Creating a fully automated Telegram news bot with Paquebot

A tutorial for Telegram hackers…

(This is the first big revision of the original article which I posted here in August 2015)

Telegram is an awesome Messenger. It’s fast, secure, available on almost every device and FREE (and Open Source)!

Some months ago Telegram announced their bot API. Developers who want to code and develop their themselves can find more information about the Bot API here.

But in this article I don’t want to talk about the API. I want to focus on Paquebot in combination with IFTTT, which is kinda wrapper service for the API.

Prerequisites:

• Telegram account
• IFTTT account (optional, needed if you want to customize the messages your bot will send)

Step 1: Create a bot via BotFather

To find the BotFather go to Telegram and search for “@BotFather”. After you found it press “Start” and send a new message with “/newbot” to him. Now send him the name for the bot and after that the username, which has to end with “bot”.

Now your bot is created! Important: The BotFather will congratulate you and send you with this message an access token. Just copy this token for later.

Step 2: Connect the bot with Paquebot

After creating the bot you can now connect your bot to Paquebot. Just search for [email protected] on Telegram and press “Start”. Now you should have the option to add a new bot. Simply send “/addbot” follow by the access token we just copied from the BotFather.

Now your bot should be connected to Paquebot!

Now you can choose between step 3A or 3B (3A is the simpler one and doesn’t need IFTTT).

Step 3A: Use Paquebot to fetch any RSS feed

Paquebot already offers you the possibility to automate the bot.

To configure the bot automation, go to your new created bot and send him “/paquebot” and select the option in the menu.

Step 3B: Connect your bot with any RSS feed via IFTTT

If you want to have more control over customization of the messages your bot will send you can use IFTTT.

To configure IFTTT, go to your bot, send him “/paquebot” and choose “Automate”. Now select “API Key” and copy the key you’ll get.

After that open this link in your browser. Here you have the option to enter your RSS url. Add it in the text field with the caption “Feed Url”.

In the other text field with the caption “URL” you have to enter the following:

“https://app.paquebot.io/api/” + the key, we just copied from the bot +”/sendMessage”

After that press “ADD”.

Now everything should be done and you should always get a new message from your bot when IFTTT recognizes a new article in the feed.