diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index e82ec05..74847a8 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,16 +1,45 @@
-# pyTelegramBotAPI
+# pyTelegramBotAPI
-A Python implementation for the Telegram Bot API.
+
A simple, but extensible Python implementation for the [Telegram Bot API](https://core.telegram.org/bots/api).
-See [https://core.telegram.org/bots/api](https://core.telegram.org/bots/api)
-[](https://travis-ci.org/eternnoir/pyTelegramBotAPI)
+
[](https://travis-ci.org/eternnoir/pyTelegramBotAPI)
-## How to install
+ * [Getting started.](#getting-started)
+ * [Writing your first bot](#writing-your-first-bot)
+ * [Prerequisites](#prerequisites)
+ * [A simple echo bot](#a-simple-echo-bot)
+ * [General API Documentation](#general-api-documentation)
+ * [Types](#types)
+ * [Methods](#methods)
+ * [General use of the API](#general-use-of-the-api)
+ * [Message handlers](#message-handlers)
+ * [TeleBot](#telebot)
+ * [Reply markup](#reply-markup)
+ * [Advanced use of the API](#advanced-use-of-the-api)
+ * [Asynchronous delivery of messages](#asynchronous-delivery-of-messages)
+ * [Sending large text messages](#sending-large-text-messages)
+ * [Controlling the amount of Threads used by TeleBot](#controlling-the-amount-of-threads-used-by-telebot)
+ * [Don't stop when receiving an error](#dont-stop-when-receiving-an-error)
+ * [The listener mechanism](#the-listener-mechanism)
+ * [Using web hooks](#using-web-hooks)
+ * [Logging](#logging)
+ * [F.A.Q.](#faq)
+ * [How can I distinguish a User and a GroupChat in message.chat?](#how-can-i-distinguish-a-user-and-a-groupchat-in-messagechat)
+ * [The Telegram Chat Group](#the-telegram-chat-group)
+ * [More examples](#more-examples)
-Python 2 or Python 3 is required.
+## Getting started.
-* Install from source
+This API is tested with Python 2.6, Python 2.7, Python 3.4, Pypy and Pypy 3.
+There are two ways to install the library:
+
+* Installation using pip (a Python package manager)*:
+
+```
+$ pip install pyTelegramBotAPI
+```
+* Installation from source (requires git):
```
$ git clone https://github.com/eternnoir/pyTelegramBotAPI.git
@@ -18,126 +47,184 @@ $ cd pyTelegramBotAPI
$ python setup.py install
```
-* or install with pip
+It is generally recommended to use the first option.
-```
-$ pip install pyTelegramBotAPI
-```
+**While the API is production-ready, it is still under development and it has regular updates, do not forget to update it regularly by calling `pip install pytelegrambotapi --upgrade`*
-## Example
+## Writing your first bot
-* Sending a message.
+### Prerequisites
+It is presumed that you [have obtained an API token with @BotFather](https://core.telegram.org/bots#botfather). We will call this token `TOKEN`.
+Furthermore, you have basic knowledge of the Python programming language and more importantly [the Telegram Bot API](https://core.telegram.org/bots/api).
+
+### A simple echo bot
+
+The TeleBot class (defined in \__init__.py) encapsulates all API calls in a single class. It provides functions such as `send_xyz` (`send_message`, `send_document` etc.) and several ways to listen for incoming messages.
+
+Create a file called `echo_bot.py`.
+Then, open the file and create an instance of the TeleBot class.
```python
import telebot
-TOKEN = ''
-
-tb = telebot.TeleBot(TOKEN)
-# tb.send_message(chatid, message)
-tb.send_message(281281, 'gogo power ranger')
+bot = telebot.TeleBot("TOKEN")
```
+*Note: Make sure to actually replace TOKEN with your own API token.*
-* Echo Bot
+After that declaration, we need to register some so-called message handlers. Message handlers define filters which a message must pass. If a message passes the filter, the decorated function is called and the incoming message is passed as an argument.
+Let's define a message handler which handles incoming `/start` and `/help` commands.
```python
-import telebot
+@bot.message_handler(commands=['start', 'help'])
+def send_welcome(message):
+ bot.reply_to(message, "Howdy, how are you doing?")
+```
+A function which is decorated by a message handler __can have an arbitrary name, however, it must have only one parameter (the message)__.
+
+Let's add another handler:
+```python
+@bot.message_handler(func=lambda m: True)
+def echo_all(message):
+ bot.reply_to(message, message.text)
+```
+This one echoes all incoming text messages back to the sender. It uses a lambda function to test a message. If the lambda returns True, the message is handled by the decorated function. Since we want all messages to be handled by this function, we simply always return True.
+
+*Note: all handlers are tested in the order in which they were declared*
+
+We now have a basic bot which replies a static message to "/start" and "/help" commands and which echoes the rest of the sent messages. To start the bot, add the following to our source file:
+```python
+bot.polling()
+
import time
-
-TOKEN = ''
-
-
-def listener(messages):
- """
- When new messages arrive TeleBot will call this function.
- """
- for m in messages:
- chatid = m.chat.id
- if m.content_type == 'text':
- text = m.text
- tb.send_message(chatid, text)
-
-
-tb = telebot.TeleBot(TOKEN)
-tb.set_update_listener(listener) #register listener
-tb.polling()
-#Use none_stop flag let polling will not stop when get new message occur error.
-tb.polling(none_stop=True)
-# Interval setup. Sleep 3 secs between request new message.
-tb.polling(interval=3)
-
-while True: # Don't let the main Thread end.
- pass
+while True:
+ time.sleep(100)
```
+The last three lines are necessary to keep the process alive. If they were to be omitted, the program would terminate as soon as bot.polling() is called. They have no impact on the bot's functioning.
-## TeleBot API usage
-
+Alright, that's it! Our source file now looks like this:
```python
import telebot
+
+bot = telebot.TeleBot("TOKEN")
+
+@bot.message_handler(commands=['start', 'help'])
+def send_welcome(message):
+ bot.reply_to(message, "Howdy, how are you doing?")
+
+@bot.message_handler(func=lambda message: True)
+def echo_all(message):
+ bot.reply_to(message, message.text)
+
+bot.polling()
+
import time
+while True:
+ time.sleep(100)
+```
+To start the bot, simply open up a terminal and enter `python echo_bot.py` to run the bot! Test it by sending commands ('/start' and '/help') and arbitrary text messages.
+
+## General API Documentation
+
+### Types
+
+All types are defined in types.py. They are all completely in line with the [Telegram API's definition of the types](https://core.telegram.org/bots/api#available-types), except for the Message's `from` field, which is renamed to `from_user` (because `from` is a Python reserved token). Thus, attributes such as `message_id` can be accessed directly with `message.message_id`. Note that `message.chat` can be either an instance of `User` or `GroupChat` (see [How can I distinguish a User and a GroupChat in message.chat?](#how-can-i-distinguish-a-user-and-a-groupchat-in-messagechat)).
+
+The Message object also has a `content_type`attribute, which defines the type of the Message. `content_type` can be one of the following strings:
+'text', 'audio', 'document', 'photo', 'sticker', 'video', 'location', 'contact', 'new_chat_participant', 'left_chat_participant', 'new_chat_title', 'new_chat_photo', 'delete_chat_photo', 'group_chat_created'.
+
+### Methods
+
+All [API methods](https://core.telegram.org/bots/api#available-methods) are located in the TeleBot class. They are renamed to follow common Python naming conventions. E.g. `getMe` is renamed to `get_me` and `sendMessage` to `send_message`.
+
+### General use of the API
+
+Outlined below are some general use cases of the API.
+
+#### Message handlers
+A message handler is a function which is decorated with the `message_handler` decorator of a TeleBot instance. The following examples illustrate the possibilities of message handlers:
+```python
+import telebot
+bot = telebot.TeleBot("TOKEN")
+
+# Handles all text messages that contains the commands '/start' or '/help'.
+@bot.message_handler(commands=['start', 'help'])
+def handle_start_help(message):
+ pass
+
+# Handles all sent documents and audio files
+@bot.message_handler(content_types=['document', 'audio'])
+def handle_docs_audio(message):
+ pass
+
+# Handles all text messages that match the regular expression
+@bot.message_handler(regexp="SOME_REGEXP")
+def handle_message(message):
+ pass
+
+#Handles all messages for which the lambda returns True
+@bot.message_handler(func=lambda message: message.document.mime_type == 'text/plain', content_types=['document'])
+def handle_text_doc(message):
+ pass
+
+#Which could also be defined as:
+def test_message(message):
+ return message.document.mime_type == 'text/plan'
+
+@bot.message_handler(func=test_message, content_types=['document'])
+def handle_text_doc(message)
+ pass
+```
+*Note: all handlers are tested in the order in which they were declared*
+#### TeleBot
+```python
+import telebot
TOKEN = ''
tb = telebot.TeleBot(TOKEN) #create a new Telegram Bot object
-# TeleBot will not create thread for message listener. Default is True.
-tb = telebot.TeleBot(TOKEN, False)
-
-# 4 Thread worker for message listener.
-tb = telebot.TeleBot(TOKEN, True, 4)
-
-# Setup telebot handler to telebot logger. If you want to get some information from telebot.
-# More information at Logging section
-handler = logging.StreamHandler(sys.stdout)
-telebot.logger.addHandler(handler)
-telebot.logger.setLevel(logging.INFO)
-
# getMe
user = tb.get_me()
+
# sendMessage
tb.send_message(chatid, text)
# forwardMessage
-# tb.forward_message(10894,926,3)
tb.forward_message(to_chat_id, from_chat_id, message_id)
+# All send_xyz functions which can take a file as an argument, can also take a file_id instead of a file.
# sendPhoto
photo = open('/tmp/photo.png', 'rb')
tb.send_photo(chat_id, photo)
-file_id = 'AAAaaaZZZzzz'
-tb.send_photo(chat_id, file_id)
+tb.send_photo(chat_id, "FILEID")
# sendAudio
audio = open('/tmp/audio.mp3', 'rb')
tb.send_audio(chat_id, audio)
+tb.send_audio(chat_id, "FILEID")
+
## sendAudio with duration, performer and title.
tb.send_audio(CHAT_ID, file_data, 1, 'eternnoir', 'pyTelegram')
-file_id = 'AAAaaaZZZzzz'
-tb.send_audio(chat_id, file_id)
# sendVoice
voice = open('/tmp/voice.ogg', 'rb')
tb.send_voice(chat_id, voice)
-file_id = 'AAAaaaZZZzzz'
-tb.send_voice(chat_id, file_id)
+tb.send_voice(chat_id, "FILEID")
# sendDocument
doc = open('/tmp/file.txt', 'rb')
tb.send_document(chat_id, doc)
-file_id = 'AAAaaaZZZzzz'
-tb.send_document(chat_id, file_id)
+tb.send_document(chat_id, "FILEID")
# sendSticker
sti = open('/tmp/sti.webp', 'rb')
tb.send_sticker(chat_id, sti)
-file_id = 'AAAaaaZZZzzz'
-tb.send_sticker(chat_id, file_id)
+tb.send_sticker(chat_id, "FILEID")
# sendVideo
video = open('/tmp/video.mp4', 'rb')
tb.send_video(chat_id, video)
-file_id = 'AAAaaaZZZzzz'
-tb.send_video(chat_id, file_id)
+tb.send_video(chat_id, "FILEID")
# sendLocation
tb.send_location(chat_id, lat, lon)
@@ -146,131 +233,118 @@ tb.send_location(chat_id, lat, lon)
# action_string can be one of the following strings: 'typing', 'upload_photo', 'record_video', 'upload_video',
# 'record_audio', 'upload_audio', 'upload_document' or 'find_location'.
tb.send_chat_action(chat_id, action_string)
+```
+#### Reply markup
+All `send_xyz` functions of TeleBot take an optional `reply_markup` argument. This argument must be an instance of `ReplyKeyboardMarkup`, `ReplyKeyboardHide` or `ForceReply`, which are defined in types.py.
-# Use the ReplyKeyboardMarkup class.
-# Thanks pevdh.
+```python
from telebot import types
-markup = types.ReplyKeyboardMarkup()
+# Using the ReplyKeyboardMarkup class
+# It's constructor can take the following optional arguments:
+# - resize_keyboard: True/False (default False)
+# - one_time_keyboard: True/False (default False)
+# - selective: True/False (default False)
+# - row_width: integer (default 3)
+# row_width is used in combination with the add() function.
+# It defines how many buttons are fit on each row before continuing on the next row.
+markup = types.ReplyKeyboardMarkup(row_width=2)
markup.add('a', 'v', 'd')
-tb.send_message(chat_id, message, reply_markup=markup)
+tb.send_message(chat_id, "Choose one letter:", reply_markup=markup)
# or add strings one row at a time:
markup = types.ReplyKeyboardMarkup()
markup.row('a', 'v')
markup.row('c', 'd', 'e')
+tb.send_message(chat_id, "Choose one letter:", reply_markup=markup)
+```
+The last example yields this result:
+
+
+
+```python
+# ReplyKeyboardHide: hides a previously sent ReplyKeyboardMarkup
+# Takes an optional selective argument (True/False, default False)
+markup = types.ReplyKeyboardHide(selective=False)
tb.send_message(chat_id, message, reply_markup=markup)
-
```
-## Creating a Telegram bot with the pyTelegramBotAPI
+```python
+# ForceReply: forces a user to reply to a message
+# Takes an optional selective argument (True/False, default False)
+markup = types.ForceReply(selective=False)
+tb.send_message(chat_id, "Send me another word:", reply_markup=markup)
+```
+ForceReply:
+
+
+
+## Advanced use of the API
+
+### Asynchronous delivery of messages
+There exists an implementation of TeleBot which executes all `send_xyz` and the `get_me` functions asynchronously. This can speed up you bot __significantly__, but it has unwanted side effects if used without caution.
+To enable this behaviour, create an instance of AsyncTeleBot instead of TeleBot.
+```python
+tb = telebot.AsyncTeleBot("TOKEN")
+```
+Now, every function that calls the Telegram API is executed in a separate Thread. The functions are modified to return an AsyncTask instance (defined in \__init__.py). Using AsyncTeleBot allows you to do the following:
+```python
+import telebot
+
+tb = telebot.AsyncTeleBot("TOKEN")
+task = tb.get_me() # Execute an API call
+# Do some other operations...
+a = 0
+for a in range(100):
+ a += 10
+
+result = task.wait() # Get the result of the execution
+```
+*Note: if you execute send_xyz functions after eachother without calling wait(), the order in which messages are delivered might be wrong.*
+
+### Sending large text messages
+Sometimes you must send messages that exceed 5000 characters. The Telegram API can not handle that many characters in one request, so we need to split the message in multiples. Here is how to do that using the API:
+```python
+from telebot import apihelper
+large_text = open("large_text.txt", "rb").read()
+
+# Split the text each 3000 characters.
+# split_string returns a list with the splitted text.
+splitted_text = apihelper.split_string(large_text, 3000)
+for text in splitted_text:
+ tb.send_message(chat_id, text)
+```
+### Controlling the amount of Threads used by TeleBot
+The TeleBot constructor takes the following optional arguments:
+
+ - create_threads: True/False (default True). A flag to indicate whether
+ TeleBot should execute message handlers on it's polling Thread.
+ - num_threads: integer (default 4). Controls the amount of WorkerThreads created for the internal thread pool that TeleBot uses to execute message handlers. Is not used when create_threads is False.
+
+### Don't stop when receiving an error
+TeleBot's `polling()` function takes an optional none_stop argument. When none_stop equals True, the bot will not exit when it receives an invalid response from the Telegram API servers. none_stop defaults to False.
+Example: `tb.polling(none_stop=True)`
+
+*Note: You should take caution when using this, because some errors (e.g. if the Telegram servers fail to return data) can not be ignored and the bot would malfunction.*
-There are two ways to define a Telegram Bot with the pyTelegramBotAPI.
### The listener mechanism
-
-* First, create a TeleBot instance.
-
+As an alternative to the message handlers, one can also register a function as a listener to TeleBot. Example:
```python
-import telebot
+def handle_messages(messages):
+ for message in messsages:
+ # Do something with the message
+ bot.reply_to(message, 'Hi')
-TOKEN = ''
-
-bot = telebot.TeleBot(TOKEN)
-```
-
-* Then, define a listener function.
-
-```python
-def echo_messages(*messages):
- """
- Echoes all incoming messages of content_type 'text'.
- """
- for m in messages:
- chatid = m.chat.id
- if m.content_type == 'text':
- text = m.text
- bot.send_message(chatid, text)
-```
-
-* Now, register your listener with the TeleBot instance and call TeleBot#polling()
-
-```python
-bot.set_update_listener(echo_messages)
+bot.set_update_listener(handle_messages)
bot.polling()
-
-while True: # Don't let the main Thread end.
- pass
```
-* use Message's content_type attribute to check the type of Message. Now Message supports content types:
- * text
- * audio
- * document
- * photo
- * sticker
- * video
- * location
- * contact
- * new_chat_participant
- * left_chat_participant
- * new_chat_title
- * new_chat_photo
- * delete_chat_photo
- * group_chat_created
-* That's it!
+### Using web hooks
+If you prefer using web hooks to the getUpdates method, you can use the `process_new_messages(messages)` function in TeleBot to make it process the messages that you supply. It takes a list of Message objects.
-### The decorator mechanism
+### Logging
-* First, create a TeleBot instance.
-
-```python
-import telebot
-
-TOKEN = ''
-
-bot = telebot.TeleBot(TOKEN)
-```
-
-* Next, define all of your so-called message handlers and decorate them with @bot.message_handler
-
-```python
-# Handle /start and /help
-@bot.message_handler(commands=['start', 'help'])
-def command_help(message):
- bot.reply_to(message, "Hello, did someone call for help?")
-
-# Handles all messages which text matches the regex regexp.
-# See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression
-# This regex matches all sent url's.
-@bot.message_handler(regexp='((https?):((//)|(\\\\))+([\w\d:#@%/;$()~_?\+-=\\\.&](#!)?)*)')
-def command_url(message):
- bot.reply_to(message, "I shouldn't open that url, should I?")
-
-# Handle all sent documents of type 'text/plain'.
-@bot.message_handler(func=lambda message: message.document.mime_type == 'text/plain', content_types=['document'])
-def command_handle_document(message):
- bot.reply_to(message, "Document received, sir!")
-
-# Default command handler. A lambda expression which always returns True is used for this purpose.
-@bot.message_handler(func=lambda message: True, content_types=['audio', 'video', 'document', 'text', 'location', 'contact', 'sticker'])
-def default_command(message):
- bot.reply_to(message, "This is the default command handler.")
-```
-
-* And finally, call bot.polling()
-
-```python
-bot.polling()
-
-while True: # Don't end the main thread.
- pass
-```
-Use whichever mechanism fits your purpose! It is even possible to mix and match.
-
-## Logging
-
-Now you can use Telebot module logger to log some information in Telebot. Use `telebot.logger` to get
-Telebot module logger.
+You can use the Telebot module logger to log debug info about Telebot. Use `telebot.logger` to get the logger of the TeleBot module.
```python
logger = telebot.logger
@@ -282,15 +356,34 @@ logger.setLevel(logging.DEBUG) # or use logging.INFO
ch.setFormatter(formatter)
```
-## Telegram Chat Group
+## F.A.Q.
+
+### How can I distinguish a User and a GroupChat in message.chat?
+There are two ways to do this:
+
+ - Checking the instance of message.chat with `isinstance`:
+```python
+def is_user(chat):
+ return isinstance(chat, types.User)
+
+print is_user(message.chat) # True or False
+```
+ - Checking whether the chat id is negative or positive. If the chat id is negative, the chat is a GroupChat, if it is positive, it is a User. Example:
+```python
+def is_user(chat):
+ return chat.id > 0
+
+print is_user(message.chat) # True or False
+```
+
+## The Telegram Chat Group
Get help. Discuss. Chat.
-Join [pyTelegramBotAPI Chat Group](https://telegram.me/joinchat/067e22c60035523fda8f6025ee87e30b).
+Join the [pyTelegramBotAPI Telegram Chat Group](https://telegram.me/joinchat/067e22c60035523fda8f6025ee87e30b).
-## Examples
+## More examples
* [Echo Bot](https://github.com/eternnoir/pyTelegramBotAPI/blob/master/examples/echo_bot.py)
* [Deep Linking](https://github.com/eternnoir/pyTelegramBotAPI/blob/master/examples/deep_linking.py)
* [next_step_handler Example](https://github.com/eternnoir/pyTelegramBotAPI/blob/master/examples/step_example.py)
-
diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index bc789a3..32b2af6 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -1,315 +1,364 @@
-pyTelegramBotAPI
-================
+# pyTelegramBotAPI
-A Python implementation for the Telegram Bot API.
-
-See https://core.telegram.org/bots/api
-
-|Build Status|
-
-How to install
---------------
-
-Python 2 or Python 3 is required.
-
-- Install from source
-
-::
-
- $ git clone https://github.com/eternnoir/pyTelegramBotAPI.git
- $ cd pyTelegramBotAPI
- $ python setup.py install
-
-- or install with pip
-
-::
-
- $ pip install pyTelegramBotAPI
-
-Example
--------
-
-- Sending a message.
-
-.. code:: python
-
- import telebot
-
- TOKEN = ''
-
- tb = telebot.TeleBot(TOKEN)
- # tb.send_message(chatid, message)
- tb.send_message(281281, 'gogo power ranger')
-
-- Echo Bot
-
-.. code:: python
-
- import telebot
- import time
-
- TOKEN = ''
+A simple, but extensible Python implementation for the [Telegram Bot API](https://core.telegram.org/bots/api).
- def listener(messages):
- """
- When new messages arrive TeleBot will call this function.
- """
- for m in messages:
- chatid = m.chat.id
- if m.content_type == 'text':
- text = m.text
- tb.send_message(chatid, text)
+
[](https://travis-ci.org/eternnoir/pyTelegramBotAPI)
+ * [Getting started.](#getting-started)
+ * [Writing your first bot](#writing-your-first-bot)
+ * [Prerequisites](#prerequisites)
+ * [A simple echo bot](#a-simple-echo-bot)
+ * [General API Documentation](#general-api-documentation)
+ * [Types](#types)
+ * [Methods](#methods)
+ * [General use of the API](#general-use-of-the-api)
+ * [Message handlers](#message-handlers)
+ * [TeleBot](#telebot)
+ * [Reply markup](#reply-markup)
+ * [Advanced use of the API](#advanced-use-of-the-api)
+ * [Asynchronous delivery of messages](#asynchronous-delivery-of-messages)
+ * [Sending large text messages](#sending-large-text-messages)
+ * [Controlling the amount of Threads used by TeleBot](#controlling-the-amount-of-threads-used-by-telebot)
+ * [Don't stop when receiving an error](#dont-stop-when-receiving-an-error)
+ * [The listener mechanism](#the-listener-mechanism)
+ * [Using web hooks](#using-web-hooks)
+ * [Logging](#logging)
+ * [F.A.Q.](#faq)
+ * [How can I distinguish a User and a GroupChat in message.chat?](#how-can-i-distinguish-a-user-and-a-groupchat-in-messagechat)
+ * [The Telegram Chat Group](#the-telegram-chat-group)
+ * [More examples](#more-examples)
- tb = telebot.TeleBot(TOKEN)
- tb.set_update_listener(listener) #register listener
- tb.polling()
- #Use none_stop flag let polling will not stop when get new message occur error.
- tb.polling(none_stop=True)
- # Interval setup. Sleep 3 secs between request new message.
- tb.polling(interval=3)
+## Getting started.
- while True: # Don't let the main Thread end.
- pass
+This API is tested with Python 2.6, Python 2.7, Python 3.4, Pypy and Pypy 3.
+There are two ways to install the library:
-TeleBot API usage
------------------
+* Installation using pip (a Python package manager)*:
-.. code:: python
+```
+$ pip install pyTelegramBotAPI
+```
+* Installation from source (requires git):
- import telebot
- import time
+```
+$ git clone https://github.com/eternnoir/pyTelegramBotAPI.git
+$ cd pyTelegramBotAPI
+$ python setup.py install
+```
- TOKEN = ''
- tb = telebot.TeleBot(TOKEN) #create a new Telegram Bot object
+It is generally recommended to use the first option.
- # TeleBot will not create thread for message listener. Default is True.
- tb = telebot.TeleBot(TOKEN, False)
+**While the API is production-ready, it is still under development and it has regular updates, do not forget to update it regularly by calling `pip install pytelegrambotapi --upgrade`*
- # 4 Thread worker for message listener.
- tb = telebot.TeleBot(TOKEN, True, 4)
+## Writing your first bot
- # Setup telebot handler to telebot logger. If you want to get some information from telebot.
- # More information at Logging section
- handler = logging.StreamHandler(sys.stdout)
- telebot.logger.addHandler(handler)
- telebot.logger.setLevel(logging.INFO)
+### Prerequisites
- # getMe
- user = tb.get_me()
+It is presumed that you [have obtained an API token with @BotFather](https://core.telegram.org/bots#botfather). We will call this token `TOKEN`.
+Furthermore, you have basic knowledge of the Python programming language and more importantly [the Telegram Bot API](https://core.telegram.org/bots/api).
- # sendMessage
- tb.send_message(chatid, text)
+### A simple echo bot
- # forwardMessage
- # tb.forward_message(10894,926,3)
- tb.forward_message(to_chat_id, from_chat_id, message_id)
+The TeleBot class (defined in \__init__.py) encapsulates all API calls in a single class. It provides functions such as `send_xyz` (`send_message`, `send_document` etc.) and several ways to listen for incoming messages.
- # sendPhoto
- photo = open('/tmp/photo.png', 'rb')
- tb.send_photo(chat_id, photo)
- file_id = 'AAAaaaZZZzzz'
- tb.send_photo(chat_id, file_id)
+Create a file called `echo_bot.py`.
+Then, open the file and create an instance of the TeleBot class.
+```python
+import telebot
- # sendAudio
- audio = open('/tmp/audio.mp3', 'rb')
- tb.send_audio(chat_id, audio)
- ## sendAudio with duration, performer and title.
- tb.send_audio(CHAT_ID, file_data, 1, 'eternnoir', 'pyTelegram')
- file_id = 'AAAaaaZZZzzz'
- tb.send_audio(chat_id, file_id)
+bot = TeleBot("TOKEN")
+```
+*Note: Make sure to actually replace TOKEN with your own API token.*
- # sendVoice
- voice = open('/tmp/voice.ogg', 'rb')
- tb.send_voice(chat_id, voice)
- file_id = 'AAAaaaZZZzzz'
- tb.send_voice(chat_id, file_id)
+After that declaration, we need to register some so-called message handlers. Message handlers define filters which a message must pass. If a message passes the filter, the decorated function is called and the incoming message is passed as an argument.
- # sendDocument
- doc = open('/tmp/file.txt', 'rb')
- tb.send_document(chat_id, doc)
- file_id = 'AAAaaaZZZzzz'
- tb.send_document(chat_id, file_id)
+Let's define a message handler which handles incoming `/start` and `/help` commands.
+```python
+@bot.message_handler(commands=['start', 'help'])
+def send_welcome(message):
+ bot.reply_to(message, "Howdy, how are you doing?")
+```
+A function which is decorated by a message handler __can have an arbitrary name, however, it must have only one parameter (the message)__.
- # sendSticker
- sti = open('/tmp/sti.webp', 'rb')
- tb.send_sticker(chat_id, sti)
- file_id = 'AAAaaaZZZzzz'
- tb.send_sticker(chat_id, file_id)
+Let's add another handler:
+```python
+@bot.message.handler(func=lambda m: True)
+def echo_all(message):
+ bot.reply_to(message, message.text)
+```
+This one echoes all incoming text messages back to the sender.
- # sendVideo
- video = open('/tmp/video.mp4', 'rb')
- tb.send_video(chat_id, video)
- file_id = 'AAAaaaZZZzzz'
- tb.send_video(chat_id, file_id)
+*Note: all handlers are tested in the order in which they were declared*
- # sendLocation
- tb.send_location(chat_id, lat, lon)
+We now have a basic bot which replies a static message to "/start" and "/help" commands and echoes the rest of the sent messages back. To start the bot, add the following to our source file:
+```python
+bot.polling()
- # sendChatAction
- # action_string can be one of the following strings: 'typing', 'upload_photo', 'record_video', 'upload_video',
- # 'record_audio', 'upload_audio', 'upload_document' or 'find_location'.
- tb.send_chat_action(chat_id, action_string)
+import time
+while True:
+ time.sleep(100)
+```
+The last three lines are necessary to keep the process alive. If they were to be omitted, the program would terminate as soon as bot.polling() is called. They have no impact on the bot's functioning.
- # Use the ReplyKeyboardMarkup class.
- # Thanks pevdh.
- from telebot import types
+Alright, that's it! Our source file now looks like this:
+```python
+import telebot
- markup = types.ReplyKeyboardMarkup()
- markup.add('a', 'v', 'd')
- tb.send_message(chat_id, message, reply_markup=markup)
+bot = TeleBot("TOKEN")
- # or add strings one row at a time:
- markup = types.ReplyKeyboardMarkup()
- markup.row('a', 'v')
- markup.row('c', 'd', 'e')
- tb.send_message(chat_id, message, reply_markup=markup)
+@bot.message_handler(commands=['start', 'help'])
+def send_welcome(message):
+ bot.reply_to(message, "Howdy, how are you doing?")
-Creating a Telegram bot with the pyTelegramBotAPI
--------------------------------------------------
+@bot.message.handler(func=lambda m: True)
+def echo_all(message):
+ bot.reply_to(message, message.text)
+
+bot.polling()
+
+import time
+while True:
+ time.sleep(100)
+```
+To start the bot, simply open up a terminal and enter `python echo_bot.py` to run the bot! Test it by sending commands ('/start' and '/help') and arbitrary text messages.
+
+## General API Documentation
+
+### Types
+
+All types are defined in types.py. They are all completely in line with the [Telegram API's definition of the types](https://core.telegram.org/bots/api#available-types), except for the Message's `from` field, which is renamed to `from_user` (because `from` is a Python reserved token). Thus, attributes such as `message_id` can be accessed directly with `message.message_id`. Note that `chat` can be either an instance of `User` or `GroupChat`.
+
+### Methods
+
+All [API methods](https://core.telegram.org/bots/api#available-methods) are located in the TeleBot class. They are renamed to follow common Python naming conventions. E.g. `getMe` is renamed to `get_me` and `sendMessage` to `send_message`.
+
+### General use of the API
+
+Outlined below are some general use cases of the API.
+
+#### Message handlers
+A message handler is a function which is decorated with the `message_handler` decorator of a TeleBot instance. The following examples illustrate the possibilities of message handlers:
+```python
+import telebot
+bot = telebot.TeleBot("TOKEN")
+
+# Handles all text messages that contains the commands '/start' or '/help'.
+@bot.message_handler(commands=['start', 'help'])
+def handle_start_help(message):
+ pass
+
+# Handles all sent documents and audio files
+@bot.message_handler(content_types=['document', 'audio'])
+def handle_docs_audio(message):
+ pass
+
+# Handles all text messages that match the regular expression
+@bot.message_handler(regexp="SOME_REGEXP")
+def handle_message(message):
+ pass
+
+#Handles all messages for which the lambda returns True
+@bot.message_handler(func=lambda message: message.document.mime_type == 'text/plain', content_types=['document'])
+def handle_text_doc(message):
+ pass
+
+#Which could also be defined as:
+def test_message(message):
+ return message.document.mime_type == 'text/plan'
+
+@bot.message_handler(func=test_message, content_types=['document'])
+def handle_text_doc(message)
+ pass
+```
+*Note: all handlers are tested in the order in which they were declared*
+#### TeleBot
+```python
+import telebot
+
+TOKEN = ''
+tb = telebot.TeleBot(TOKEN) #create a new Telegram Bot object
+
+# getMe
+user = tb.get_me()
+
+# sendMessage
+tb.send_message(chatid, text)
+
+# forwardMessage
+tb.forward_message(to_chat_id, from_chat_id, message_id)
+
+# sendPhoto with a File
+photo = open('/tmp/photo.png', 'rb')
+tb.send_photo(chat_id, photo)
+
+# sendAudio
+audio = open('/tmp/audio.mp3', 'rb')
+tb.send_audio(chat_id, audio)
+
+## sendAudio with duration, performer and title.
+tb.send_audio(CHAT_ID, file_data, 1, 'eternnoir', 'pyTelegram')
+
+# sendVoice
+voice = open('/tmp/voice.ogg', 'rb')
+tb.send_voice(chat_id, voice)
+
+# sendDocument
+doc = open('/tmp/file.txt', 'rb')
+tb.send_document(chat_id, doc)
+
+# sendSticker
+sti = open('/tmp/sti.webp', 'rb')
+tb.send_sticker(chat_id, sti)
+
+# sendVideo
+video = open('/tmp/video.mp4', 'rb')
+tb.send_video(chat_id, video)
+
+# sendLocation
+tb.send_location(chat_id, lat, lon)
+
+# sendChatAction
+# action_string can be one of the following strings: 'typing', 'upload_photo', 'record_video', 'upload_video',
+# 'record_audio', 'upload_audio', 'upload_document' or 'find_location'.
+tb.send_chat_action(chat_id, action_string)
+```
+#### Reply markup
+All `send_xyz` functions of TeleBot take an optional `reply_markup` argument. This argument must be an instance of `ReplyKeyboardMarkup`, `ReplyKeyboardHide` or `ForceReply`, which are defined in types.py.
+
+```python
+from telebot import types
+
+# Use the ReplyKeyboardMarkup class.
+# It's constructor can take the following optional arguments:
+# - resize_keyboard: True/False (default False)
+# - one_time_keyboard: True/False (default False)
+# - selective: True/False (default False)
+# - row_width: integer (default 3)
+# row_width is used in combination with the add() function.
+# It defines how many buttons are fit on each row before continuing on the next row.
+markup = types.ReplyKeyboardMarkup(row_width=2)
+markup.add('a', 'v', 'd')
+tb.send_message(chat_id, message, reply_markup=markup)
+
+# or add strings one row at a time:
+markup = types.ReplyKeyboardMarkup()
+markup.row('a', 'v')
+markup.row('c', 'd', 'e')
+tb.send_message(chat_id, message, reply_markup=markup)
+
+# Using ReplyKeyboardHide
+# Takes an optional selective argument (True/False, default False)
+markup = types.ReplyKeyboardHide(selective=False)
+tb.send_message(chat_id, message, reply_markup=markup)
+
+# Using ForceReply
+# Takes an optional selective argument (True/False, default False)
+markup = types.ForceReply(selective=False)
+tb.send_message(chat_id, message, reply_markup=markup)
+```
+
+## Advanced use of the API
+
+### Asynchronous delivery of messages
+There exists an implementation of TeleBot which executes all `send_xyz` and the `get_me` functions asynchronously. This can speed up you bot __significantly__, but it has unwanted side effects if used without caution.
+To enable this behaviour, create an instance of AsyncTeleBot instead of TeleBot.
+```python
+tb = telebot.AsyncTeleBot("TOKEN")
+```
+Now, every function that calls the Telegram API is executed in a separate Thread. The functions are modified to return an AsyncTask instance (defined in \__init__.py). Using AsyncTeleBot allows you to do the following:
+```python
+import telebot
+
+tb = AsyncTeleBot("TOKEN")
+task = tb.get_me() # Execute an API call
+# Do some other operations...
+a = 0
+for a in range(100):
+ a += 10
+
+result = task.wait() # Get the result of the execution
+```
+*Note: if you execute send_xyz functions after eachother without calling wait(), the order in which messages are delivered might be wrong.*
+
+### Sending large text messages
+Sometimes you must send messages that exceeds 5000 characters. The Telegram API can not handle that many characters at a time, so we need to split the message in multiples. Here is how to do that using the API:
+```python
+from telebot import apihelper
+large_text = open("large_text.txt", "rb").read()
+splitted_text = apihelper.split_string(large_text, 3000)
+for text in splitted_text:
+ tb.send_message(chat_id, text)
+```
+### Controlling the amount of Threads used by TeleBot
+The TeleBot constructor takes the following optional arguments:
+ - create_threads: True/False (default True). A flag to indicate whether TeleBot should execute message handlers on it's polling Thread.
+ - num_threads: integer (default 4). Controls the amount of WorkerThreads created for the internal thread pool that TeleBot uses to execute message handlers. Is not used when create_threads is False.
+
+### Don't stop when receiving an error
+TeleBot's `polling()` function takes an optional none_stop argument. When none_stop equals True, the bot will not exit when it receives an invalid response from the Telegram API servers. none_stop defaults to False.
+Example: `tb.polling(none_stop=True)`
+
+*Note: You should take caution when using this, because some errors (e.g. if the Telegram servers fail to return data) can not be ignored and the bot would malfunction.*
-There are two ways to define a Telegram Bot with the pyTelegramBotAPI.
### The listener mechanism
+As an alternative to the message handlers, one can also register a function as a listener to TeleBot. Example:
+```python
+def handle_messages(message):
+ for message in messsages:
+ # Do something with the message
+ bot.reply_to(message, 'hi')
-- First, create a TeleBot instance.
+bot.set_update_listener(handle_messages)
+bot.polling()
+```
-.. code:: python
+### Using web hooks
+If you prefer using web hooks to the getUpdates method, you can use the `process_new_messages(messages)` function in TeleBot to make it process the messages that you supply. It takes a list of Message objects.
- import telebot
+### Logging
- TOKEN = ''
+Now you can use Telebot module logger to log some information in Telebot. Use `telebot.logger` to get the
+Telebot module logger.
- bot = telebot.TeleBot(TOKEN)
+```python
+logger = telebot.logger
+formatter = logging.Formatter('[%(asctime)s] %(thread)d {%(pathname)s:%(lineno)d} %(levelname)s - %(message)s',
+ '%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
+ch = logging.StreamHandler(sys.stdout)
+logger.addHandler(ch)
+logger.setLevel(logging.DEBUG) # or use logging.INFO
+ch.setFormatter(formatter)
+```
-- Then, define a listener function.
+## F.A.Q.
-.. code:: python
+### How can I distinguish a User and a GroupChat in message.chat?
+There are two ways to do this:
- def echo_messages(*messages):
- """
- Echoes all incoming messages of content_type 'text'.
- """
- for m in messages:
- chatid = m.chat.id
- if m.content_type == 'text':
- text = m.text
- bot.send_message(chatid, text)
+ - Checking the instance of message.chat with `isinstance`:
+```python
+def is_user(chat):
+ return isinstance(chat, types.User)
-- Now, register your listener with the TeleBot instance and call
- TeleBot#polling()
+print is_user(message.chat) # True or False
+```
+ - Checking whether the chat id is negative or positive. If the chat id is negative, the chat is a GroupChat, if it is positive, it is a User. Example:
+```python
+def is_user(chat):
+ return chat.id > 0
-.. code:: python
+print is_user(message.chat) # True or False
+```
- bot.set_update_listener(echo_messages)
- bot.polling()
-
- while True: # Don't let the main Thread end.
- pass
-
-- use Message's content\_type attribute to check the type of Message.
- Now Message supports content types:
-- text
-- audio
-- document
-- photo
-- sticker
-- video
-- location
-- contact
-- new\_chat\_participant
-- left\_chat\_participant
-- new\_chat\_title
-- new\_chat\_photo
-- delete\_chat\_photo
-- group\_chat\_created
-- That's it!
-
-The decorator mechanism
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-- First, create a TeleBot instance.
-
-.. code:: python
-
- import telebot
-
- TOKEN = ''
-
- bot = telebot.TeleBot(TOKEN)
-
-- Next, define all of your so-called message handlers and decorate them
- with @bot.message\_handler
-
-.. code:: python
-
- # Handle /start and /help
- @bot.message_handler(commands=['start', 'help'])
- def command_help(message):
- bot.reply_to(message, "Hello, did someone call for help?")
-
- # Handles all messages which text matches the regex regexp.
- # See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression
- # This regex matches all sent url's.
- @bot.message_handler(regexp='((https?):((//)|(\\\\))+([\w\d:#@%/;$()~_?\+-=\\\.&](#!)?)*)')
- def command_url(message):
- bot.reply_to(message, "I shouldn't open that url, should I?")
-
- # Handle all sent documents of type 'text/plain'.
- @bot.message_handler(func=lambda message: message.document.mime_type == 'text/plain', content_types=['document'])
- def command_handle_document(message):
- bot.reply_to(message, "Document received, sir!")
-
- # Default command handler. A lambda expression which always returns True is used for this purpose.
- @bot.message_handler(func=lambda message: True, content_types=['audio', 'video', 'document', 'text', 'location', 'contact', 'sticker'])
- def default_command(message):
- bot.reply_to(message, "This is the default command handler.")
-
-- And finally, call bot.polling()
-
-.. code:: python
-
- bot.polling()
-
- while True: # Don't end the main thread.
- pass
-
-Use whichever mechanism fits your purpose! It is even possible to mix
-and match.
-
-Logging
--------
-
-Now you can use Telebot module logger to log some information in
-Telebot. Use ``telebot.logger`` to get Telebot module logger.
-
-.. code:: python
-
- logger = telebot.logger
- formatter = logging.Formatter('[%(asctime)s] %(thread)d {%(pathname)s:%(lineno)d} %(levelname)s - %(message)s',
- '%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
- ch = logging.StreamHandler(sys.stdout)
- logger.addHandler(ch)
- logger.setLevel(logging.DEBUG) # or use logging.INFO
- ch.setFormatter(formatter)
-
-Telegram Chat Group
--------------------
+## The Telegram Chat Group
Get help. Discuss. Chat.
-Join `pyTelegramBotAPI Chat
-Group `__.
+Join the [pyTelegramBotAPI Telegram Chat Group](https://telegram.me/joinchat/067e22c60035523fda8f6025ee87e30b).
-Examples
---------
+## More examples
-- `Echo
- Bot `__
-- `Deep
- Linking `__
-- `next\_step\_handler
- Example `__
-
-.. |Build Status| image:: https://travis-ci.org/eternnoir/pyTelegramBotAPI.svg?branch=master
- :target: https://travis-ci.org/eternnoir/pyTelegramBotAPI
+* [Echo Bot](https://github.com/eternnoir/pyTelegramBotAPI/blob/master/examples/echo_bot.py)
+* [Deep Linking](https://github.com/eternnoir/pyTelegramBotAPI/blob/master/examples/deep_linking.py)
+* [next_step_handler Example](https://github.com/eternnoir/pyTelegramBotAPI/blob/master/examples/step_example.py)
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index d697f5b..afa49fb 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ def readme():
return f.read()
setup(name='pyTelegramBotAPI',
- version='0.3.2',
+ version='0.3.3',
description='Python Telegram bot api. ',
long_description=readme(),
author='eternnoir',