use telethon to send a bunch of messages (replies to polls) to a telegram chat

main.py

#! /usr/bin/env python3

import datetime
import json

from telethon.sync import TelegramClient
from telethon.tl.types import InputPeerChat, MessageMediaPoll

# expects a settings.py in the same directory with these vars defined
from settings import API_ID, API_HASH, CHAT_ID


client = TelegramClient('session', API_ID, API_HASH)

client.start()

chat = InputPeerChat(CHAT_ID)

RESULTS = "results.json"


def get_next_sunday(d):
    while d.strftime("%a") != "Sun":
        d = d + datetime.timedelta(days=1)
    return d.strftime("%m/%d/%y")


def get_movie_polls():
    # hardcoded: we started doing movie polls in august 2020
    beginning_date = datetime.datetime(year=2020, month=8, day=1, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc)

    # hardcoded: this is the ID of the first poll i replied to (16.12.20)
    max_id = 274101

    for msg in client.iter_messages(chat, max_id=max_id):
        if msg.media and isinstance(msg.media, MessageMediaPoll):
            yield msg

        if msg.date < beginning_date:
            break


def interactive_ask():
    """For all the polls in the proper date range, print them nicely
    and ask whether or not we want to reply to them.
    Their IDs will be saved into a serialized list, which we then can
    read and send replies to.
    """
    polls = []
    user_ids = {}

    for msg in get_movie_polls():
        print(f"msg.id: {msg.id}")
        print(f"msg.from_id: {msg.from_id}")
        print(msg.media.poll.stringify())

        answer = input("Add poll to movie polls? [y/n]: ")
        if answer == "y":
            polls.append(msg.id)

            uid = msg.from_id.user_id
            if uid not in user_ids:
                first_name = msg.get_sender().first_name
                user_ids[uid] = first_name

    results = {
        "polls": polls,
        "uids": user_ids,
    }

    with open(RESULTS, "w") as f:
        json.dump(results, f)


def interactive_reply():
    """Reply to each poll with text such as:
    Amar's #movie pick day/month/year
    (or, for october: horror #movie day/month/year)

    Show the poll to the user before replying, to make sure it's one that you're not about to duplicate.
    """
    with open(RESULTS) as f:
        j = json.load(f)

    user_ids = j["uids"]

    for msg_id in j["polls"][::-1]:
        msg = client.get_messages(chat, ids=msg_id)

        first_name = user_ids[f"{msg.from_id.user_id}"]

        print(msg.id)
        print(msg.date)
        print(first_name)
        print(msg.media.poll.stringify())

        answer = input("Reply to this poll? (y for yes, h for horror) [y/h/n]: ")
        if answer in "yh":
            d = get_next_sunday(msg.date)

            if answer == "y":
                message = f"{first_name}'s #movie choice {d}"
            else:
                message = f"horror #movie choice {d}"

            # print(message)
            # comment out reply() if you want to test the messages before sending replies to your chat
            msg.reply(message)

        print()


if __name__ == "__main__":
    # interactive_ask()
    interactive_reply()