Telegram
This I/O Server allows you to implement a custom Telegram bot in HSYCO, for sending and receiving messages using the Telegram messaging service.
Communication and Telegram bot setup
The Telegram I/O Server connects to the Telegram service using the Telegram Bot API and requires a fully functional Internet connection.
In order to use this I/O Server you need to create a bot first. Using your Telegram account, send the /newbot command to the Telegram BotFather bot. The BotFather will ask you for a name and username, then generate an authorization token for your new bot.
The name of your bot will be displayed in contact details and elsewhere.
The Username is a short name, to be used in mentions and telegram.me links. Usernames are 5-32 characters long and are case insensitive, but may only include Latin characters, numbers, and underscores. Your bot's username must end in ‘bot’, e.g. ‘tetris_bot’ or ‘TetrisBot’.
The token is a string along the lines of 110201543:AAHdqTcvCH1vGWJxfSeofSAs0K5PALDsaw that will be required to authorize the bot, setting the token parameter statically, in the I/O Server configuration, or dynamically, writing the token datapoint.
HSYCO Configuration
Add a Telegram I/O Server in the I/O Servers section of the Settings and set its parameters.
Note that the Telegram I/O Server doesn't count in the I/O servers license total, so you don't need an extra I/O Server license to use Telegram with HSYCO.
High Availability
- Shutdown when inactive: defaults to true.
Note that Telegram does not allow multiple connections to the same bot, so setting this option to false, thus leaving the Telegram I/O Server active on the slave server will generate connection errors on both the master and the slave servers. You may keep the slave Telegram I/O Server active using a different, dedicated bot, for it.
Options
| ID | Default | Values | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| token | token string | the bot's token string, generated by the BotFather | |
| password | registration string (spaces are allowed, no length restrictions) | the user registration string (see Users Registration below) |
A valid token is required to activate the Telegram I/O server, but you can set it dynamically, writing to the token datapoint. If you configure a Telegram I/O server without the token option, the I/O server will only activate once the token datapoint is set.
Users registration
If you don't set a password, all users will be able to send messages to your Telegram bot, and it will be up to your application logic in HSYCO to filter out unwanted messages.
As in most cases you may need to accept messages only from specific users, the Telegram I/O Server implements a simple user registration procedure.
If you set an arbitrary length phrase (spaces between characters are allowed) in the password configuration parameter or writing to the password datapoint, when a Telegram message is received from a user that exactly matches the registration phrase, that user is added to the registered users list. Note that the match is case-sensitive, and only leading/trailing spaces are ignored.
So, if you set a password, only messages originating from registered users are accepted and forwarded to HSYCO applications via I/O events.
The list of registered users is stored in text files in HSYCO's root directory, named telegram-<I/O Server name>.ini
Datapoints
| ID | Value | R/W | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| connection | online | R | connection established |
| offline | R | HSYCO can't connect to the Telegram servers, or the bot token is not valid | |
| bot | <bot name> | R | the name of the bot associated to the token. This datapoint is set only when the connection to the Telegram's servers is established, and the token is valid. You don't need to set the bot name to establish the connection, only the token string is required |
| password | <registration phrase> | W | see Users registration. Set to an empty string to delete the password. Note that writing the password datapoint overrides the password set as configuration parameter |
| token | <token string> | W | see Communication and Telegram bot setup. Set to an empty string to delete the token and disconnect from Telegram. Note that writing the token datapoint overrides the token set as configuration parameter |
| enable | <user id> | W | when users registration is active, you can re-enable a user that was previously disabled |
| disable | <user id> | W | when users registration is active, you can disable a registered user, so that messages originating from that user will be ignored |
| message.<user id> | <message text> | R | the message text received from a user with id <user id>. This is a forced event, triggered on every message |
| message.json | <JSON string> | R | received message, with all attributes, in JSON format. This is a forced event, triggered on every message |
| message.<user id> | <text> | W | send a text message to user <user id> |
| message.<user id>.<message id> | <text> | W | send a text message to user <user id>, as a reply to message <message id> |
| message.all | <text> | W | when users registration is active, send a text message to all registered users that are currently enabled |
| message.html.<user id> | <text> | W | send an HTML message to user <user id> |
| message.html.<user id>.<message id> | <text> | W | send an HTML message to user <user id>, as a reply to message <message id> |
| message.html.all | <text> | W | when users registration is active, send an HTML message to all registered users that are currently enabled |
| message.image.<user id> | <image> <text> | W | send an image to user <user id> |
| message.image.<user id>.<message id> | <image> <text> | W | send an image to user <user id>, as a reply to message <message id> |
| message.image.all | <image> <text> | W | when users registration is active, send an image to all registered users that are currently enabled |
Keyboards
You can send messages with a custom keyboard with predefined reply options. Simply use the following format at the end of the message:
[[r1c1,r1c2...],[r2c1,r2c2...]...]
r1c1 is the text label of the first button of the first row, r1c2 is the second button of the first row, r2c1 is the first button of the second row, etc. You can create keyboards with an arbitrary number of rows and columns, as far as the format makes sense for Telegram. This keyboard format is interpreted as a keyboard only if it is at the very end of the message, otherwise it will be sent unmodified in the text.
See Keyboards for additional information.
Images
To send an image from a camera, write a string having this format to the "message.image" data points: cam:cameraname[:seconds_back[:frames_back]].
For example, cam:camera1 sends a live frame from the camera called "camera1"; cam:camera1:0 sends the last recorded frame; cam:camera1:2 sends a frame that was recorded two seconds before the last recorded frame and cam:camera1:2:5 sends a frame that is 5 frames earlier than the one recorded two seconds before the last recording
To send other generic image files, use the following format: "file:<file name>". The file path is relative to the HSYCO root directory.
Any additional text, after one or more space characters, is interpreted as the caption text for the image to be sent.
Custom keyboards are also supported, like in ordinary text or HTML messages.
The video feed must be active, if HSYCO is not recording from the camera, add MotionBuffer=1 to the camera attributes.
Examples
Sending messages
Assuming that we are sending an SMS at 12 o' clock to user id 777123456, this is the EVENTS programming declaration:
time = 1200 : io telegram.message.777123456 = "I'm sending this message to you, my dear"
When users registration is active, you can send a message to all registered users that are currently enabled, also using a few HTML tags (as supported by the Telegram Bot API):
time = 1200 : io telegram.message.html.all = "I'm sending this message to you, <b>my dear</b>"
Send a message with a custom keyboard:
time = 1200 : io telegram.message.777123456 = "Do you like my message? [[Yes,No]]"
Send a live frame from a camera with caption and a custom keyboard:
time = 1200 : io telegram.message.777123456 = "cam:front Live view from the front camera. Open the door? [[Yes,No]]"
Receiving messages
Hsyco can receive Telegram messages and perform actions according to the text contained in the message.
io telegram.message.777123456 = "Yes" : io telegram.message.777123456 = "Thank you!"
io telegram.message.777123456 = "No" : io telegram.message.777123456 = "Why not? You are so mean!"
Release Notes
3.9.0
- the password datapoint can now be set to an empty string to delete the password and allow all incoming messages, even from users that are not registered
3.8.0
- bug fix: the I/O server crashed when receiving a modified or deleted message
- bug fix: improved reliability of dynamic token configuration
- bug fix: failed to handle messages from users with long Id
3.7.0
- camera images and generic image files can now be sent via Telegram messages
- a connection error during the I/O server startup sequence could cause it to wait indefinitely and never re-connect
3.6.0
- initial release
The Telegram logo is a registered trademark of Telegram Messenger LLP.