Table of Contents

1. About this repository
2. Getting Started
   • Cloning the repository
   • Working on php-telegram-bot
3. Using Docker
4. Using the bot

About this repository

This repository is a boilerplate for development of the php-telegram-bot.

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Getting Started

Cloning the repository

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/php-telegram-bot/workspace.git

After cloning the workspace, you can use the workspace as if it were a project. We provided a few scripts and a docker-compose.yml that configures a webserver and a local Telegram Bot API server for using and testing webhooks.

Working on php-telegram-bot

To work on the php-telegram-bot repository itself you need to cd into the packages/php-telegram-bot directory and checkout a branch with

git checkout develop

To pull all the current changes from upstream you can call from any location

git submodule update --remote --merge

If you want to commit changes to upstream, you can simply do that as anywhere else.

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Using Docker

By default the Docker setup launches preconfigured with the following containers:

1. nginx Webserver
   • to accept webhook calls from the custom bot api server
2. php-fpm PHP 8.1
   • runs all the code
3. mariadb Database
   • already has the structure imported
4. tdlight Custom Bot API Server
   • Lighter version of the custom Telegram bot API server.

To start the container copy the .env.example into a .env file and fill out your TELEGRAM_API_ID and TELEGRAM_API_HASH data from https://my.telegram.org/apps.

After this you can start the containers with

docker-compose up -d

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Using the bot

By default there is a /start command.

So if you've also filled out your TELEGRAM_BOT_USERNAME and TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN in your .env file, you can execute the setWebhook.php inside the php Docker container.

If successful, you should be able to send a /start to your bot.

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Manually calling the webserver

If you need to call the webserver directly or have a look at the stats of the Bot API server you can create a docker-compose.override.yml file and add the needed port forwarding like in this example:

version: '3'
services:
  nginx:
    ports:
      - 8080:80
        
  api-server:
    environment:
      TELEGRAM_STAT: yes
    ports:
      - 8082:8082

The first block inside services extends the nginx service and adds a port forwarding from 8080 (on your host) to 80 inside the container. You can then call any php script or static files with http://localhost:8080

The second block extends the api-server service, enables the stats with an environment variable and forwards the port 8082 from the container to your host. This allows you to call http://localhost:8082 to access the stats page of the Telegram Bot API server and check i.e. if the webhook was registered correctly.