I’ve successfully built my Telegram bot using C# and got the basic functionality working. The bot creation part is done but now I’m stuck on the next steps.
I have two main questions that I can’t figure out:
What’s the best way to test and debug my bot during development?
How do I actually deploy my C# code so the bot can run and respond to users?
I’m new to bot development and not sure about the hosting part. Do I need a server or can I run it locally? Any guidance would be really helpful.
Start with polling instead of webhooks when you’re debugging - it’s way easier to set up. You can test your bot right from your dev machine without any extra tools. Just call bot.StartReceiving() and handle updates through polling. This lets you debug normally in your IDE without messing with network configs. When you’re ready for production, check out cloud platforms like Heroku or AWS Lambda for serverless deployment - usually cheaper than traditional hosting. Docker containers are worth looking into too since they keep deployments consistent across environments. Don’t hardcode your bot token - use environment variables to keep it secure.
for debugging, i just run the bot locally and test it str8 in Telegram - works perfectly for dev work. for hosting, i’ve had great luck with GitHub actions plus a cheap VPS. set up auto-deployments when you push code. just make sure you keep the bot running 24/7 with systemd or pm2, or users will hit timeouts when it’s down.
To effectively debug your Telegram bot, you can utilize ngrok to expose your local webhook to Telegram’s servers. This setup will allow you to receive real webhook calls while developing, and you can utilize breakpoints in Visual Studio for your debugging process. Regarding deployment, options vary based on your requirements. Azure App Service is a solid choice for production due to its auto-scaling capabilities and compatibility with .NET applications. Alternatively, consider VPS providers like DigitalOcean or Linode for greater control. However, avoid running your bot locally in production, as it requires constant uptime and internet accessibility.