Bot API allows bots to interact with TamTam. Methods are called by sending HTTPS requests to botapi.tamtam.chat domain. Bots are third-party applications that use TamTam features. A bot can legitimately take part in a conversation. It can be achieved through HTTP requests to the TamTam Bot API.

TamTam bots of the current version are able to:

• Communicate with users and respond to requests
• Recommend users complete actions via programmed buttons
• Request personal data from users (name, short reference, phone number) We'll keep working on expanding bot capabilities in the future.

Bots can be used for the following purposes:

• Providing support, answering frequently asked questions
• Sending typical information
• Voting
• Likes/dislikes
• Following external links
• Forwarding a user to a chat/channel

PrimeBot is the main bot in TamTam, all bots creator. Use PrimeBot to create and edit your bots. Feel free to contact us for any questions, @support or team@tamtam.chat.

GET — getting resources, parameters are transmitted via URL

POST — creation of resources (for example, sending new messages)

PUT — editing resources

DELETE — deleting resources

PATCH — patching resources

200 — successful operation

400 — invalid request

401 — authentication error

404 — resource not found

405 — method is not allowed

429 — the number of requests is exceeded

503 — service unavailable

For content requests (PUT and POST) and responses, the API uses the JSON format. All strings are UTF-8 encoded. Date/time fields are represented as the number of milliseconds that have elapsed since 00:00 January 1, 1970 in the long format. To get it, you can simply multiply the UNIX timestamp by 1000. All date/time fields have a UTC timezone.

In case of an error, the API returns a response with the corresponding HTTP code and JSON with the following fields:

code - the string with the error key

message - a string describing the error

For example:

> http https://botapi.tamtam.chat/chats?access_token={EXAMPLE_TOKEN}
HTTP / 1.1 403 Forbidden
Cache-Control: no-cache
Connection: Keep-Alive
Content-Length: 57
Content-Type: application / json; charset = utf-8
Set-Cookie: web_ui_lang = ru; Path = /; Domain = .tamtam.chat; Expires = 2019-03-24T11: 45: 36.500Z
{
   "code": "verify.token",
   "message": "Invalid access_token"
}

TamTam Bot API supports 2 options of receiving notifications on new events for bots:

• Push notifications via WebHook. To receive data via WebHook, you'll have to add subscription;
• Notifications upon request via long polling API. All data can be received via long polling by default after creating the bot.

Both methods cannot be used simultaneously. Refer to the response schema of /updates method to check all available types of updates.

Webhook

There is some notes about how we handle webhook subscription:

• Sometimes webhook notification cannot be delivered in case when bot server or network is down.

  In such case we will retry delivery in a short period of time (from 30 to 60 seconds) and will do this until get 200 OK status code from your server, but not longer than 8 hours (may change over time) since update happened. Subscription can be cancelled if bot doesn't response to webhook notification.

  We also consider any non 200 response from server as failed delivery.

• To protect your bot from unexpected high load we send no more than 100 notifications per second by default. If you want increase this limit, contact us at @support.

It should be from one of the following subnets:

185.16.150.0/30
185.16.150.84/30
185.16.150.152/30
185.16.150.192/30

You can program buttons for users answering a bot. TamTam supports the following types of buttons:

callback — sends a notification with payload to a bot (via WebHook or long polling)

link — makes a user to follow a link

request_contact — requests the user permission to access contact information (phone number, short link, email)

request_geo_location — asks user to provide current geo location

chat — creates chat associated with message

To start create buttons send message with InlineKeyboardAttachment:

{
  "text": "It is message with inline keyboard",
  "attachments": [
    {
      "type": "inline_keyboard",
      "payload": {
        "buttons": [
          [
            {
              "type": "callback",
              "text": "Press me!",
              "payload": "button1 pressed"
            }
          ],
          [
            {
              "type": "chat",
              "text": "Discuss",
              "chat_title": "Message discussion"
            }
          ]
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Chat button

Chat button is a button that starts chat assosiated with the current message. It will be private chat with a link, bot will be added as administrator by default.

Chat will be created as soon as the first user taps on button. Bot will receive message_chat_created update.

Bot can set title and description of new chat by setting chat_title and chat_description properties.

Whereas keyboard can contain several chat buttons there is uuid property to distinct them between each other. In case you do not pass uuid we will generate it. If you edit message, pass uuid so we know that this button starts the same chat as before.

Chat button also can contain start_payload that will be sent to bot as part of message_chat_created update.

TamTam supports deep linking mechanism for bots. It allows passing additional payload to the bot on startup. Deep link can contain any data encoded into string up to 128 characters long. Longer strings will be omitted and not passed to the bot.

Each bot has start link that looks like:

https://tt.me/%BOT_USERNAME%/start/%PAYLOAD%

As soon as user clicks on such link we open dialog with bot and send this payload to bot as part of bot_started update:

{
    "update_type": "bot_started",
    "timestamp": 1573226679188,
    "chat_id": 1234567890,
    "user": {
        "user_id": 1234567890,
        "name": "Boris",
        "username": "borisd84"
    },
    "payload": "any data meaningful to bot"
}

Deep linking mechanism is supported for iOS version 2.7.0 and Android 2.9.0 and higher.

Constructor is a bot that can create a message for user: add buttons, attach some media, insert text.

You can enable constructor mode for your bot via @PrimeBot sending /constructor_mode command.

For bot developers, it looks like request-response interaction where TamTam application sends message_construction_request on behalf of user. Bot responds to it with messages ready to go or keyboard in case it requires further action from user.

Bot also can set up UI parts such as hint or placeholder, allow or not user's input:

As soon as user finishes composing a message, they can post it. Bot will receive message_constructed_update with posted message.

Constructors are supported for iOS version 2.7.0 and Android 2.9.0 and higher.

Message text can be improved with basic formatting such as: strong, emphasis, strikethough, underline, code or link. You can use either markdown-like or HTML formatting.

To enable text formatting set the format property of NewMessageBody.

TamTam flavored Markdown

To enable Markdown parsing, set the format property of NewMessageBody to markdown.

We currently support only the following syntax:

*empasized* or _empasized_ for italic text

**strong** or __strong__ for bold text

~~strikethough~~ for strikethough text

++underline++ for underlined text

`code` for inline monospaced text (line endings inside this block are treated like spaces)

```code``` for monospaced text block

^^important^^ for highlighted text (colored in red, by default)

[Inline URL](https://dev.tamtam.chat/) for inline URLs

[User mention](tamtam://user/%user_id%) for user mentions without username

# Header for header

HTML support

To enable HTML parsing, set the format property of NewMessageBody to html.

Only the following HTML tags are supported. All others will be stripped:

Emphasized: <i> or <em>

Strong: <b> or <strong>

Strikethrough: <del> or <s>

Underlined: <ins> or <u>

Link: <a href="https://dev.tamtam.chat">Docs</a>

Monospaced text: <pre> or <code>

Highlighted text: <mark>

Header: <h1>

Text formatting is supported for iOS since version 3.1 and Android since 2.20.0.

API models and interface may change over time. To make sure your bot will get the right info, we strongly recommend adding API version number to each request. You can add it as v parameter to each HTTP-request. For instance, v=0.1.2. To specify the data model version you are getting through WebHook subscription, use the version property in the request body of the subscribe request.

We have developed the official Java client and SDK.

Also check out unofficial libraries, created by our enthusiasts:

• Kotlin DSL client
• GO client
• Node.js module

Python:

• Python client
• tamtam.py
• registriren/botapitamtam

Version 0.3.0

• Added methods to pin/unpin messages in chats/channels
• Added is_bot flag to User model

Check out the complete diff for this release.

Version 0.2.1

• Added method to get chat by its @link
• Added description for users in some cases
• Added user_locale to message_created update in dialogs

Check out the complete diff for this release.

Version 0.2.0

• Added new type of button to start new chat
• Added Constructors API that allows bots to create message on behalf of a user
• Added support for deep-links
• Added ability to block users in chats
• Added chat_id and user_id to message_removed update
• Added meta information for video attachments
• Other minor improvements and fixes. Check out complete diff for this version

Version 0.1.10

• Added disable_link_preview parameter to POST:/messages method to disable links parsing in text
• Added sending_file action
• Removed several deprecated properties
• photo upload type renamed to image. C is for consistency

To see changelog for older versions visit our GitHub.