Botnoder

Express-like framework for creating the server side of a Telegram Bot.

Quick start

There is a repository created with an example of telegram bot created using this module. That example is also ready to deploy it in heroku.

Getting started

To create your first Bot for Telegram, make sure that you read the https://core.telegram.org/bots of Telegram bots. These are the steps to follow:

1. Install the module.
2. Create the bot.
3. Set the TELEGRAM_TOKEN environmental variable.
4. Set the URL to receive updates via a Webhook.
5. Try a Hello World app.

Install the module

npm install botnoder --save

Create the bot

Read the https://core.telegram.org/bots#6-botfather of the Telegram docs to create the bot and get its token.

Set the TELEGRAM_TOKEN environmental variable

Make sure that the environmental variable TELEGRAM_TOKEN value is the token of your bot.

If you are sharing your code, do not upload the file that contains that value.

Set the URL to receive updates via a webhook

Telegram provides two ways of receiving updates of your bot: the getUpdates method and the Webhooks. This module only allows you to use the Webhooks one.

Make a setWebhook request to the telegram API and set the webhook address to https://<your path...>/<token>.

Try a Hello World app

Copy this code and configure your server to run it.

const { configureRoutes } = require('botnoder')
const app = configureRoutes(
  function sayHello (input, output) {
    output.reply('hello')
  }
)

app.listen(80, function() {
  console.log('Starting the application on port 80')
})

The program will start a server and listen to port 80 for connections. When a message is sent to your bot, the bot will reply saying 'Hello!'.