RSS Feed Checker and Telegram Notifier

This script periodically checks an RSS feed for new entries and sends updates to a specified Telegram chat. It is designed to run as a cron job and uses asynchronous operations to efficiently handle network requests.

Features

• Fetches entries from an RSS feed.
• Sends new entries to a specified Telegram chat.
• Uses asynchronous operations for efficient network handling.
• Configurable via environment variables.
• Designed to run periodically using cron jobs.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.7 or later
• Telegram bot token and chat ID (check Telegram botFather)
• Required Python packages (listed in requirements.txt)

Installation

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/0xMNT/telegram-rss-feed-bot.git
cd telegram-rss-feed-bot

2. Create a Virtual Environment

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

3. Install Dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Set Up Environment Variables

Set the following environment variables in your shell configuration file (e.g., .bashrc, .zshrc):

export TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN='your_bot_token'
export TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID='your_chat_id'
export FEED_URL='your_feed_url'

5. Set Up Cron Job

crontab -e

Cron jobs run in a minimal environment, so they do not automatically inherit environment variables that are set in your shell session, therefor we need to put the variables in the cronjob.

TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN='your_bot_token'
TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID='your_chat_id'
FEED_URL='your_feed_url'

Add the following line to run the script every 30 minutes The logfile will be saved in the /root dir.

*/30 * * * * /root/telegram-rss-feed-bot/.venv/bin/python3.11 /root/telegram-rss-feed-bot/app.py >> logfile.log 2>&1

Script Overview

Main Components

• Environment Variables: The script uses TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN and TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID to configure the Telegram bot. Set the FEED_URL as well.
• Seen Entries File: Entries already sent are stored in a pickle file (seen_entries.pkl).

Functions

• load_seen_entries(): Loads the seen entries from the pickle file.
• save_seen_entries(seen_entries): Saves the seen entries to the pickle file.
• get_feed_entries(feed_url): Fetches entries from the RSS feed asynchronously.
• check_new_entries(): Checks for new entries and sends them to the Telegram chat.
• main(): Main function that runs the check_new_entries function.

Asynchronous Operations

The script uses async and await to handle network requests and sending messages efficiently:

• get_feed_entries(feed_url): Asynchronously fetches RSS feed entries.
• check_new_entries(): Asynchronously sends messages to the Telegram chat.

Error Handling

• Logs information using the logging module.
• Handles cases where the pickle file is not found and starts fresh.

Usage

1. Ensure the environment variables are set.
2. Run the script manually to test:

python app.py

3. Set up the cron job to run the script periodically.

Dockerize

Usage

1. Build the Docker image using the following command:

docker build -t <image-name> .

2. Run the Docker container with the required environment variables for Telegram Bot Token, Chat ID and RSS Feed URL.

docker run -d --name <container-name> \
    -e TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=$TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN \
    -e TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID=$TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID \
    -e FEED_URL=$FEED_URL \
    <image-name>