avatarHKN MZ

Summary

This text provides a tutorial on how to scrape data from Telegram using Python, including how to obtain API keys, extract group members, and scrape group or channel comments.

Abstract

The tutorial begins by guiding users on how to obtain their Telegram API keys, which are required for interaction with the Telegram API. It then introduces the Telethon library, an asyncio Python 3 MTProto library for interacting with the Telegram API, and provides instructions on how to install it along with the pandas library. The tutorial then demonstrates how to extract group members and scrape group or channel comments using Python scripts, and how to store the extracted data in CSV or JSON files.

Opinions

  • Telegram is a popular communication app used for managing communities and promotions.
  • Telethon is a useful library for interacting with the Telegram API and scraping data.
  • Obtaining API keys is a necessary step for using the Telegram API.
  • Extracting group members and scraping comments can be done using Python scripts and stored in CSV or JSON files.
  • This tutorial provides step-by-step instructions for scraping data from Telegram using Python.
  • The tutorial assumes that users have some familiarity with Python and web scraping concepts.
  • The tutorial provides examples of code snippets and outputs to help users understand the process.

How to Scrape Everything from Telegram Using Python

Telegram is one of the best communications apps around the world. People usually use Telegram for managing their communities and promotions.

In this tutorial, you will learn;

  • How to get Api keys for Telegram
  • How to extract Group members.
  • How to Scrape Telegram Group or Channel Comments

How to get Api keys for Telegram

Let’s get the your telegram api_id and api_hash values. Go to my.telegram.org you will see this are:

Log in here to manage your apps using Telegram API or delete your account. Enter your number and we will send you a confirmation code via Telegram (not SMS).

After login, you will see this picture:

Click on API development tools and fill the required fields. You can choose any name for your app. For example I choosed demo1. After submitting, you will receive App api_id and api_hash like on the picture.

Please save your api_id and api_hash values to somewhere. You will use these api_id and api_hash to login to Telegram API.

How to extract Group members

Telethon is an asyncio Python 3 MTProto library to interact with Telegram’s API as a user or through a bot account. This library is meant to make it easy for you to write Python programs that can interact with Telegram. Think of it as a wrapper that has already done the heavy job for you, so you can focus on developing an application.

Let’s install telethon and pandas using pip:

pip install telethon
pip install pandas

Let’s create requirements.txt file

pip freeze > requirements.txt
numpy==1.23.1
pandas==1.4.3
pyaes==1.6.1
pyasn1==0.4.8
python-dateutil==2.8.2
pytz==2022.1
rsa==4.9
six==1.16.0
Telethon==1.24.0

After installing telethon and pandas library. Here is the all code to get users information from group and put them in a csv file. Not: You have to past your api_id, api_hash, phone and username.

When you run code you have to paste group name url or entity id. Then you will get all users informations from group in a CSV file. As you see below picture.

Users informations in CSV file

How to Scrape Telegram Group or Channel Comments

In this section, We will scrape messages from Telegram Groups or Channels. To do this we have to install telethon package and only installation telethon package is enough to do that.

Let’s install telethon using pip:

pip install telethon

Let’s create requirements.txt file

pip freeze > requirements.txt
pyaes==1.6.1
pyasn1==0.4.8
rsa==4.9
Telethon==1.24.0

Here is the simplest code

Scraped Messages

Here is the code block to scrape all comments from Telegram Group or Channels. Not: You have to past your api_id, api_hash, phone and username.

When you run code you have to paste group or channel name url or entity id.

After run the code, you will get all messages/comments from group or channel in a JSON file. As you see below picture.

Messages in a JSON file

Conclusion

Let’s recap what we have learned In this tutorial, We started off how to get api_id and api_hash from Telegram. Then installed telethon package. Finally get scraped users from telegram group and scraped messages from telegram group or channel.

More stories to read.

More content at PlainEnglish.io. Sign up for our free weekly newsletter. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Discord. Interested in Growth Hacking? Check out Circuit.

Telegram
Scrape
Message
Comments
Extract
Recommended from ReadMedium