Suggestion: Telegram Channel ID Documentation

[J0n4t4n]

I was setting up Watchtower with the shoutrrr notification type to send notifications to a Telegram channel.

I created a Telegram Bot, a Telegram Channel and made the Bot a Channel Administrator.
I was then struggling to figure out how to find the Channel ID, I tried #120, but the part after t.me/ didn't work.
After a lot of searching I found these instructions: https://gist.github.com/mraaroncruz/e76d19f7d61d59419002db54030ebe35?permalink_comment_id=3611823#gistcomment-3611823

I think the Telegram documentation should include instructions on how to figure out a channel ID, maybe using the "Json Dump Bot" method.
So:

• Create a Channel
• Manually post a message
• Forward that message to "Json Dump Bot"
• message.forward_from_chat.id will contain the Channel ID

[piksel]

Yeah, the channel "name" can be used if you prefix it, but that seems to be missing from the docs. There is also a generator that helps with configuring telegram, which isn't mentioned either.

[davtur19]

Alternatively you could also use your chat ID/user ID (message.from.id on @jsondumpbot) instead of the channel ID; I find it more convenient to have messages sent in private chat with the bot than a channel.
Remember to start the bot, otherwise it will be impossible for the bot to send you messages.

[J0n4t4n]

Yeah, the channel "name" can be used if you prefix it, but that seems to be missing from the docs. There is also a generator that helps with configuring telegram, which isn't mentioned either.

Ah, interesting. Yeah some documentation improvements seem to be needed.

Alternatively you could also use your chat ID/user ID (message.from.id on @jsondumpbot) instead of the channel ID; I find it more convenient to have messages sent in private chat with the bot than a channel.

Remember to start the bot, otherwise it will be impossible for the bot to send you messages.

Yeah, for me I wanted it to be a channel specifically, but that's of course also an option.

[azoller1]

Omg yes. I literally could not understand how to use telegram. @jsondumpbot helped me finally get it to work. Thanks.

[piksel]

Yeah, I did update the docs, but I have not made a release yet so it's still under dev:
https://containrrr.dev/shoutrrr/dev/services/telegram/#identifying_the_target_chatschannels

I will make a new release as soon as I get time. Sorry.

[piksel]

Ineed, to get the ID for any type of chat, you can just forward a message from that chat to @jsondumpbot and in it's reply find this part:

    "forward_from_chat": {
      "id": -1002737640605,

The Chat ID would then be -1002737640605.

I will add this information as well to the docs.

[piksel]

Docs were updated in #250 along with the deployment of a specialized bot for this purpose.

Since neither @JsonDumpBot, nor @UserInfoBot could help getting the Chat ID for group chats, I wrote a bot specifically for this purpose. It can be reached at @shoutrrrbot. Updated the docs to point to it instead.

Originally posted by @piksel in #250 (comment)