Process Steps for Developing Telegram Bot with Python

1. What is Telegram Bot?

Telegram Bot is a robot application that can interact with users and communicate with servers through Telegram's Bot API. It can be used to process messages, execute commands, provide services such as notification reminders, data queries, and automated tasks.

2. Preparation

2.1 Create Telegram Bot

• Open the Telegram app and searchBotFather。
• Send commands to BotFather/start。
• Create a new Bot: Send/newbot, follow the prompts to set the Bot name and username.
• Get API Token, similar to the following format:

123456789:ABCDEF1234567890abcdef1234567890ABCDEF

2.2 Get Bot's API Token

Save the token obtained from BotFather, the only credentials for communicating with the Telegram Bot API.

3. Develop Telegram Bot in Python

3.1 Install the required libraries

Use the python-telegram-bot library to develop Telegram Bot. The installation command is as follows:

pip install python-telegram-bot

3.2 Basic function implementation

Here is a simple Telegram Bot example:

from telegram import Update
from  import Updater, CommandHandler, MessageHandler, Filters, CallbackContext
 
# Define command processing functionsdef start(update: Update, context: CallbackContext) -> None:
    .reply_text("Hello! I'm your Telegram Bot. Send /help for help.")
 
def help_command(update: Update, context: CallbackContext) -> None:
    .reply_text("The following is the command I can execute:\n/start - Start Bot\n/help - Get Help")
 
# Process text messages sent by usersdef echo(update: Update, context: CallbackContext) -> None:
    .reply_text(f"You sent it：{}")
 
def main():
    # Replace with your API Token    TOKEN = "123456789:ABCDEF1234567890abcdef1234567890ABCDEF"
    updater = Updater(TOKEN)
 
    # Register command and message processor    dispatcher = 
    dispatcher.add_handler(CommandHandler("start", start))
    dispatcher.add_handler(CommandHandler("help", help_command))
    dispatcher.add_handler(MessageHandler( & ~, echo))
 
    # Start Bot    updater.start_polling()
    ()
 
if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Run the above code and Bot will respond/startand/helpCommand and echo the user's message.

4. Extended function development

4.1 Handling user commands

Add more command processors. For example, the function of querying the current time:

from datetime import datetime
 
def time_command(update: Update, context: CallbackContext) -> None:
    now = ().strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
    .reply_text(f"The current time is：{now}")

Registration command:

dispatcher.add_handler(CommandHandler("time", time_command))

4.2 Receive and reply to messages

Process pictures, files, or voice messages sent by users:

def handle_photo(update: Update, context: CallbackContext) -> None:
    file = [-1].get_file()
    ("user_photo.jpg")
    .reply_text("The picture has been received and saved as user_photo.jpg")
 
dispatcher.add_handler(MessageHandler(, handle_photo))

4.3 Processing of pictures and files

You can have Bot upload images or files to cloud storage or process them based on content.

5. Deployment and online

5.1 Local operation

Make sure that the local Python environment is configured correctly and can be used after running the Bot script. However, it is necessary to ensure that the equipment is online during operation.

5.2 Deploy to a cloud server

Deploy Bot to the cloud, the following methods are recommended:

1. Use VPS or cloud providers
   Configure a long-term Python environment, such as AWS, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, etc.

2. Deploy using Docker
   Create a Dockerfile:

FROM python:3.9
WORKDIR /app
COPY . /app
RUN pip install -r 
CMD ["python", ""]

Build and run the container:

docker build -t telegram-bot .
docker run -d --name telegram-bot telegram-bot

Using serverless architectures such as AWS Lambda

Configure Webhook to respond to events (replacestart_pollingmethod).

This is the article about the process steps of using Python to develop Telegram Bot. For more related content on Python development of Telegram Bot, please search for my previous articles or continue browsing the related articles below. I hope everyone will support me in the future!