RIT-nexus/telegram-bot

This is a lightweight Python microservice that acts as an intermediary between the student Q&A forum and registered helper accounts (Seniors/Staff) on Telegram.

🚀 How It Works

1. Student submits a question on the web portal.
2. Spring Boot Backend saves the question and triggers an HTTP POST request to the Python bot: /send_question.
3. Telegram Bot broadcasts the question with a force_reply prompt to all configured helper accounts.
4. Helpers reply directly to the Telegram message.
5. Telegram Bot captures the reply, maps it back to the original question ID, and pushes the answer back to the Spring Boot REST endpoint (POST /api/questions/{id}/answers).

🛠️ Installation & Setup

1. Install Dependencies

Run this in the telegram-bot/ directory:

pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Configure the Bot

Update config.json:

{
  "telegram_bot_token": "YOUR_TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN",
  "helper_chat_ids": [
    971749136
  ],
  "spring_backend_url": "http://localhost:8080"
}

How to find your Telegram Chat ID:

1. Search for the bot username on Telegram and click Start (or send /start).
2. The bot will automatically reply with your exact Chat ID.
3. Add this ID to the helper_chat_ids array in config.json. The bot dynamically reloads configuration changes on the fly!

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🏃 Running the Bot

Start the server:

python telegram_bot.py

• Bot Server Port: 8082
• Local Mappings Store: bot_mappings.db (SQLite) is created automatically to persist message mappings so that replies continue to map to the correct questions even if the bot is restarted.