WARNING: unstable. This is a concept and the work is still in progress. You should expect breaking changes.

---

Project TGDB

Telegram channels as databases!

---

Using this library you can use your private or public Telegram channels as minimal database service. It is fast, free, secure and unlimited. A channel can contain multiple databases, and it is possible to retrieve, insert, modify, and delete records. You may also want to look at "Is this a good choice for my projects?".

Install the package using NPM (via GitHub)

npm install dcdunkan/tgdb#main

Here's a minimal example on using this library. But to initialize a TGDB instance, you have to go to https://my.telegram.org/ and login with your account. You'll get a API ID and API hash from there. Store it somewhere secure.

Import the TelegramDB class from the library.

import { TelegramDB } from "tgdb-core";

Create an instance:

const tgdb = new TelegramDB({
  apiId: 123456, // API ID from https://my.telegram.org/
  apiHash: "ABCD", // API hash from https://my.telegram.org/

  stringSession: "...", // String session you got from GramJS
  channelId: -100071801131325, // Channel `chat_id`
  entryPoint: 4, // `message_id` of the message "tgdb:entry"
});

All of the above parameters are required to initialize a TelegramDB instance. However, it is possible to start the program by only providing your apiId and apiHash. When you call the TelegramDB.connect() as shown below, the program will prompt you to enter some details to generate the rest of the parameters. You have to store them in a safe place and use them when you're running the program again to avoid further unnecessary logins and channel creations. Now connect to the instance call:

await tgdb.connect(); // connect to the instance

Currently you have two operations related with the instance and four basic operations related to records.

To create a new database or to choose an existing one:

const db = await tgdb.database("employees");

To delete a database:

await tgdb.deleteDatabase("employees");

At the moment, you are only allowed to pass an JavaScript object as the value. You can expect this to change in any future update.

// Add a record to the database
await db.add("12345678", { first_name: "Linus" });

// Get a record data using
const data = await db.get("12345678");
console.log(data);

// Modify an existing record data
await db.edit("12345678", { ...data, second_name: "Torvalds" });

// Delete a record
await db.delete("12345678");

// Clear the whole database
await db.clear();

• Querying the data is still in the TODO list.
• While modifying (Database.edit(key: string, value: any)) the data, you have to pass a full value. You cannot yet update a particular key-value pair in the JSON object.
• Clearing the database using Database.clear() will not delete the database. It will only delete all of the records, and the database name will still be in the entryPoint message of the channel.

• Method to query data
• Allow storing not only as JSON objects
• Schema and Types
• Allow modifying a single key-value in the JSON object

(Or at least I expect these questions will be asked)

Actually the concept is pretty simple. We store the data in a particular format as Telegram messages. For reading, the data is retrieved and parsed back in to the JSON object. Internally, we use GramJS to work with the User account.

Telegram bots cannot read the past messages. Ironically, in order to do that, they need another database. You can cross-check with the Official Bot API documentation if you want to. Since this library need to read and edit and delete the old messages, it is necessary to use an User account for this project.

Can my account get banned or suspended?

Hopefully, no. At least, I used my main account for testing while developing this, and nothing happened yet :) I have hit the API limits multiple times, and still nothing happened.

It's called spamming, if you sent a lot of messages in a short period of time :) And as I believe, sending messages in channels like that, is not restricted as sending in groups and private chats.

That is something I am not totally sure about. For small projects, believe me, it won't be a problem at all. But for a large-scale thingy, I am not sure. Sure, this library can handle it, but Telegram rate limits are the only thing that could be an issue. And sending a lot of messages (storing data) in a small time period can also be considered as spamming - and for that your account might get banned or suspended.

This project is still in it's early stage. Maybe, we can have proper answer for this after testing in large scale. After the first stable release though.

• Web UI for manage the database

• HTTP API server
• Backups (A normal bot, maybe?)
• Data migration

MIT License (C) 2022, Dunkan
< ♥️ & ☕ >