RSS to Telegram Bot

A simple PHP script that monitors RSS feeds and automatically sends new articles to Telegram channels. Perfect for news aggregation, blog updates, or any RSS-based content distribution.

What it does

• 📡 Monitors multiple RSS feeds simultaneously
• 🚫 Prevents duplicates automatically
• ⚡ Supports Telegram Instant View
• 🎨 HTML formatting with rich text
• 📝 Comprehensive logging system
• 💾 Persists state between runs
• ⏰ Cron job compatible
• 🛠️ Error handling and automatic recovery

How it works

Tracking system

The script uses a simple but effective system to avoid duplicate messages:

1. State file (rss_state.json): Stores info about processed articles for each feed and date
2. Daily reset: Automatically cleans old data, keeping only current day's records
3. URL-based detection: Uses article links to identify duplicates
4. Per-feed tracking: Each RSS feed maintains its own state

Workflow

RSS Feed → Parse XML → Filter by date → Check duplicates → Format message → Send to Telegram

1. RSS parsing: Uses SimpleXML to read feeds
2. Date filtering: Only processes today's articles (configurable)
3. Anti-duplicates: Checks against already sent URLs
4. Formatting: Creates HTML messages with source attribution
5. Delivery: Sends formatted messages to the channel

Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/rss-to-telegram-bot.git
   cd rss-to-telegram-bot
   

2. Create a Telegram bot

   • Message @BotFather on Telegram
   • Use /newbot to create a new bot
   • Copy the API token

3. Get channel ID

   • Add @userinfobot to your channel
   • Forward a message from the channel to @userinfobot
   • Copy the channel ID (starts with -100)

4. Configure the script Edit the configuration section:

   $apiToken = "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN_HERE";
   $channelId = "YOUR_CHANNEL_ID";
   $rssFeeds = [
       ["https://example.com/feed/", ""],
       ["https://another-feed.com/rss/", "INSTANT_VIEW_HASH"]
   ];
   

Configuration

Basic settings

• $apiToken: Your bot token from BotFather
• $channelId: Target Telegram channel ID (must start with -100)
• $rssFeeds: Array of RSS feeds to monitor

RSS feed format

$rssFeeds = [
    ["RSS_URL", "INSTANT_VIEW_HASH"],
    ["https://example.com/feed/", ""],                    // Without instant view
    ["https://news.site.com/rss/", "abc123def456"]       // With instant view
];

Instant View (optional)

Telegram's Instant View provides a clean, fast-loading version of articles:

1. Create an Instant View template at instantview.telegram.org
2. Get the template hash from the URL
3. Add it as the second parameter in the RSS feed array

Automation

Cron job (recommended)

Add to your crontab to run every 15 minutes:

crontab -e

Add this line:

*/15 * * * * /usr/bin/php /path/to/rss-to-telegram-bot.php >/dev/null 2>&1

Other scheduling examples

# Every 5 minutes
*/5 * * * * /usr/bin/php /path/to/script.php

# Every hour
0 * * * * /usr/bin/php /path/to/script.php

# Twice daily (9 AM and 6 PM)
0 9,18 * * * /usr/bin/php /path/to/script.php

File structure

rss-to-telegram-bot/
├── rss-to-telegram-bot.php    # Main script
├── rss_state.json             # Generated: tracks processed articles
├── rss_log.txt                # Generated: execution logs
├── LICENSE                    # GPL v3 license
└── README.md                  # This file

Generated files

State file (rss_state.json)

Tracks processed articles to prevent duplicates:

{
  "https://example.com/feed/": {
    "2024-01-15": [
      "https://example.com/article1",
      "https://example.com/article2"
    ]
  }
}

Log file (rss_log.txt)

Contains execution logs with timestamps:

[2024-01-15 10:30:01] Script started for date: 2024-01-15
[2024-01-15 10:30:02] Feed: https://example.com/feed/, New items: 3
[2024-01-15 10:30:05] Message sent successfully: Breaking News Article
[2024-01-15 10:30:06] Script completed

Message format

The bot sends formatted messages with:

• Source attribution with publication date
• Article title in bold
• Description/excerpt with preserved HTML formatting
• Direct link to original article
• Invisible Instant View link (if configured)

Example output:

Source: Example News - 15/01/2024

Breaking: Important News Update
This is the article description with basic HTML formatting preserved.

https://example.com/article-url

Troubleshooting

Common issues

1. No messages sent

   • Check bot token and channel ID
   • Verify bot is admin in the channel
   • Check if RSS feed URLs are accessible

2. Duplicate messages

   • Ensure rss_state.json has write permissions
   • Check if script is running multiple times simultaneously

3. HTML formatting issues

   • Verify Telegram bot API limits (4096 characters max)
   • Check for unsupported HTML tags

Debug mode

For testing, modify the date to process yesterday's articles:

// $todayDate = date('Y-m-d');
$todayDate = date('Y-m-d', strtotime('-1 day'));

Permissions

Ensure proper file permissions:

chmod 755 rss-to-telegram-bot.php
chmod 666 rss_state.json rss_log.txt

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/improvement)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add new feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/improvement)
5. Create a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.

What this means:

• ✅ You can use this software for any purpose
• ✅ You can modify and distribute it
• ✅ You can use it commercially
• ⚠️ If you distribute modified versions, they must also be GPL v3
• ⚠️ You must include the original license and copyright notices

Support

If you encounter issues or have questions:

1. Check the troubleshooting section
2. Review the log file for error messages
3. Open an issue on GitHub with detailed information

Changelog

v1.0.0

• Initial release
• Basic RSS to Telegram functionality
• State tracking system
• Instant View support
• Comprehensive logging

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