Here below I report few considerations already written as comment to the interesting article, as usual, by Nicola Malizia: Understanding Telegram inline bots. I copyied here with minor syntax/formatting/typo corrections.
ciao Nicola! Another interesting article of yours (I like also some your post on alghoritms, etc.).
I agree about your doubts regarding naming (inline mode). As someone sometime told, in computer science, "naming" objects is difficult! :) Jokes a part, in object orientation / application parlance, I'd consider this inline mode bot API feature something like:
PUBLIC (methods) QUERIES for an EXISTING bot.
Right now Telegram marketing pointed out inline mode usage for new kind of bots that can be queried inside person-to-person / groups >chats, responding for a simple, unique query (e.g.
@gif,@vid, etc.). that's great. In my opinion the great value of inline mode is also as public query interface for an existent bot.
Let me explain with an ecommerce application example: imagine an ecommerce bot (user can interact with a bot to purchase something from a remote seller). Basically a buyer send an order. This is a typical "private" session (user must "log into" the seller bot (selecting the bot in the client app and start interacting with), share personal data to submit order, etc.).
Viceversa, the shop product catalog is by exmample something "almost" public (user profiling a part). So inline query is perfect to just >know if a product is available in catalog, or of the shop could deliver in a specifict time framework. In the case of an hypotetical shop (
@PIZZASHOPbot) that send orders to a pizza maker, a possible inline query could be:
@PIZZASHOP orario
to get the shop opening/delivery time or
@PIZZASHOP focaccie
to query the availability of product list
Generally speaking, inline mode is great for query the bot for public/not-personal subjects/services info. So INLINE mode could be better called QUERY mode maybe. On the other hand I understand the Telegram marketing need to communicate to users the immediacy to use bots apps inside p2p/groups chats, so all in all I agree "inline" is a smart decision.
But again, my own is just a naming rant :) The important fact is that telegram bots are going a step forward in man-machines integration services. BTW, see my sketches here: Telegram Bots Man-Machine Services
Last but not least, I like the fact you do not use google search engine! I agree on the vision behind.. :-D
Thanks for sharing your works
respect
giorgio, 6 January 2016
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BOTServer
Telegram.org Bot API Webhooks Framework, for Rubyists.
Now on github -
dialogs
A dialog system framework for conversational services.
- Telegram vs WhatsApp ?
Telegram vs WhatsApp: Una ben differente visione di futuri servizi P2P