Hey everyone! I’m working on a Telegram bot project and could use some help. I’ve got the basics down - my bot can grab a daily quote from a website and send it as a message when I use the /start command. But I want to take it a step further.
What I’m hoping to do is make the bot send the quote automatically when I run the Python script, without needing any commands. Is this doable? I’m not sure how to set it up to work this way.
Has anyone tackled something similar before? Any tips or pointers would be awesome. I’m pretty new to making bots, so I’m still figuring things out. Thanks for any help you can give!
hey alex, i’ve done smthing similar before. u can use the ‘schedule’ library in python to automate ur bot. just create a function to send the quote, then use schedule.every().day.at(‘09:00’).do(your_function) to run it daily at 9am. make sure ur script keeps running tho, maybe on a raspberry pi or smthing
It is indeed possible to automate the delivery without requiring manual commands. You can use a scheduling library such as schedule or APScheduler in Python to accomplish this task. A good approach is to first implement a function that fetches and sends the quote. Then, configure the scheduler to trigger this function at a predetermined time each day. Maintaining an always-on script might involve running the code on a cloud server or a reliable device like a Raspberry Pi. Handling errors like network issues is crucial, as is ensuring that your bot complies with Telegram’s policies.
I’ve implemented a similar solution for a client. In my experience, one effective strategy was to use a cron job to trigger the Python script at a specific time each day, which eliminates the need for the script to run continuously. I adjusted the script so that it sends the quote immediately upon execution, and then I created a shell script to activate the virtual environment and run the Python script. This method proved to be reliable and resource-efficient. Just ensure your server’s time zone is set correctly and consider adding logging to monitor successful sends and any errors.