With positive feedback we've received in our Bitcoitalk thread, the developers of Bethereum would like to share their first guide.

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Table of contents

• Introduction
• Installing
• CommandBot
  • Before you begin
  • Getting started with your code
  • Defining the functions
  • Setting up the bot API token
  • Linking your functions
  • Notes
• QueryBot
• GroupButler

Introduction

This is a guide for the crypto community, all current and future Crypto project developers and any other enthusiasts. I'd like to credit python-telegram-bot for creating the wrapper used in the guides.

Installing

You can install or upgrade python-telegram-bot with:

$ pip install python-telegram-bot --upgrade

Or you can install from source with:

$ git clone https://github.com/python-telegram-bot/python-telegram-bot --recursive
$ cd python-telegram-bot
$ python setup.py install

CommandBot

Simple way to communicate the most important information to your members and supporters, such as:

• Social Media links
• News
• PR contacts
• Any repetative questions
• Telegram user verification

Before you begin

Open up @Botfather on Telegram to create your new bot and receive the API token.

Getting started with your code

The python-telegram-bot wrapper we'll be using works the following way:

1. You define functions to tell your bot what to do when someone writes a command beginning with "/" or a message.
2. By adding CommmandHandlers or MessageHandlers you link these functions to the commands or messages written by a user.

Note: see the documentation for CommandHandlers and MessageHandlers.

Importing modules:

from telegram.ext import Updater, CommandHandler, MessageHandler, Filters
import logging

Setting up the logging module:

logging.basicConfig(format='%(asctime)s - %(name)s - %(levelname)s - %(message)s',
                    level=logging.INFO)
logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

Defining the functions

Defining the start function:

def start(bot, update):
    bot.send_message(chat_id=update.message.chat_id, text='Hello ' + update.message.from_user['first_name'] + '!' '\nI am the *BethereumBot*, click on /help to find out how I can assist you.' , parse_mode = 'Markdown')

Defining the help function:

def help(bot, update):
    update.message.reply_text("Currently I can't help you with anything, talk to my developers and tell them to add more functions and CommandHandlers!")

Function for possible errors caused by updates:

def error(bot, update, error):
    logger.warning('Update "%s" caused error "%s"', update, error)

Defining the unkown function:

def unknown(bot, update):
     bot.send_message(chat_id=update.message.chat_id, text="Sorry, I didn't understand that command, please click at /help to see a list of all available commands.")

Note: Look at the following documentation for possible Bot actions.

Setting up the bot API token

Setting up the Updater:

updater = Updater(token='123456:AAABBCCDDEEEFFFGGHHHIIIJJKKLL') # Copy the Token from the Botfather here
dp = updater.dispatcher

Linking your functions

You have to link the functions declared above with commands or messages written by a user:

dp.add_handler(CommandHandler('start', start)) # Runs the start function declared above when a user writes /start
dp.add_handler(CommandHandler('help', help)) # Runs the help function declared above when a user writes /help
dp.add_handler(MessageHandler(Filters.command, unknown)) # Runs the unkown function declared above when a user writes an unkown command
dp.add_error_handler(error) # Runs the error function declared above when there are any errors in the backend

Starting your bot

The following line of code will tell the bot to start getting updates from Telegram:

updater.start_polling()

Notes

There are many ways of doing the same thing, maybe you've noticed we used bot.send_message in one function and update.message.reply_text in another, therefore we advise you to read the documentation provided for the wrapper.

We're going to add a guide for the deployment of your bot soon!