openhab-docs/_addons_actions/telegram

id	label	title	type	description	source	since	install
telegram	Telegram	Telegram - Actions	action	The Telegram Action service allows sending formatted messages to Telegram clients ([https://telegram.org](https://telegram.org)), by using the Telegram Bot API.	https://github.com/openhab/openhab1-addons/blob/master/bundles/action/org.openhab.action.telegram/README.md	1x	auto

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Telegram Actions

The Telegram Action service allows sending formatted messages to Telegram clients (https://telegram.org), by using the Telegram Bot API.

Prerequisites

As described in the Telegram Bot API, this is the manual procedure needed in order to get the necessary information.

1. Create the Bot and get the Token

• On a Telegram client open a chat with BotFather.
• write /newbot to BotFather, fill all the needed information, write down the token. This is the authentication token needed.

2. Create the destination chat and get the chatId

• Open a new chat with your new Bot and post a message on the chat
• Open a browser and invoke https://api.telegram.org/bot<token>/getUpdates (where <token> is the authentication token previously obtained)
• Look at the JSON result and write down the value of result[0].message.chat.id. That is the chatId. Note that Telegram group chat chatIds are prefixed with a dash "-" that must be included in the config file. (e.g. bot1.chatId: -22334455)

Configuration

The action can be configured in services/telegram.cfg.

Property	Default	Required	Description
bots		Yes	Comma-separated list of <bot-name>s
<bot name>.chatId		Yes	chat id
<bot name>.token		Yes	authentication token

Configuration example

bots=bot1,bot2

bot1.chatId=22334455
bot1.token=xxxxxxxxxxx

bot2.chatId=654321
bot2.token=yyyyyyyyyyy

It this example two bots can be used (bot1 and bot2).

Examples

Send a text message to telegram chat

telegram.rules

rule "Send telegram with Fixed Message"
when
   Item Foo changed
then
   sendTelegram("bot1", "item Foo changed")
end

Send a text message with a formatted message

telegram.rules

rule "Send telegram with Formatted Message"
when
   Item Foo changed
then
   sendTelegram("bot1", "item Foo changed to %s and number is %.1f", Foo.state.toString, 23.56)
end

Send an image to telegram chat

telegram.rules

rule "Send telegram with image and caption from image accessible by url"
when
    Item Light_GF_Living_Table changed
then
    sendTelegramPhoto("bot1", "http://www.openhab.org/assets/images/openhab-logo-top.png",
        "sent from openHAB")
end

telegram.rules

rule "Send telegram with image without caption from image accessible by url"
when
    Item Light_GF_Living_Table changed
then
    sendTelegramPhoto("bot1", "http://www.openhab.org/assets/images/openhab-logo-top.png",
        null)
end

In case your image is behind an authenticated web server (locked by username and password) you can pass the credentials as additional parameters to the extended sendTelegramPhoto method.

telegram.rules

rule "Send telegram with image without caption from image accessible by url"
when
    Item Light_GF_Living_Table changed
then
    sendTelegramPhoto("bot1", "http://www.openhab.org/assets/images/openhab-logo-top.png",
        null, "username", "password")
end

Do not use username/password in url like in this example http://<username>:<password>@server/image.png; pass the credentials to the sendTelegramPhoto method instead.

http and https are the only protocols allowed.

If you would like to send a base64 jpeg or png image.

telegram.rules

rule "Send telegram with base64 image and caption"
when
    Item Light_GF_Living_Table changed
then
    var String base64Image = "data:image/jpeg;base64, LzlqLzRBQ..."
    sendTelegramPhoto("bot1", base64Image, "sent from Openhab")
end