Connect telegram bot with google apps script

Question

I have setup a bot on telegram bot and connected it with google spreadsheets via apps script by following this tutorial. Here is the code:

var token = ""; // FILL IN YOUR OWN TOKEN
var telegramUrl = "https://api.telegram.org/bot" + token;
var webAppUrl = ""; // FILL IN YOUR GOOGLE WEB APP ADDRESS
var ssId = ""; // FILL IN THE ID OF YOUR SPREADSHEET

function getMe() {
  var url = telegramUrl + "/getMe";
  var response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(url);
  Logger.log(response.getContentText());
}

function setWebhook() {
  var url = telegramUrl + "/setWebhook?url=" + webAppUrl;
  var response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(url);
  Logger.log(response.getContentText());
}

function sendText(id,text) {
  var url = telegramUrl + "/sendMessage?chat_id=" + id + "&text=" + text;
  var response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(url);
  Logger.log(response.getContentText());
}

function doGet(e) {
  return HtmlService.createHtmlOutput("Hi there");
}

function doPost(e) {
  // this is where telegram works
  var data = JSON.parse(e.postData.contents);
  var text = data.message.text;
  var id = data.message.chat.id;
  var name = data.message.chat.first_name + " " + data.message.chat.last_name;
  var answer = "Hi " + name + ", thank you for your comment " + text;
  sendText(id,answer);
  SpreadsheetApp.openById(ssId).getSheets()[0].appendRow([new Date(),id,name,text,answer]);

  if(/^@/.test(text)) {
    var sheetName = text.slice(1).split(" ")[0];
    var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.openById(ssId).getSheetByName(sheetName) ? SpreadsheetApp.openById(ssId).getSheetByName(sheetName) : SpreadsheetApp.openById(ssId).insertSheet(sheetName);
    var comment = text.split(" ").slice(1).join(" ");
    sheet.appendRow([new Date(),id,name,comment,answer]);
  }
}

Now I encountered the following issue; I use my bot to store messages from my home automation system. Therefore I send those messages from the system to telegram bot via HTTP GET request:

https://api.telegram.org/bot[BOT_API_KEY]/sendMessage?chat_id=[MY_CHANNEL_NAME]&text=[MY_MESSAGE_TEXT]

Currently these messages sent through http get request seem to be ignored by the script. Does anyoene know how I can solve this issue?

Answer 1

Judging from your question and comments, it seems you are struggling with sending info from your script to your bot on Telegram. Here are the steps to do that:

1.- Create a bot: on Telegram's search look for @BotFather. Click start, write /newbot, give it a name and a username. You should get a token to access the HTTP API. Save this token.

2.- Find your bot on Telegram with its username. Write something to it e.g. 'test'. This will come in handy later.

3.- Test access to the bot from your code

var token = "123456:kioASDdjicOljd_ijsdf"; // Fill this in with your token
var telegramUrl = "https://api.telegram.org/bot" + token;

function getMe() {
  var url = telegramUrl + "/getMe";
  var response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(url);
  Logger.log(response.getContentText());
}

You should get something resembling this:

{"ok":true,"result":{"id":<somenumber>,"is_bot":true,"first_name":"<name of your bot>","username":"<username of your bot>","can_join_groups":true,"can_read_all_group_messages":false,"supports_inline_queries":false}}

4.- Write the sendMessage function

function sendMessage(chat_id,text) {
  var url = telegramUrl + "/sendMessage?chat_id=" + chat_id + "&text=" + text;
  var response = UrlFetchApp.fetch(url);
  Logger.log(response.getContentText());
}

Known is the text you want to send e.g. 'testing bot', but chat_id is unknown. Where do we get this?

5.- Find the chat_id. Before running this function, make sure that you have at least written one message to your bot on Telegram (step 2)

 function getChat_id(){
   var res = UrlFetchApp.fetch(telegramUrl+"/getUpdates").getContentText();
   var res = JSON.parse(res);
   Logger.log(res.result[0].message.chat.id.toString());
}

6.- Run sendMessage with the chat_id you found in step 5 and the message you want to send.