gistfile1.txt

#!/usr/bin/python3

import http.client
import urllib.parse
import json
import time

API_TOKEN = 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX'
BASE_URL = '/bot{token}/'.format(token=API_TOKEN)
HEADERS = {'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'}
UPDATE_ID = int(open('last_id.txt').read())
conn = http.client.HTTPSConnection('api.telegram.org')


def method_call(method, params=None):
    url = BASE_URL + method

    if type(params) is not dict:
        params = {}

    conn.request('POST', url, urllib.parse.urlencode(params), HEADERS)
    response = conn.getresponse()
    # response.status, response.reason
    data = response.read()
    return json.loads(data.decode('utf8'))

def update_last_id(v):
    global UPDATE_ID
    
    if v > UPDATE_ID:
        UPDATE_ID = v
        open('last_id.txt', 'w').write(str(v))

#method_call('getMe')


# polling

while True:
    response = method_call('getUpdates', {'offset': UPDATE_ID+1})
    
    if response['ok'] == True and len(response['result']) > 0:
        results = response['result']
        #print('processing', result)
        for r in results:
            update_last_id(r['update_id'])
            m = r['message']
            sender = m['from']
            print(sender, m['text'])
            if m['text'] == '/start':
                method_call('sendMessage', {
                    'chat_id': sender['id'], 
                    'text': 'Hello, ' + json.dumps(sender) + '\nThere is no commands here yet, just numbers.'
                })
            else:
                method_call('sendMessage', {
                    'chat_id': sender['id'], 
                    'text': '→ {0}'.format(len(m['text']))
                })
    time.sleep(2)