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Receiving Updates

There are two ways of receiving updates, like incoming messages and interactions:

Polling​

Your bot polls repeatedly the Bot API server and asks if there are new updates. If there is nothing new the request waits until it timeouts or a new Update becomes available.

Telepath provides an implementation of this polling feature in the handlePolling method of the Bot class.

$bot->handlePolling();

With optional parameters you can also define if you only want to received Update of a certain type and define a timeout.

Important

Beware that this method call will never return.

Keep in mind, that the delayed polling of updates will also cause your bot reacting less responsive. If you need fast and real-time answers from your bot we recommend using webhooks.

Webhook​

A webhook is a HTTPS POST request from the Bot API server to your bot with the data of a new Update. Each Update will result in an request the webserver of your bot must work on.

Register webhook​

Webhooks must be registered at the Bot API server and require a webserver which can receive HTTPS requests.

To register the webhook Telepath offers the webhook:set command. You can specify the URL of your endpoint using the url parameter.

For more information of supported options please also have a look into the Telegram documentation.

Alternatively you can call the setWebhook method of the Bot class.

You may also want to have a look into the recommendations from Telegram for the secure usage of webhooks.

Handle incoming requests​

To answer incoming Update webhook calls you can simply call the handleWebhook method of the Bot class.

$bot->handleWebhook();

This method will transform the data from the webhook into a Update and process it automatically.

Get information about current webhook​

Telepath offers the command webhook:info to retrieve several information about the currently registered webhook at the Bot API server. You can also call the getWebhookInfo method of the Bot class to receive the data.

Delete webhook​

If you want to change the endpoint of your webhook or use the polling method instead of webhooks you must delete the webhook at the Bot API server. To do this you can use the webhook:delete command or call the deleteWebhook method of the Bot class.