Welcome to the adventure of building your very own Telegram crawler using Python and Telethon! In this guide, we will walk through the installation, configuration, usage, and limitations of the tool, providing you with a comprehensive understanding of how to harness its potential.

Installation

To kick off your crawler journey, ensure you have Python 3.8.2 and Telethon 1.21.1 ready in your toolkit. You don’t need to worry about newer versions of Telethon as compatibility isn’t guaranteed.

• To install Telethon, follow their documentation.
• Clone the repository and run python3.8 scraper.py only after configuring the script properly (which we will cover next).

Configuration

To configure the crawler, you’ll need an API ID and an API HASH from Telegram. You can obtain these through the following steps:

• Navigate to the Telegram authorization page.
• Insert your API ID and API HASH into the code and run the script.

During its first run, the script will prompt you to enter your telephone number. This step is crucial for authenticating your account.

Usage

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, involves initializing the crawler. There are two primary methods:

• init_empty(): Used during the first launch of the script.
• init(): Required only in specific circumstances (details can be gleaned from the code).

When the crawler runs with init_empty(), it will gather valuable information from all groups or channels you are part of. The data collected includes:

1. Name of the group/channel
2. Username
3. List of members (for groups)
4. Last n messages
5. Other metadata

Once processing is complete, this information is saved in a *pickle file* called groups. Additional files generated include to_be_processed and edges, with the latter representing a relational structure of the groups useful for data mining.

Understanding Data Structures

Think of your data like a complex social network. Each group is a node (or person) and the connections between them represent relationships (or friendships) that can be explored. In this crawly connection, your script transfers messages between various nodes creating an intricate web of data. As you collect messages (messages being the conversations you overhear), you are in effect creating an edge list, which can eventually help predict future connections, much like predicting who might become friends based on existing friendships!

After initialization, simply comment-out init_empty() and uncomment start() in the main function to start processing new links collected. This will create three new output files, which will require merging with older files for a continuous cycle of data collection.

Limitations

Be mindful that Telegram has certain limitations on how many groups one can join to safeguard user data. For instance, you can join only 25 groups per hour. Fortunately, this script has a built-in mechanism to handle this limit, ensuring you aren’t interrupted unnecessarily.

If you find yourself in need of handling hundreds or thousands of groups, there’s potential for parallelizing the script, but this will require further coding effort.

Datasets

Inside the datasets directory, you’ll find two pickle files:

• The first contains over 2000 groups with vital statistics like name, member list, and the last 500 messages.
• The second file captures the search tree created by the crawlers.

Your datasets have been meticulously collected between July and September of 2021, ensuring rich and relevant data at your disposal.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter any issues during the installation or usage of the crawler, consider the following troubleshooting tips:

• Ensure Python 3.8.2 and Telethon 1.21.1 are installed correctly.
• Double-check your API ID and API HASH from Telegram; incorrect entries will lead to authentication failures.
• Review code comments for clarifications on specific method usage.

For more insights, updates, or to collaborate on AI development projects, stay connected with fxis.ai.

Conclusion

At fxis.ai, we believe that such advancements are crucial for the future of AI, as they enable more comprehensive and effective solutions. Our team is continually exploring new methodologies to push the envelope in artificial intelligence, ensuring that our clients benefit from the latest technological innovations.