nocto.js

Nocto is a Node.js Telegram bot framework with an asynchronous plugin-based architecture, using the official bot API. It relies on long polling and persistent connections to rapidly interact with Telegram.

What can nocto do for you?

• As a user, you can just run nocto with one or more existing plugins.
• As a developer, you can utilize nocto's extensive framework to develop custom plugins without having to reinvent the wheel all the time. Nocto provides much more functionality than a simple API wrapper does.

Development status

Mostly functional but not actively maintained. Lots of outdated dependencies. May or may not be modernized in the future.

Quickstart

1. Make sure your Node.js interpreter is version 0.12 or higher.
2. Run ./fullinstall.sh to install core and plugin dependencies with npm.
3. Make sure the user running the bot has read/write permission for the directories logs, persist and config.
4. Launch with node nocto.js or npm start.
5. Answer the questions asked by the first time setup wizard. If you don't have an API token yet, request one from @BotFather on Telegram.
6. Get on Telegram and claim ownership of the bot by sending the command /owner in a private message or a group that the bot is a member of.
7. List available plugins with /plugins list. You can enable any number of plugins with /plugins enable plugin1 plugin2.

After the first run, which is interactive, you can just use your preferred way to (automatically) launch and keep the application running in the background. Sending an interrupt signal (Control-C) initiates a clean shutdown.

Available plugins (incomplete)

• echo: Simple example plugin implementing an echo command.
• feedannounce: RSS/Atom notifications configurable for either public or private use (under heavy development).
• googleimages: Shows Google search suggestions for a partial query.
• googlesuggest: Grabs an image from Google Images. Optimized for reliability, speed and anti-duplication.
• ircbridge: Allows you to link IRC channels and Telegram groups, relaying messages and events in one or both directions. Supports multiple IRC servers and bridge routes.
• jukebox: Grabs playable MP3 songs from Prostopleer.
• trace: Logs properties of every incoming message to ease plugin development.

Administration

Basic plugin control commands:

/plugins list
/plugins enable someplugin
/plugins enable all
/plugins disable someplugin
/plugins disable all
/plugins reload someplugin
/plugins reload

• You can enter a space-separated lists of plugins for most commands.
• reload performs a full disable-unload-load-enable cycle, only enabling plugins that were already enabled. Reloading will force reading the plugin files from disk, thus applying any changes to the plugin.

Manipulating user authority:

/authority @target_user
/authority @target_user administrator
/ban @target_user

• Users must have sent at least one message that the bot has seen before they can be assigned an authority.
• Authority levels: user trusted half-operator operator administrator owner (and blacklisted, which is set by /ban)
• You can use either user IDs or @usernames.

Developing new plugins

Plugins have their own directory in plugins and at least an executable file plugins/myplugin/myplugin.js. They can optionally have a config.json and/or an NPM package.json in the same directory. For now, reference the annotated plugins/echo as an example plugin (although this is not the only possible style for writing plugins). Your plugin can have its own dependencies, submodules and data files if necessary.

Nocto provides various services and utilities, such as persistent storage, user tracking, fluid builder patterns and state machines for session-based interaction. These features will be documented at a later time; if you want to know how to make use of this take a look at existing plugins or ask the author.

Logging

Logging is realized with log4js and defaults to dumping all messages except debug information to standard output and daily rotating files. Logging behavior can be customized in your local configuration file. Refer to the log4js documentation for further details.

Dependencies

External dependencies on node modules are listed in the package.json and can be automatically resolved with npm install. Dependencies listed as optional are only necessary for certain services (see below), which are enabled by default but can be disabled in the bot configuration. Plugins have their own dependencies specified in a package.json and require an npm install in their plugin directory before loading them for the first time.

However, the bot also has internal component dependencies. The bot provides a set of modules called 'services' which are more tightly coupled to the bot than plugins. They generally provide some functionality to plugins and/or other components, for example a persistent data store.

Services can be disabled to strip the bot of some weight if you don't need them. The following applies regarding dependencies:

• Plugins can depend on certain services.
• Services can depend on certain other services (e.g. plugin manager service requiring persistent storage for keeping track of enabled plugins).
• Plugins do not depend on other plugins.