary key (chat_id, message_id)
);

create table rate_limits (
    chat_id int not null primary key,
    max_messages int not null default 0,
    timespan int not null default 0
);

create table forwarded_messages (
    from_chat_id int not null,
    from_message_id int not null,
    to_chat_id int not null,
    to_message_id int not null,
    primary key (to_chat_id, to_message_id)
);

Grant SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE privileges to the tables

Create Telegram bot

Go to bot father and create a new bot with /newbot command Disable group privacy with /setprivacy command

Create a virtual environment

Follow the guide: https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/guides/installing-using-pip-and-virtual-environments/

To activate virtual environment: Windows .\env\Scripts\activate Unix ./env/bin/python

Install dependencies

Run the following command: pip install python-dotenv python-telegram-bot For webhook strategy only (not needed for polling strategy): pip install flask

For MySql: pip install mysql-connector-python For Postgresql: pip install psycopg2

Running the server locally

• Copy .env_sample to .env and fill in the variables
• Run the application using either of the commands below: py polling.py py webhook.py

Deployment to Heroku (Only for webhook)

• Create Heroku account and create a new project
• Set the env variables in the project settings
• Install Heroku CLI from their website: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/heroku-command-line
• Login via CLI (remember to add executable folder to PATH): heroku login
• Add the Heroku remote: heroku git:remote -a <project_name>
• Install the Heroku dependency: pip install gunicorn
• Create a seperate branch for Heroku
• Create Procfile file with the following as its content: web: gunicorn webhook:app
• Define libraries used for Heroku: pip freeze > requirements.txt
• Commit the two created files
• Push to Heroku: git push heroku <branch>:master

Learn your commands

Register as chat agent

Type /setagent to the chat bot and enter the agent password when prompted