urltester-bot

Simple telegram bot that monitors URLs and alerts the alert owner on status changes.

The configuration is done by the users who got permissions from the administrators, so at least one administrator must be configured to grant and/or revoke permissions when need.

Bot usage (from Telegram)

Bot have three different set of commands that are executable based on the current user permissions.

Basic help for anonymous users. User help for users with granted access permissions. And Admin help, well for admins.

HELP
/history - shows last commands sent to the bot
/start - starts the bot asking for permissions from an administrator
/help - this help

USER COMMANDS
/summary - shows current status of monitors subscribed to
/monitors - shows current defined monitors
/newmonitor <method> <url> <statuscode> <interval> <private> - creates a new monitor with basic monitor settings
/remove <id> - removes a monitor
/setinterval <id> <interval> - updates the interval between monitor calls
/settext <id> <text> - updates the expected text to be found on every monitor request
/settimeout <id> <timeout> - updates the expected timeout to be found on every monitor request
/setstatuscode <id> <statuscode> - updates the expected HTTP status code for the monitor
/subscribe <id> - subscribes to monitor status
/unsubscribe <id> - unsubscribes from monitor status
/test <method> <url> <statuscode> - test a URL and its HTTP status
/testfull <method> <url> <statuscode> - test a URL and its HTTP status, returning its data

ADMIN COMMANDS
/users - returns users and its current status
/grant <id> - grants access to a user
/revoke <id> - revokes access to a user

Monitor settings

• ID. This is set by the service on monitor creation.
• Method. HTTP method to use for connect the URL (GET, POST, PUT and OPTIONS are allowed).
• URL. Full path to the resource to monitor. Ex: https://www.example.com/what/to/monitor.html
• StatusCode. Expected Status Code the resource must return on every request.
• Interval. Amount of time between requests.
• Private. You can set the monitor can be private to you or not.
• Text. The text you expect to find on every request or set the monitor as failure.
• Timeout. Maximun timeout for the requests before set monitor as failure.

Basic usage (service)

The bot have two different required options to run, Telegram Token and at least one administrator.

How-To get a Telegram Bot API Token.

Open your Telegram client and search for the bot BotFather.

To create a new token/bot you need type /newbot and answer these questions ( Botfather guide you):

• /newbot to start the wizard.
• Name for the bot. Anything must fit but some rules could be.
• Username for the bot. It must end in _bot.

After answering the questions, you will have something like this: (this is a non-working example)

Done! Congratulations on your new bot. You will find it at ...

Use this token to access the HTTP API:
`123456789:SAMPLEsampleSAMPLEsample`
Keep your token secure and store it safely, it can be used by anyone to control your bot.

For a description of the Bot API, ...

In this case your API key would be 123456789:SAMPLEsampleSAMPLEsample, by using it the bot will impersonate with the name and username you selected on the wizard. Remember that API key can make any change on your bot and control it so ensure you keep your token secure.

How-To know your own Telegram User ID.

There is a bot that helps, search for userinfobot. As soon as you enter in the channel or send the command /start it will return your details (username, id, first and last name and your current language).

Start the service

Service allows you to use environment variables or options to set its configuration:

• --telegram-token or env var $TELEGRAM_TOKEN is the token for our bot
• --db-path or env var $DB_PATH sets the location for the database where to store the running data. By default it stores on the same directory where it starts ./urltester.db
• --admins or env var $ADMINS is the array of administrators of the application. Note that using flags you must set it for every administrator.

Example:

# using flags
./urltester-bot --telegram-token 123456789:SAMPLEsampleSAMPLEsample --admins 12345678 --admins 23456789 --admins 34567890 --db-path /opt/urltester/db/urltester.db

# using environment variables
TELEGRAM_TOKEN="123456789:SAMPLEsampleSAMPLEsample" ADMINS="12345678,23456789,34567890" DB_PATH="/opt/urltester/db/urltester.db" ./urltester-bot 

Get some help

./urltester-bot help
NAME:
   urltester - Service that schedules URL monitoring by user request.
All the configuration is done by the final user itself by using the telegram bot.

USAGE:
    [global options] command [command options] [arguments...]

COMMANDS:
   help, h  Shows a list of commands or help for one command

GLOBAL OPTIONS:
   --telegram-token value  Telegram API token for the bot to work. [$TELEGRAM_TOKEN]
   --db-path value         Database path where to store user requests and statuses. (default: "./urltester.db") [$DB_PATH]
   --admins value          Telegram UserIDs that can administer bot accesses. [$ADMINS]
   --help, -h              show help
   --version, -v           print the version

Changes:

0.3.1:

• Payload refactor, payload operations are done on the handler instead of all commands code
• Added '/command help' with a longer explanation for each command.

0.3.0:

• Problems now explain the failure that triggered the alert
• Markdown messages updated

0.2.1:

• /about command

0.2.0:

• Full rewrite of command properties
• Full rewrite of payload gathering
• Full rewrite of help command
• Added ability of search for a text
• Added ability of monitor for timeout

0.1.0:

• Administrators with /users, /grant, /revoke new commands
• Permissions requests

0.0.6:

• User subscriptions

0.0.5:

• Added timeline events
• Notify on status change

0.0.4:

• Notify on every monitor check

0.0.3:

• Accesory commands
• /help
• /summany

0.0.2:

• /monitors

0.0.1:

• Monitor add / remove
• Monitor HTTP status on interval request