telegram_forum

Blocks ::: block_telegram_forum

Maintained by

Marcelo Schmitt

This block allows teachers to automatically send all new forum topics to Telegram Channels.

Latest release: 15 months

142 sites

108 downloads

19 fans

Current versions available: 2

Download

Many students do not use email anymore. Telegram is an alternative with free bot API. This plugin is based in two elements of Telegram:

Bot created by the administrator
Channel created by the teacher

If a teacher installs the block and configures it in a proper way, every new topic of the course in which the block is enabled will be sent to the Telegram Channel configured. This way, the student has an alert in its mobile phone.

We will probably increase the plugin to include other alerts and the selection of them.

------------

Subscription needed

In order to send forum topics to Telegram Channel the administrator of Moodle and the teacher that uses the block in a course need to have an account in telegram and to make some configurations. Following you can learn what you need to do.

- Administrator

The administrator needs to:

Create a Telegram account for the organization where Moodle is installed or use its own (https://telegram.org or download Telegram APP in cell phone).
Create a Telegram Bot and take note of its token and its name (https://core.telegram.org/bots, item 6).
Fill Bot Token and Bot Name when installing de plugin.

- Teacher

The teacher needs to:

Create a Telegram account (https://telegram.org or download Telegram APP in cell phone).
Create a Telegram Private Channel.
Add the bot as an admin of the Private Channel.
Take note of the channel share link. Just go into your channel and click in the channel name.
Take note of Channel ID.

log in web telegram
Click on the target channel then you will find the url displayed on your browser.

If it's a private channel then the url must be similar to:

https://web.telegram.org/#/im?p=c1018013852_555990343349619165
For this case, the channel ID would be 1018013852.
It's important to know that channel's IDs are always negative and 13 characters long!
So add -100 to it, making the correct ID -1001018013852.

Fill Channel ID and Channel Link when enabling block in course.

Potential privacy issues

The only privacy issue is not related to the plugin but to Telegram App. If a student agrees to receive messages of the Channel, the teacher wil know their telephone numbers. But this happens via Telegram and not via Moodle. The plugin does not keep the telephone number of either students or teachers.

Useful links

Screenshots

Contributors

Marcelo Schmitt (Lead maintainer)

View other contributions

Please login to view contributors details and/or to contact them

Awards

Privacy friendly

Comments

Show comments

Sergey Che
Thu, 12 Aug 2021, 7:49 PM
Marcelo Schmitt, bot is admin in chat, but messages are not received in telegram.
Marcelo Schmitt
Thu, 12 Aug 2021, 8:00 PM
Sergey, there is no special configuration of the bot. The only relation between the bot and the plugin is that the teacher has to use the same bot that the Moodle administrator has put in site configuration with the correct token. The token is essential. It is the password that allows Moodle to use the bot to send the message.

And Moodle talks to Telegram using HTTPS. More specifically, with the URL https://api.telegram.org/bot".$bottoken. Your server needs to establish that connection. A firewall may block it.
Daria Tolstihina
Thu, 19 Aug 2021, 12:02 PM
Hello! We have connected the plugin, everything is configured correctly according to your instructions. BUT nothing works, notifications do not come. What's wrong?
I want to take screenshots of how we configured. Can I get your email or telegram?
Marcelo Schmitt
Thu, 19 Aug 2021, 7:36 PM
My email is marcelo.rauh@gmail.com.
Ivan Bobrov
Sat, 29 Jan 2022, 10:37 PM
Hi, Marcelo.
Question: can this bot work with private TG group, not TG channel as described in docs ?
Nastasia B
Thu, 3 Feb 2022, 4:31 AM
Dear Marcelo, thanks a lot for your Moodle-telegram plugin!
Pls advise about max symbols length for the topic or message and how is it possible to increase it? For example note which is more than 15000 symbols length fail to forward to telegram
Marcelo Schmitt
Tue, 8 Feb 2022, 1:36 AM
Иван Бобров, I made it for channels. Never tested in a TG group.
Natasia, I will have to take a look.
Moodle CS
Thu, 12 Jan 2023, 1:34 AM
Hi Marcelo, Are you planning for an upgrade of this plugin for Moodle 4.1?
Marcelo Schmitt
Mon, 16 Jan 2023, 8:46 PM
Let me do it now.
Marcelo Schmitt
Mon, 30 Jan 2023, 7:41 PM
Publishing version for Moodle 4 now. 5 minutes.
Sylvain Gillot
Tue, 31 Jan 2023, 9:46 PM
Hello,
I tested the plugin on Moodle 4.1 but when configuring the block I got this error message: "Exception: Class "block_telegram_forum\privacy\block_edit_form" not found".
I managed to get it working on Moodle 3.9
Marcelo Schmitt
Sat, 4 Feb 2023, 1:17 AM
Sylvain

You are correct. There was an error in edit_form.php. I fixed. Uploading correct code in Moodle.org. Github is already fixed.

Thanks a lot.

Marcelo
Sylvain Gillot
Mon, 6 Feb 2023, 3:35 PM
Thanks Marcello for the fix. It now works.
Jarvis Labrador
Fri, 23 June 2023, 9:17 PM
hello I am using the plugin, I wanted to ask if it works? because I carry out the configuration step by step and after placing the channel id, the channel link does not save changes but in the select forums option it does not show me any, I have several forums created before and after but still nothing. thanks
Marcelo Schmitt
Sat, 24 June 2023, 1:23 AM
Jarvis, which version of Moodle are you using. Until now it was working, but maybe I have to test in new versions of Moodle. I may talk to you using email: marcelo.rauh@gmail.com. We may exchange some screenshots.