Ruan Bekker's Blog

From a Curious mind to Posts on Github

Matrix Bot Using SimpleMatrixBotlib in Python

In this tutorial we will setup a python bot for our matrix chat server. We will only do a couple of basic commands, so that you have a solid base to build from.

Matrix Server

In our previous post we’ve setup a matrix and element server, so if you are following along, head over to that post to setup your matrix server before continuing.

Matrix Python Bot

We will be using simple-matrix-bot-lib as our bot, so first we need to install it:

1
2

python3 -m pip install simplematrixbotlib
python3 -m pip install requests

We will need to authenticate with a user, so I will create a dedicated bot user:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

$ docker exec -it matrix_synapse_1 bash
> register_new_matrix_user -c /data/homeserver.yaml http://localhost:8008

New user localpart [root]: bot
Password:
Confirm password:
Make admin [no]: no
Sending registration request...
Success!

The most basic bot is the echo bot, which just returns your message:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42

import subprocess
import simplematrixbotlib as botlib
from urllib.request import ssl, socket
import datetime, smtplib

MATRIX_URL="https://matrix.foodmain.co.za"
MATRIX_USER="@foobot:matrix.foodmain.co.za"
MATRIX_PASS="foo"

creds = botlib.Creds(MATRIX_URL, MATRIX_USER, MATRIX_PASS)
bot = botlib.Bot(creds)

PREFIX = '!'

# Help
@bot.listener.on_message_event
async def help(room, message):
    match = botlib.MessageMatch(room, message, bot, PREFIX)
    if match.is_not_from_this_bot() and match.prefix() and match.command("help"):
        help_message = """
        Help:
         - !help
        Echo
         - !echo your message
        """
        await bot.api.send_markdown_message(room.room_id, help_message)

# Echo
@bot.listener.on_message_event
async def echo(room, message):
    """
    Example function that "echoes" arguements.
    Usage:
    user:  !echo say something
    bot:   say something
    """
    match = botlib.MessageMatch(room, message, bot, PREFIX)
    if match.is_not_from_this_bot() and match.prefix() and match.command("echo"):
        print("Room: {r}, User: {u}, Message: {m}".format(r=room.room_id, u=str(message).split(':')[0], m=str(message).split(':')[-1].strip()))
        await bot.api.send_text_message(room.room_id, " ".join(arg for arg in match.args()))

bot.run()

Run the bot, invite the bot user to a room and test it with !echo hi

For a bot having to use the requests library, such as getting a quote from an api, we can use the following:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74

import random
import subprocess
import simplematrixbotlib as botlib
import requests
from urllib.request import ssl, socket
import datetime, smtplib

MATRIX_URL="https://matrix.foodmain.co.za"
MATRIX_USER="@foobot:matrix.foodmain.co.za"
MATRIX_PASS="foo"

creds = botlib.Creds(MATRIX_URL, MATRIX_USER, MATRIX_PASS)
bot = botlib.Bot(creds)

PREFIX = '!'

# Help
@bot.listener.on_message_event
async def help(room, message):
    match = botlib.MessageMatch(room, message, bot, PREFIX)
    if match.is_not_from_this_bot() and match.prefix() and match.command("help"):
        help_message = """
        Help:
         - !help
        Echo
         - !echo msg
        Fortune:
         - !fortune
        Quote:
         - !quote
        """
        await bot.api.send_markdown_message(room.room_id, help_message)

# Echo
@bot.listener.on_message_event
async def echo(room, message):
    """
    Example function that "echoes" arguements.
    Usage:
    user: !echo say something
    bot:  say something
    """
    match = botlib.MessageMatch(room, message, bot, PREFIX)
    if match.is_not_from_this_bot() and match.prefix() and match.command("echo"):
        print("Room: {r}, User: {u}, Message: {m}".format(r=room.room_id, u=str(message).split(':')[0], m=str(message).split(':')[-1].strip()))
        await bot.api.send_text_message(room.room_id, " ".join(arg for arg in match.args()))

# Fortune
@bot.listener.on_message_event
async def fortune(room, message):
    match = botlib.MessageMatch(room, message, bot)
    if match.is_not_from_this_bot and match.command('!fortune'):
        fortune = subprocess.run(['/usr/games/fortune'], capture_output=True).stdout.decode('UTF-8')
        print(fortune)
        await bot.api.send_text_message(room.room_id, fortune)

# Quotes
@bot.listener.on_message_event
async def quote(room, message):
    match = botlib.MessageMatch(room, message, bot, PREFIX)
    if match.is_not_from_this_bot() and match.prefix() and (
            match.command("quote") or match.command("q")):

        response = requests.get('https://goquotes-api.herokuapp.com/api/v1/random?count=1').json()['quotes'][0]
        quote = response['text']
        author = response['author']
        tag = response['tag']
        formatted_message = f"""{quote}
        - {author}
        """
        #await bot.api.send_text_message(room.room_id, formatted_message)
        await bot.api.send_markdown_message(room.room_id,  formatted_message)

bot.run()

Resources

For more information, have a look at their documentation

Thank You

Thanks for reading, if you like my content, check out my website, read my newsletter or follow me at @ruanbekker on Twitter.