Telegram Field Bot

Overview

Field workers need simple tools. Telegram bots provide instant communication, photo sharing, and task management without training or app downloads.

"Telegram for field ops: Real-time task assignment and status updates" — DDC Community

Why Telegram?

Feature Benefit

No training Workers already use Telegram

Works offline Messages sync when connected

Photos/videos Easy visual documentation

Groups Team coordination

Bots Automated workflows

Free No per-user licensing

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ TELEGRAM FIELD BOT │ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ │ │ Field Worker Bot n8n │ │ ──────────── ─── ─── │ │ │ │ 📱 Send photo ───▶ 🤖 Receive ───▶ ⚙️ Process │ │ 📝 Text report 📋 Parse 📊 Store │ │ 📍 Location 🏷️ Classify 📧 Notify │ │ ✅ Confirm 📈 Dashboard │ │ │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Quick Start with n8n

1. Create Telegram Bot

2. Open Telegram, search @BotFather

3. Send /newbot

4. Name: "SiteReport Bot"

5. Username: "sitereport_company_bot"

6. Copy the API token

7. n8n Workflow

{ "workflow": "Telegram Field Reporting", "nodes": [ { "name": "Telegram Trigger", "type": "Telegram", "event": "message", "token": "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN" }, { "name": "Parse Message", "type": "Code", "code": "Parse message type: text, photo, location" }, { "name": "Route by Type", "type": "Switch", "rules": ["photo", "text", "location", "command"] }, { "name": "Process Photo", "type": "OpenAI Vision", "prompt": "Describe this construction site photo. Identify: progress, issues, safety concerns." }, { "name": "Save to Database", "type": "PostgreSQL", "operation": "insert" }, { "name": "Confirm to User", "type": "Telegram", "action": "sendMessage", "text": "✅ Report received! ID: {{report_id}}" } ] }

Bot Commands

/start - Welcome and instructions

/report - Start daily report

/photo - Upload site photo

/issue - Report issue

/progress - Update progress

/weather - Log weather conditions

/safety - Safety observation

/help - Show commands

Python Bot Implementation

from telegram import Update, ReplyKeyboardMarkup from telegram.ext import Application, CommandHandler, MessageHandler, filters, ContextTypes import asyncio

Bot token from BotFather

TOKEN = "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN"

Keyboards

main_keyboard = ReplyKeyboardMarkup([ ["📸 Photo Report", "📝 Text Report"], ["⚠️ Issue", "✅ Progress"], ["🌤️ Weather", "🦺 Safety"] ], resize_keyboard=True)

async def start(update: Update, context: ContextTypes.DEFAULT_TYPE): """Welcome message""" await update.message.reply_text( "👷 Site Report Bot\n\n" "Use the buttons below to submit reports.\n" "All reports are automatically logged and processed.", reply_markup=main_keyboard )

async def handle_photo(update: Update, context: ContextTypes.DEFAULT_TYPE): """Process photo submissions""" photo = update.message.photo[-1] # Highest resolution file = await photo.get_file()

# Download photo
photo_path = f"photos/{update.message.chat.id}_{photo.file_id}.jpg"
await file.download_to_drive(photo_path)

# Get caption (description)
caption = update.message.caption or "No description"

# Get location if available
location = None
if update.message.location:
    location = {
        "lat": update.message.location.latitude,
        "lon": update.message.location.longitude
    }

# Save to database (via n8n webhook or direct)
report = {
    "type": "photo",
    "user_id": update.message.from_user.id,
    "username": update.message.from_user.username,
    "photo_path": photo_path,
    "caption": caption,
    "location": location,
    "timestamp": update.message.date.isoformat()
}

# Send to n8n for processing
# requests.post("https://n8n.company.com/webhook/photo-report", json=report)

await update.message.reply_text(
    f"✅ Photo received!\n"
    f"📝 Description: {caption}\n"
    f"🕐 Time: {update.message.date.strftime('%H:%M')}\n\n"
    "Photo will be analyzed and added to daily report."
)

async def handle_text(update: Update, context: ContextTypes.DEFAULT_TYPE): """Process text reports""" text = update.message.text

# Route based on button pressed
if text == "📸 Photo Report":
    await update.message.reply_text("📸 Send a photo of the site with a description.")
elif text == "📝 Text Report":
    await update.message.reply_text("📝 Type your progress report:")
elif text == "⚠️ Issue":
    await update.message.reply_text(
        "⚠️ Describe the issue:\n"
        "- What is the problem?\n"
        "- Where is it located?\n"
        "- How urgent? (High/Medium/Low)"
    )
elif text == "✅ Progress":
    await update.message.reply_text(
        "✅ Update progress:\n"
        "- What work was completed?\n"
        "- Percentage complete?\n"
        "- Any blockers?"
    )
elif text == "🌤️ Weather":
    await update.message.reply_text(
        "🌤️ Weather conditions:\n"
        "- Temperature?\n"
        "- Conditions? (Clear/Rain/Snow/Wind)\n"
        "- Impact on work?"
    )
elif text == "🦺 Safety":
    await update.message.reply_text(
        "🦺 Safety observation:\n"
        "- What did you observe?\n"
        "- Location?\n"
        "- Action taken?"
    )
else:
    # Regular text report
    report = {
        "type": "text",
        "user_id": update.message.from_user.id,
        "username": update.message.from_user.username,
        "text": text,
        "timestamp": update.message.date.isoformat()
    }

    await update.message.reply_text("✅ Report logged!")

def main(): """Start the bot""" app = Application.builder().token(TOKEN).build()

app.add_handler(CommandHandler("start", start))
app.add_handler(MessageHandler(filters.PHOTO, handle_photo))
app.add_handler(MessageHandler(filters.TEXT & ~filters.COMMAND, handle_text))

print("Bot started...")
app.run_polling()

if name == "main": main()

Daily Report Aggregation

def generate_daily_report(project_id: str, date: str) -> str: """Aggregate all Telegram reports into daily summary"""

# Fetch all reports for the day
reports = db.query("""
    SELECT * FROM telegram_reports
    WHERE project_id = ? AND DATE(timestamp) = ?
    ORDER BY timestamp
""", [project_id, date])

# Group by type
photos = [r for r in reports if r['type'] == 'photo']
issues = [r for r in reports if r['type'] == 'issue']
progress = [r for r in reports if r['type'] == 'progress']

# Generate summary with LLM
summary = llm.summarize(f"""
    Daily reports for {date}:

    Photos submitted: {len(photos)}
    Issues reported: {len(issues)}
    Progress updates: {len(progress)}

    Details:
    {json.dumps(reports, indent=2)}

    Generate a concise daily report summary.
""")

return summary

Group Chat Features

Track messages in project groups

async def handle_group_message(update: Update, context: ContextTypes.DEFAULT_TYPE): """Log important messages from project groups"""

# Only log messages with keywords
keywords = ["delay", "issue", "problem", "complete", "delivered", "inspection"]

text = update.message.text.lower()
if any(kw in text for kw in keywords):
    log_message({
        "group_id": update.message.chat.id,
        "group_name": update.message.chat.title,
        "user": update.message.from_user.username,
        "text": update.message.text,
        "timestamp": update.message.date.isoformat()
    })

Requirements

pip install python-telegram-bot requests

Resources

• python-telegram-bot: https://python-telegram-bot.org

• n8n Telegram: https://docs.n8n.io/integrations/builtin/app-nodes/n8n-nodes-base.telegram/

• BotFather: https://t.me/BotFather