Create an automated bot on Telegram without coding, using Zapier and Paquebot.
This tutorial will show you how to make a bot fully automated without servers, code knowledge or any technical requirements.
WARNING: THIS TUTORIAL WILL BE UPDATED SOON. SOME INSTRUCTIONS MAY NOT BE AVAILABLE EXACTLY AS DESCRIBED.
1) Bot creation with the BotFather
On Telegram, open the @BotFather profile, and start to talk with “him”. You can open the conversation by clicking here. If the screen remains empty, update your Telegram client, or write “/start”
The BotFather will ask you to read a manual, but it’s not necessary!
The first thing you’ll have to do is to create a brand new bot. Type the command “/newbot”.
BotFather will ask you for a bot name, which is a free text, and a bot username: it always end by “bot”. If your wanted username is not available, try again with “yourname_bot”, “yournamerobot”, or “yourname_robot” for example.
For this tutorial, I’ll create a bot who send the news about the people who are born today, so the name will be “Born Today” and the username will be “BornTodayBot”.
The BotFather will give you an HTTP API token, which is, in my case:
87782160:AAGWyE1JSEa8qNqvv4EZzcQQ4kWo7rokMKM
You have to keep this API token, we will add it to Paquebot in the next step. Don’t try to use mine, I changed it ;-)
Your bot now exists, but it is totally useless, as it doesn’t do anything: that’s why we will add Paquebot to it, so your users can interact with it.
2) Link your bot to Paquebot
Now that you have a bot, let’s make him collect subscriptions to your updates. For that we will use Paquebot, a community bot generator.
We won’t speak anymore with the BotFather, but now we’ll talk to @Paquebot. You can open the conversation by clicking here.
Once the conversation is open, type “/addbot” followed by your HTTP API token, which is for me:
“/addbot 8778216[…]7okMKM”
Paquebot now knows that you’re the owner of your bot, and installed his services on it. Now, when you write something (text, commands, etc) to your bot, it will be sent to the Paquebot servers, where your bot is now installed.
You can now communicate with 3 bots: @BotFather, to add new bots to Telegram; @Paquebot, to install Paquebot to your bot; and YourBot, to administrate your own bot.
I can now open @BornTodayBot (click here), and type “/start”:
Everybody can now open BornTodayBot, and subscribe to it!
3) Send updates to my subscribers
Now that my bot is ready, I would like to welcome my users, and send all of them a cute kitten… Okay, I’m the only subscriber yet, and I hate kitten.
On @BornTodayBot, I can type “/paquebot”. Then, the next update I’m sending to that conversation will be sent to all my subscribers! You can broadcast text, but also images (like a kitten), a video, your new podcast with the voice recorder, your location (or another location), some files, and even stickers.
You can now send updates whenever you want, from Telegram. If your users don’t like your bot, they can “/stop” to recieve your subscriptions.
4) Auto-publications with Zapier
We would like to send updates automatically. That’s why we will now use Zapier. Don’t worry, it’s not a bot, it’s a normal website, without any commands to write.
You can easily create your account here: Zapier. The first 14 days, your account will be unlimited, so use that time to make all the tests you want!
Now, let’s create a new zap, clicking on “MAKE A ZAP!” in Zapier’s header.
You can also choose in one of the existing Zaps already available:
No matter the way you choose, you’ll arrive on the Zap creation:
On the left (“Trigger app”), is what you want to send to your bot. On the right (“Action app”), you have to select Paquebot, because it’s what makes the link with your bot.
In my case, I want to add news from a RSS feed, which I found here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/historyorb/famousbirthdays
Configure if necessary your account on the step 2 (for example if you choose Twitter, Tumblr, Gmail, or anything requiring connection).
On the step 3, we have to link your bot to Zapier. On the authentication popup, you’ll see a field asking you for a “Paquebot key”. This is not your Telegram API token, but another key.
To get that key, open YOUR BOT, and type “/botkey”. You should recieve your bot key, that you can then enter on the field:
Your bot is now authenticated. You’ll be able to reuse it on future zaps.
In the step 4 of Zapier configuration, you configure your Trigger action. For Born Today, I entered the RSS feed URL.
In the step 5, we make the link between our source and our bot. Basically, we take the fields from our source, and put them into a text field that will be sent to the bot:
In the step 6, we can test our update. For example, I can see how it looks with the birthdays of the day:
You can also click on “Test Zap with this sample”, and it will send you an update directly:
It’s working! Just name your zap in step 7, and save it. Your bot is now ready and automated!!! We can now relax and enjoy the updates.
Let’s check how BornTodayBot works:
- Every time there is an update on my trigger (new birthdays), zappier create a new update
- The new update is sent to Paquebot, with the format I selected
- Paquebot send the update to all my subscribers
5) What’s next?
You can make the promotion of your bot, for example on the Store Bot. Paquebot already include tools to do it 👍
You could also promote it on Twitter, and don’t forget to use the hashtag #TelegramBot.
Feel free to follow @NewsPaquebot on Telegram for the next updates about your bot.
Enjoy!
