apollo.lv to telegram

A "small" Java command-line application that reads the RSS feed of the Latvian news site Apollo.lv and posts article headlines to Telegram Channel "Apollo.lv | Vairāk nekā ziņas".

The application is designed to be executed periodically using cron or, in this instance, a GitHub Actions workflow.

CLI usage

java -jar apollo-lv-to-telegram.jar [-dhVp] [-u=URL] [-t=TOKEN] [-c=CHANNEL_ID] [-s=FILE] [-r=LABEL] [-e=CATEGORY[,CATEGORY...]]...

OPTIONS
  -u, --url=URL                   News feed RSS URL (default: https://www.apollo.lv/rss).
  -t, --token=TOKEN               Telegram bot token.
  -c, --channel-id=CHANNEL_ID     Telegram Channel ID.
  -s, --status-file=FILE          File to store information about the last processed article.
                                  Used to prevent posting duplicates on repeated runs.
  -r, --read-button-label=LABEL   Label for the "Read" button in Telegram.
  -e, --exclude-categories=CATEGORY[,CATEGORY...]
                                  List of article categories to exclude.
  -p, --exclude-paywalled         Exclude articles that are accessible only to paying subscribers.
  -V, --version                   Print version information and exit.
  -d, --debug                     Print debug information.
  -h, --help                      Show this help message and exit.

Environment variables

Most CLI parameters can also be provided via environment variables.

Mapping

Option	Environment variable	Value example
--url	FEED_READER_URL	https://www.apollo.lv/rss
--token	FEED_READER_TOKEN	1234567890:ABCDEF...
--channel-id	FEED_READER_CHANNEL_ID	-1234567890000
--status-file	FEED_READER_STATUS_FILE	last-sync-status.json
--read-button-label	FEED_READER_READ_BUTTON_LABEL	Read
--exclude-categories	FEED_READER_EXCLUDE_CATEGORIES	sports,horoscopes
--exclude-paywalled	FEED_READER_EXCLUDE_PAYWALLED	true/false
--debug	FEED_READER_DEBUG	true/false

This can be useful when running the application inside a container, to hide sensitive information from CI/CD logs, console history, etc.

Run your own

Want to run your own instance or test some changes locally? Here's how.

Create a Bot 🤖

Start off by messaging @BotFather on Telegram to create your own Bot.

Create a Channel 📰

Create a Telegram Channel and add the bot as an administrator.

Find the Channel ID 🔍

Discover your Channel ID by posting a message to the channel and visiting https://api.telegram.org/bot<token>/getUpdates (substitute <token> with the one that you got from BotFather)

You'll find your Channel ID in the result › message › chat › id field.

Build the application 🔨

Note: You will need Java 22 or later to build the project locally.

Clone this repository and build the application:

git clone [email protected]:dobicinaitis/apollo-lv-to-telegram.git
cd apollo-lv-to-telegram
./gradlew build

Alternately you can download a pre-build version from the Releases page.

Run the application 🚀

java -jar build/libs/apollo-lv-to-telegram-<version>.jar \
    --token <your-bot-token> \
    --channel-id <your-channel-id> \
    --status-file last-sync-status.json \
    --debug

That's it! 🎉 Headlines from the RSS feed should appear in your Channel.
Utilize the --status-file option with the same file to avoid posting duplicates on subsequent runs.

joy++