Working with Planfix bots for Telegram
The basic Planfix bot for Telegram, @planfix_bot, is the link between a Telegram chat and Planfix. It can transfer information in both directions:
- from a Planfix task to a chat
- from a chat to a Planfix task
Moreover, the bot can create tasks and projects in Planfix and switch between them. All of these capabilities make it possible to work in Planfix straight from a Telegram chat.
Configuring the basic Planfix bot for Telegram
1. Sign in to link the bot to your Planfix account. Each member of the chat who uses Planfix must do this. It enables their name and account to be linked to chat messages transferred to Planfix. If a member of the chat doesn't do this, Planfix will automatically create a new contact when it receives a message from them, and the message will be added with the new contact's info. 2. Add the Planfix bot to the desired Telegram chat (group). Please note: this is done in the group settings as if you were adding a regular participant:
3. Use bot commands to complete Planfix actions:
- /task <New task name> or existing task number without the <> symbols – Link a task (new or existing) to the chat. Once a task is linked, new messages added to the task will be sent to the chat, and messages from the chat will be added to the task.
- /project <New project name> or existing project number without the <> symbols – Specify the project (new or existing) where the new tasks should be created:
- /find <search text> – find projects and tasks containing the given text in their name. Projects and tasks found will be listed with their numbers. This is helpful if you need to find the number of a project/task you want the chat to be linked to.
- /suspend – Manage chat transfer to Planfix: /suspend on enables transfer, /suspend off turns it off.
- /status – Provides information about the chat: which project/task it's linked to and whether or not transfer from the chat to the task is enabled.
- /endtask – Unlinks a task from a chat.
- /endproject – Unlinks a project from a chat.
- Assignees of the linked task will receive notifications about new comments added to the Telegram group.
You can notify others related to the task (assigner, participant, etc.) by sending a message to @participant_name (use the /who command for specific participant names). To send notifications in Planfix only to the users participating in the Telegram chat, use the command /notify active.
- Use the /help command to see a full list of bot commands and descriptions.
Example
- Link a bot to the desired project using the /project command:
- Create a new task in the project:
- Enter the command for creating a task, /task, with the desired task name:
- Confirm that this task should be created:
- Choose to either link the chat to the task created (meaning recent chat comments will be sent to the task) or not link it (meaning chat comments will not be sent):
- Once the correspondence that needs to be added to a task is complete, the chat can be unlinked from the task using the /endtask command. Further communication will not be sent to Planfix:
Useful information
- Chats can be linked to projects as well as tasks. This gives you the ability use chat commands to create tasks in this project. The task template selected as default for this project is used.
- If a chat is linked to a project but isn't linked to a task, comments from the chat will not be sent to Planfix.
- The bot can work with different types of content: in addition to text messages, it works with pictures, videos, voice messages, contacts, and geotags.
- You can connect an email to Telegram by linking a chat to a task that has a client participating who is working on the task via email. Please note: a client will only receive an email notification if they're addressed directly in the chat with @.
- You can add a contact to Planfix by sending them to the basic Planfix Telegram bot from your phone's address book.