IEEEsbot

IEEEsbot is the Telegram bot we use at our student branch to purchase items in the branch's inventory through the API.

Installation

For using IEEEsbot, Node.js 8.11 or higher is required. It may work with previous versions, but support is not guaranteed.

Clone or download the project, and copy the example config file:

$ cp config.json.example config.json

Then customize it to fit your needs. You can see detailed instructions on how to do it in the Configuration section.

Once that's sorted out, run the following in the project's root:

$ npm install
$ npm start

Configuration

All the system-specific setup for IEEEsbot is configured ìn the config.json file. It looks like this:

{
    "telegram": {
        "token": "<your_bot's_telegram_token>",
        "botName": "<your_bot's_username_without_at>",
        "updates": {
            "type": "webhook",
            "url": "<webhook_path_in_the_bot's_host>",
            "localPath": "<local_path_where_the_webhook_listens>",
            "localPort": 8443,
            "https": {
                "key": "<some/path/to/key.pem>",
                "cert": "<some/path/to/cert.pem>",
                "ca": "<some/path/to/ca.pem>"
            }
        }
    },
    "pageSize": 3,
    "locale": "<your_locale>",
    "apiRoot": "<where_the_backend's_api_is>"
}

pageSize is the amount of items shown per message when /buy is used.

Please note that all fields are required, unless stated otherwise.

The updates field

The updates field can have two different values, depending on whether you want to use polling or webhooks to communicate with Telegram's server.

Polling

With polling, the bot will periodically contact Telegram's servers to check if new messages have been received. This method makes the bot a bit slower to response and it's slightly network-intensive.

However, it has the benefit of an easier setup (especially if the bot's host cannot be reached from the internet for some reason).

"updates": {
    "type": "polling"
}

Webhooks

With a webhook, the Telegram servers will contact the bot for every new update (i.e. when a message is received). This makes the bot faster, but requires setting up an HTTPS server to be able to accept the requests.

IEEEsbot will create the server for you, but some additional information is required.

"updates": {
    "type": "webhook",
    "url": "<webhook_path_in_the_bot's_host>",
    "localPath": "<local_path_where_the_webhook_listens>",
    "localPort": 8443,
    "https": {
        "key": "<some/path/to/key.pem>",
        "cert": "<some/path/to/cert.pem>",
        "ca": "<some/path/to/ca.pem>"
    }
}

localPath and localPort indicate where the bot should listen for updates. This may or may not be the same as the one specified in the host's URL, depending on your specific network setup.

The https field is used for specifying where the different SSL/TLS keys can be found in the local filesystem, although you can skip it if you have some other service that manages HTTPS between the webhook and the bot (e.g. nginx). If you don't have an SSL/TLS certificate, you may be interested in Let's Encrypt (recommended) or creating a self-signed one.

The ca field is optional, it's only required if you're using self-signed certs.

Localization

This bot supports displaying all messages in your own language. It is in English by default, and for now it has also been tranlated to Spanish.

However, if you want to have it in some other language, you can make a copy of the locales/en.json file and translate the keys as you need:

{
    "hello": "hola",
    "some key": "some translation",
    "...": "..."
}

Don't forget to change the locale setting in the config.json file to fit your new language. For example, if you named your translation DE_de.json, then set "locale": "DE_de".

Please file a pull request with the new language if you make a new translation!

License

This code is licensed under the MIT license. More in the LICENSE file.

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(c) 2018 Rama Universitaria del IEEE de Madrid - All rights reserved