Telegram Payments Bot

Telegram bot for handling payments in groups based on pyrogram library.
Payments data can be loaded either from an xls/xlsx file or from a Google Sheet (in this way, it can be shared with other admins).
It is also possible to extend this to load payments data from other sources (e.g. a remote database) by inheriting and implementing the PaymentsLoaderBase class, but I didn't need to do it so far.
Payments data can be updated either manually by the admins or, better, automatically (e.g. by the website where the payment is made, via a webhook). It depends on the infrastructure you have.

Setup

Create Telegram app

In order to use the bot, in addition to the bot token you also need an APP ID and hash.
To get them, create an app using the following website: https://my.telegram.org/apps.

Installation

The package requires Python 3, it is not compatible with Python 2.
To install it:

• Using setuptools:

    python setup.py install
  

• Using pip:

    pip install telegram_payment_bot
  

To run the bot, edit the configuration file by specifying the API ID/hash and bot token. Then, move to the app folder and run the bot.py script:

cd app
python bot.py

When run with no parameter, conf/config.ini will be the default configuration file (in this way it can be used for different groups).
To specify a different configuration file:

python bot.py -c another_conf.ini
python bot.py --config another_conf.ini

Of course, the app folder can be moved elsewhere if needed.

Configuration

An example of configuration file is provided in the app/conf folder.
The list of all possible fields that can be set is shown below.

Supported Commands

List of supported commands:

• help: show help message
• alive: show if bot is active
• paybot_set_test_mode true/false: enable/disable test mode
• paybot_is_test_mode: show if test mode is enabled
• paybot_auth_users: show the list of authorized users that can use the bot
• paybot_chat_info: show the chat information (can be run only in group)
• paybot_users_list: show the users list (can be run only in group)
• paybot_invite_link: generate a new invite link (can be run only in group)
• paybot_version: show the bot version
• paybot_check_username [<HOURS_LEFT>]: show the list of chat members without a username (can be run only in group)
  • HOURS_LEFT (optional): hours left to set the username before being removed (only for printing the message). Hours are automatically converted to days if greater than 47. If less than 1, it'll print "as soon as possible". Default value: 0.
• paybot_remove_username: remove all the chat members without a username (can be run only in group)
• paybot_set_check_on_join true/false: enable/disable payment check when a new member joins
• paybot_is_check_on_join: show if payment check when a new member joins is enabled
• paybot_check_data: check payments data for errors (e.g. invalid dates, duplicated users) and show them
• paybot_email_payment [<DAYS_LEFT>]: send a reminder email to chat members whose payment is expiring in the specified number of days
  • DAYS_LEFT (optional): number of days within which the payment expires. Less than 1 means expiring today. Default value: 0.
• paybot_check_payment [<DAYS_LEFT>] [<LAST_DAY>]: show the list of chat members whose payment is expiring in the specified number of days (can be run only in group)
  • DAYS_LEFT (optional): number of days within which the payment expires. Less than 1 means expiring today. Default value: 0.
  • LAST_DAY (optional): last day to complete the payment before being removed (only for printing the message). If less than 1 or greater than 31, it'll print "within few days". Default value: 0.
• paybot_remove_payment: remove the chat members whose payment has expired (can be run only in group)
• paybot_task_start PERIOD_HOURS: start payment check task with the specified period
  • PERIOD_HOURS: task period in hours
• paybot_task_stop: stop payment check task
• paybot_task_info: show payment check task information
• paybot_task_add_chat: add the current chat to the payment check task
• paybot_task_remove_chat: remove the current chat from the payment check task
• paybot_task_remove_all_chats: remove all chats from the payment check task

Add quiet or q as last parameter to send the bot response in a private chat instead of the group chat.

Users removed from the group are just kicked and not banned, so they can re-join later via invite links if necessary.
When users are removed from the group (either because they had no username or they didn't pay), a new invite link is generated and sent to all authorized users in a private chat.
This automatically revokes the old invite link and prevents those users to join again using it.

When checking for payments, a user is removed from the group if:

• He has no Telegram username
• His Telegram username or user ID is not found in the payments data
• His payment is expired

If payment_check_dup_email is set to true:

• If multiple rows have the same email address, only the first row will be loaded and all the others will be skipped (therefore, those users won't be considered as valid payments)
• Rows with duplicated email address will be printed by the paybot_check_data command

Payment Check Task

It's suggested to run a background task to check for payments periodically. It can be started/stopped with the paybot_task_start/paybot_task_stop commands.
The task can check multiple groups in one time (sharing the same payments data, of course). The groups can be added/removed with the paybot_task_add_chat/paybot_task_remove_chat commands (either while the task is running or stopped).
If no group was added, the task will simply run without checking any group.

The period of the task always starts from midnight (if you use a VPS, be sure to set the correct time), for example:

• A task period of 8 hours will check for payments at 00:00, 08:00 and 16:00
• A task period of 6 hours will check for payments at 00:00, 06:00, 12:00 and 18:00

Run the Bot

The bot shall be an administrator of the group.
If you just need to run bot once in a while (e.g. once a week), you can do it manually using the check_no_payment and remove_no_payment commands. In this case, it's sufficient to run the bot locally on the PC when needed.
If you prefer to let the bot check for payment periodically, it'll be better to run it 24h/24h on a VPS.

Payment File

The payment file can be either a xls/xlsx file (xlrd library is used) or a Google Sheet.
In case a Google Sheet is used and the OAuth2 flow is chosen:

1. Create a project on Google Cloud Console
2. Go to APIs & Services, then Credentials and select Configure Consent Screen
3. Create a new app and publish it, it doesn't need to be verified (but you can verify it, of course)
4. Go back to the Credentials page and create the credentials for OAuth client ID by selecting Create Credentials
5. Select Desktop app, choose a name and download the json file with the credentials
6. Go to the Library page, search for Google Sheet and enable Google Sheet APIs
7. Rename the json file to the name specified in the configuration file (payment_google_cred) and place it in the app folder
8. The first time the bot loads your Google Sheet, you'll be asked to login into your Google account and allow the bot to access the sheet. After this, a new json file will be automatically created in the folder you configured (payment_google_cred_path).
9. This json file allows the bot to access the sheet next times, so you don't need to allow it again
10. If you move the bot to another PC or server, just keep the json files to grant the bot access to the sheet without repeating the whole procedure

For more information: create project, create credentials

Since for allowing the bot to access the Google Sheet a browser window will open, in case of a dedicated server (no GUI) it's easier to generate the json file on a PC and then just copy it to the server.

Alternatively, you can create a service account, which is pre-authorized. In this case, you don't need to authorize it from the browser window but you only have to share the Google Sheet with the service account gmail.

In both cases (Google Sheet or Excel file), the file shall contain the following columns starting from the second row (the first row is used as header):

• Email address used for paying (for convenience, since an email address is usually required in payment platforms)
• Telegram user ID or username
• Expiration date of the payment in the format specified by payment_date_format

The indexes of these columns are set in the configuration file. It is possible to add other columns beside these if necessary, they are simply ignored by the bot.

Test Mode

Test mode can be used to test the bot without any effect to the users of the group. When active:

• Users are not kicked from the group if they don't have a username or don't have paid, in any case (i.e. when running a command, when joining the group, during periodical checks)
• Emails are not sent to the users that haven't paid yet

Moreover, the payment task period will be applied in minutes instead of hours. This allows to quickly check if it is working.

Channel Limitations

When used in channels:

• The bot can check for payments periodically but it cannot check users immediately when they join
• All admins can use the bot, not only authorized users
• Commands in quiet mode will send the result to authorized users instead of privately to the user that executed the command
• Due to a Telegram limitation, only 200 members can be managed

Translation

The messages sent by the bot on Telegram can be translated into different languages (the default language is English) by providing a custom XML file.
The XML file path is specified in the configuration file (app_lang_file field).
An example XML file in italian is provided in the folder app/lang.

License

This software is available under the MIT license.