Automate Telegram channel messages from the Telegram bot.

Modified on Thu, 5 Jun at 9:23 PM

This document guides you through the process of setting up your Telegram bot to automatically send messages to a Telegram channel.

Please note that you must have already created your Telegram bot.

I. Creating a New Telegram Channel

Click the Edit button: This is usually found in the bottom right corner of the screen.

Click on New Channel: Select this option to begin creating your channel.

Enter the channel: Once the channel is created, open it.

Click on the pencil icon: This icon allows you to edit the channel settings.

Go to the Administrators section: Within the channel settings, find and select the "Administrators" option.

Select the bot as an administrator: Add your bot to the channel's administrators list. This is crucial for the bot to be able to post messages.

Obtain the channel ID:

Open Telegram Web in your computer's browser.

Select the channel you created.

In the browser's URL address bar, you will see the channel ID after #-. It will be in the format -CHANNELID. Important: Include the hyphen "-" when you copy the ID.

II. Configuring Chatbot Builder AI

Go to your Chatbot Builder AI platform.

Navigate to Flows - Actions - External API Request.

Base URL and Endpoint: The base URL for interacting with the Telegram Bot API is:

https://api.telegram.org/botYOUR_TOKEN/sendmessage

Replace YOUR_TOKEN with the actual token of the bot you created using BotFather.

External API Request Body: In the body of the external request, use a JSON structure like this:

JSON

{

"chat_id": "-CHANNELID",

"text": "Hello, this message is a test from CBB"

}

Replace -CHANNELID with the channel ID you obtained in Step 8. The "text" field contains the message you want to send.

Using Custom User Fields (CUFs): If you want to send a message stored in a Custom User Field (CUF), replace the text in the JSON body with the CUF name enclosed in double curly braces: {{CUF}}.

For example:

JSON

{

"chat_id": "-CHANNELID",

"text": "{{my_cuf}}"

}

Triggering the Message Flow: You can trigger the flow that contains the External API Request using Keywords or through a rule.

We hope this guide is helpful for automating sending messages to your Telegram channel.