Build a Telegram Bot that Translates Text in 3 Steps with Node.js and Code.xyz

is instant messaging and voice service with a focus on privacy. It also just so happens that they also have a pretty slick interface for creating bots. It’s all done from within the app, by talking to another bot called the BotFather. Telegram This tutorial will walk you through creating a Telegram bot that can translate text into a few different languages. The translation will be handled by IBM Watson’s . The and Watson will be brought together by . Language Translator Telegram bot API Standard Library If you’re not familiar with , we combine a scaleable compute layer, along with automatically generated documentation, authentication, billing, and more. We strive to enable anybody to turn simple functions into production-ready APIs, in seconds. And with the help of our online editor , you can ship to Standard Library with zero setup or installation on your local machine. Standard Library JavaScript Code.xyz What You’ll Need Beforehand 1x Telegram Account 5x Minutes ≈ Step 1: Consult the BotFather It’s the day of the BotFather’s daughter’s wedding. You’ve got the opportunity to ask for one gift, which of course he cannot refuse. You choose to ask for Telegram bot of your very own. Whether you use the Telegram or your phone’s respective client, go to the search bar and enter “botfather”. There might be a few options, make sure you pick the one with the “verified” check-mark. web app, Imposters! You want the one with the blue check. With your conversation started, type and the BotFather will ask for a name. This is not the username of the bot, so it doesn’t have to be unique. I went with . Next, the BotFather will ask for a username (i.e., ). This is how people will call your bot, so it must be unique. I, again, went with , but you’ll have to pick something different. After this step, the BotFather will return a token used to control your bot. Copy that down, we’ll need it in just a moment. /newbot notoriaga_test_bot @BotFather notoriaga_test_bot Now we need to enable for the bot. This lets people type in any chat to use your bot, rather than having to open a chat as we did with the BotFather. Type and then click on the bot you just created. The BotFather will ask for some placeholder text. I went with and that gets displayed like this — inline mode @ [/setinline](about:invalid#zSoyz) Some text to translate… Step 2: Add Some Basic Functionality with Standard Library — Standard Library’s free online editor for APIs Code.xyz Before we get to the translating, let’s just get a basic “hello world” example working. Head over to Standard Library’s online code editor. It comes preloaded with (almost) everything you need to get your bot going. You can find the code by following that link or by clicking on the “Featured API Sources” tab on the landing page. Code.xyz, Once loaded, open up the file. You’ll see four different variables. For now, we are only concerned with . That is that token from earlier. If you can’t find it for some reason, you can make a new one with while talking to the BotFather. Either way, put that token in your . env.json TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN /token env.json Now head over to . This function, when run, registers the file in your project as the recipient of all your bot’s inline queries. After hitting run, you should get a response from Telegram that everything is good — function/setup.js functions/__main__.js Now head back to Telegram to give your bot a try. Type , and after a moment a popup should appear that says — @ hello world echo Click the popup and — Success! With the basic functionality set up, let’s make the bot do something a little more useful. Step 3: Translate Inline Queries with IBM Watson Head over your (or create an account if you don’t have one). From your dashboard, click near the top right corner. Click from the categories sidebar on the left and then . Give your service a name and click . Now your service page should have two credentials. The first is . Simply copy that into your as . Now for the , you are only interested in the host, that is, the part between and . Copy the host into your as . IBM Bluemix Dashboard Create resource AI Language Translator Create API Key env.json WATSON_TRANSLATE_KEY Url https:// /language-translator/api env.json WATSON_TRANSLATE_HOST The complete env.json With those new environment variables, go back to and click run again. Now, the moment of truth. Go back to Telegram and enter again. This time you should see — functions/setup.js @ hello-world And of course, clicking on one enters that translation into the chat — That’s All! I hope this tutorial has been helpful in showing you how easy it is to combine disparate services using Standard Library. For more inspiration as to how you can better use Standard Library, you can check out more guides written by the team . If you have a neat idea you’d like to share, reach out to me directly by e-mail: , or follow and the team on Twitter. here steve@stdlib.com me Standard Library Steve Meyer is a recent graduate of Oberlin College and Software Engineer at Standard Library. When he’s not programming , you can find him baking bread, or playing Spider-Man.