Set up Telegram

Create a Telegram bot with @BotFather, save its token in MagicPost, and connect a channel or group.

Telegram posts go out through a bot. You set it up once, and your users add it to their own channels and groups.

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What you need

• A Telegram account, to talk to @BotFather.
• A bot made only for this site. A bot has one webhook, so saving it here takes its updates away from anything else that uses it.
• For a webhook, a site served over https on port 443, 80, 88 or 8443. Otherwise choose polling.

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Part 1: Admin setup

1. Create the bot

   In Telegram, open @BotFather and send /newbot. Give the bot a name and a username that ends in bot, such as YourSitePostsBot, then copy the token it sends back. Optionally send /setuserpic, /setdescription and /setabouttext so people recognise the bot.

2. Open the setup panel

   Go to Admin → Publishing → Platforms and click Add credentials on the Telegram card.

3. Fill in the server and token

   • Bot API server: keep https://api.telegram.org. Change it only if you run your own Bot API server, which raises the video limit from 50 MB to 2,000 MB.
   • Bot token: paste the token from @BotFather. It is stored encrypted.
4. Choose how people connect

   Under How people connect, tick Through the site’s bot so everyone adds the bot whose token you saved. Tick With their own bot to let people paste the token of a bot they made themselves, so their posts carry that bot’s name. Tick at least one. If you tick only the second, leave Bot token blank.

5. Choose how updates arrive

   Updates are Telegram’s reports to the bot. They link accounts, connect a chat when the bot is added to it, and bring back reactions and replies.

   • Webhook is the default. Telegram sends each update to your site as it happens, and the site needs https. MagicPost registers https://your-domain.com/webhooks/telegram with Telegram when you save, so you paste nothing.
   • Polling makes your site ask Telegram once a minute through the scheduler. Use it for a site Telegram cannot reach, such as one on localhost or without https. It needs the cron job from Cron and queue.

   You can switch later by choosing the other option and saving.

6. Save

   Click Save. MagicPost checks the token with Telegram first. If the bot already sends its updates to another address, the save stops with a message. Tick Move this bot’s updates here and save again to take them over.

7. Run the checks and enable it

   Click Run checks on the card. It lists Ways to connect, Bot token, Bot, Delivery, Bot API server and Webhook address. Fix anything that fails, then tick Available to users or use the switch on the card. The card shows Live.

Keep one bot for the site. Saving the token of a different bot makes everyone add the new bot to their chats again.

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Part 2: Connect a channel or group

1. Open Connect Telegram

   Go to Publishing → Channels and click Telegram in the Add a channel card.

2. Add your own bot (only if you use one)

   In the Your own bot card, create a bot with @BotFather, paste its token into Bot token and click Use this bot. An account can use one bot of its own.

3. Link your Telegram account

   In the Link your Telegram account card, click Link Telegram account, then Open Telegram and press Start in the chat with the bot. The page shows “Linked @yourname”. The link runs out after 15 minutes, so start again if it does.

4. Add the bot to a chat

   In the next card, click Add to a channel or Add to a group. Telegram opens and asks which chat to use. Accept the admin rights it offers. For a channel, keep Post messages on. In a group the bot must be allowed to send messages, and admin rights also let MagicPost count reactions and new members.

5. Confirm it is connected

   The chat appears under Your Telegram chats and each one counts as a channel against your plan. A chat connects only when Telegram confirms that a linked account of yours is an admin of it. Until then it shows Waiting with the reason. Fix it, then click Check again.

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Check it works

As admin, Run checks shows Bot with the bot’s username and Delivery with how updates arrive. As a user, open a channel’s actions menu in Publishing → Channels and click Check connection. The rows are Authorisation, Bot, Comments (channels only) and Audience.

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If something goes wrong

• “Telegram did not accept that token”: copy the token again from @BotFather, with no spaces. If you regenerated it, use the new one.
• “Telegram only delivers to an https address on port 443, 80, 88 or 8443”: serve the site over https and open the admin panel through it, or choose Polling.
• “This bot already sends its updates to …”: the bot is used by something else. Use a bot made only for this site, or tick Move this bot’s updates here.
• Accounts never link, or chats stay on Waiting: updates are not reaching the site. In Run checks, read the Delivery row. For a webhook, make sure /webhooks/telegram is reachable from the internet. For polling, make sure the cron job runs. In both cases the queue has to be running.
• A channel shows Expired: the reason says why. “The bot was removed from this chat” or “The bot can no longer post in this chat” means adding the bot back as an admin, then Reconnect and Check again. “The site’s Telegram bot stopped working” means you, the admin, must save a working token. “This site moved to a new Telegram bot” means adding the new bot to the chat.