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Vzhuh Meme Generator - a simple Telegram bot on Google App Engine. Demo: http://telegram.me/vzh_bot

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Vzhuh Meme Generator for Telegram

TL;DR. This is a simplistic Telegram bot example. The demo is at http://telegram.me/vzh_bot. It takes the text sent to it, and sends back an image of a magic cat saying this text. To be hosted on Google App Engine.

Output example

What it actually does

  • Sets up two urls to handle requests (both are set in main_vzhuh.py):
    • /vzhuh/img - takes the text passed as GET parameter, and returns an image. You can use it directly at, e.g. /vzhuh/img?t=and the bot is ready.
    • /vzhuh/webhook - parses POST requests from Telegram and forms a POST json response with an url to the image and some boilerplate info.
  • Handles either direct messages, or chat messages starting with /vz.
    • Replies with text instructions through sendMessage method if the text after /vz is empty.
    • If the text is provided, the bot replies with an image url through sendPhoto method.
  • The algorithm to fit the text into the rectangular area is in main_vzhuh.py/vzhuh_formatter.

Google App Engine (GAE)

The bot is hosted on GAE (a part of Google Cloud Platform). There are multiple advantages of GAE:

  • Easy set-up. Or rather: a bit strange, but well-documented set-up.
  • Free quotas. Generous enough for a small, non-viral bot.
  • Free SSL/TLS encryption. For webhook bots, you need a server that can handle TLS1.0+ HTTPS-traffic signed with a trusted and verified certificate.

How to set it up

  1. Register on Google Cloud Platform, create a new App Engine project with <app_engine_project_id>.
  2. Test and deploy the application following these steps. gcloud app deploy app.yaml --project <app_engine_project_id>
  3. Create a bot with the help of the BotFather, note down your <telegram_bot_authorization_token>.
  4. Set up a webhook with the curl request:
curl -v -k -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "Cache-Control: no-cache"  -d '{
"url":"https://<app_engine_project_id>.appspot.com/vzhuh/webhook",
}' "https://api.telegram.org/bot<telegram_bot_authorization_token>/setWebhook"
  1. Send a message to your bot in Telegram, check that it replies. Add the bot to a chat with your friends. Have fun.
Debugging tips:
  • You can always look up GAE logs, they are quite detailed by already, but they also show whatever you just print from your code.
  • To test the server response for different messages, you can use requests sent with curl:
curl -v -k -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "Cache-Control: no-cache"  -d '{
"update_id":10000,
"message":{
  "date":1441645532,
  "chat":{
     "last_name":"Test Lastname",
     "id":1111111,
     "type": "private",
     "first_name":"Test Firstname",
     "username":"Testusername"
  },
  "message_id":1365,
  "from":{
     "last_name":"Test Lastname",
     "id":1111111,
     "first_name":"Test Firstname",
     "username":"Testusername"
  },
  "text":"/vz and the bot is ready"
}
}' "http://localhost:8080/vzhuh/webhook"

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