⚡ InstantViewBot (FormatBot)

• README IN RUSSIAN here

InstantViewBot is a Telegram bot for automated generation of Instant View (IV) pages from channel posts and messages that do not natively support this format.

You can find the bot in Telegram by keywords such as InstantViewBot.

The story of the bot's creation and development is described in this article (in Russian): How I created a Telegram Bot (InstantViewBot).

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✨ Features

• Bypass URL Shorteners — automatic extraction of destination URLs from redirect services (AMP, clck.ru, Yandex redirect, bit.ly, etc.).
• Instant View Generation (IW) — creates a clean Instant View article using Telegra.ph or Graph.org for any full web link.
• PDF to Instant View Conversion — parses sent PDF files (up to 4 MB) using pdfjs-dist and converts them into the Instant View format.
• Support for Long Articles (Multi-page Pagination) — bypasses Telegra.ph's content limit (~65 KB per article) by automatically splitting long texts into connected pages linked via a "Read Next page" button at the bottom.
• Two-Level Processing Queue (RabbitMQ) — fault-tolerant message processing using a queue broker to avoid Telegram API rate limits. Local fallback mode is supported (NO_MQ=1).
• Smart Caching in MongoDB — duplicate link requests do not require regeneration; the result is instantly served from the database.
• JS Rendering (Puppeteer) — launches a headless browser to properly parse and render dynamic content (SPAs) before converting.
• Inline Mode — generate Instant View links on the fly in any chat by calling @botusername <link>.
• Admin Dashboard — flexible runtime configuration via Telegram command line: restart the application, collect usage stats, clear cached links, and update the codebase via git pull.

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🛠 Data Processing Architecture

Data flow diagram of a message processing task:

graph TD
    A[User / Channel / Inline] -->|Message containing link or PDF| B{Content Type}
    B -->|PDF < 4MB| C[Extract text via PDF.js]
    B -->|Link| D[Bypass redirects AMP/clck/bit.ly]
    
    C --> E{Search MongoDB Cache}
    D --> E
    
    E -->|Found| F[Quickly return cached Instant View URL]
    E -->|Not Found| G[Add task to RabbitMQ queue]
    
    G --> H[Worker: Parse content via Readability/Puppeteer]
    H --> I{Size > 65KB?}
    
    I -->|Yes| J[Split into linked pages with 'Read Next']
    I -->|No| K[Generate a single Telegra.ph page]
    
    J --> L[Save to MongoDB Cache]
    K --> L
    L --> M[Send Instant View URL to User]

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⚙️ Environment Variables

To run the bot, create a .env file based on .env.example. Key configuration settings:

Variable	Description	Required
TBTKN	Telegram bot token from @BotFather	Yes
TGADMIN	Telegram user ID of the administrator	Yes
TGGROUP	Chat/group ID for general logs	Yes
TGGROUPBUGS	Group ID for error reporting	No
TGPHTOKEN_0	Telegraph API token (multiple keys can be specified as _1, _2, etc.)	Yes
MONGO_URI	MongoDB connection string (e.g. MongoDB Atlas)	Yes
MESSAGE_QUEUE	RabbitMQ connection string (e.g. CloudAMQP)	Yes (unless NO_MQ is 1)
NO_MQ	Disable RabbitMQ (1 — disabled, process tasks locally)	No
NO_PUPPET	Disable Puppeteer (1 — disabled, parses via pure HTTP requests)	No
DEV	Developer mode (1 — enables debug logs in console)	No
BOT_USERNAME	Bot username without the @ symbol	No
HELP_MESSAGE	Custom message shown on parsing failures	No

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🔨 Commands & Control

User Commands

• /start / /help — Show the help message and interactive keyboard.
• 👋 Help — Button to show the help menu.
• 👍Support / /support — Button/command to contact support.
• ⌨️ Hide keyboard — Hide the interactive keyboard.

Administrator Commands (Only available for TGADMIN)

Command	Description
/config <param> <value>	Modify bot configuration at runtime (saved to config.json)
/showconfig	Show current bot settings and DB connectivity status
/stat	Output usage statistics and cache database status
/last10	Show the last 10 generated links
/dbsize	Display MongoDB database size and collection metrics
/cleardb3_<link_hash>	Delete a specific cached link using its hash/URL
/toggledev	Toggle developer log forwarding to Telegram on/off
/skipcount	Configure skipping a set number of tasks in the queue
/restartapp	Restart the bot process using PM2
/gitpull	Execute git pull, update codebase, and restart the bot
/getinfo	Retrieve technical cluster information from MongoDB Atlas

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🚀 Installation & Running

Requirements

• Node.js version >= 18.0.0
• Package manager: Yarn or Bun (the project includes bun.lock)
• MongoDB and (optionally) RabbitMQ

Getting Started

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/albertincx/formatbot1.git
   cd formatbot1

2. Install dependencies:

   yarn install
   # or using Bun:
   bun install

3. Configure Environment Variables: Copy the template and fill in your keys:

   cp .env.example .env

4. Run in Development Mode:

   yarn dev

5. Run in Production: It is recommended to run the app using PM2 using the provided ecosystem config:

   pm2 start ecosystem.config.js

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📖 Useful Links

• How to Run (Deployment Guide in Wiki)
• Blog post on Safiullin.dev (Russian)
• License: MIT License