Floating bridge bot for telegram.

Floating bridge is a modified version of the original contract bridge game with laxer rules. Most of the game rules from the original contract bridge are preserved in floating bridge, with the exception of the rules on how partners are determined and which of the declarer partners will be playing the game. Wikipedia has a pretty good explanation on how the game works.

The following instructions will guide you on how to host the bot on your machine.

Here are the things you need to have installed in your machine:

• Python 3.6 or newer
• Python Telepot module 12.7 or newer (12.7 was used for development)

First, clone this repo using this command in your terminal: git clone https://github.com/hanstjua/Telegram-Bridgebot.git

Next, create your own Telegram bot (instructions here) and get your bot token.

With your token ready, go into your Telegram-Bridgebot directory and create a Python file called bot_data.py (refer to the directory tree below).

- Telegram-Bridgebot
  - stateless_bridge.py
  - telegram_manager.py
  - bridge.py
  - util.py
  - main.py
  - **bot_data.py**

In the bot_data.py, add the line below to store your bot token value:

token = '<YOUR_TOKEN_VALUE>'

(Remember to replace <YOUR_TOKEN_VALUE> with your bot's token value obtained from the BotFather)

Finally, save the file and your are ready to host your Bridgebot!

Important: Always keep your bot token secret! Should your bot's token be compromised (e.g. accidentally uploaded to online platforms), immediately ask the BotFather for a new token.

First, host your bot by running the telegram_manager.py.

Next, add your bot into a telegram group chat (with at least 4 members).

To start a game, type /start command inside the telegram group chat.

1. Why don't you just host the bot online using Heroku, Pythonanywhere, etc.?

• Because I don't see any reason to. I just wanted to develop a game I can easily play with my friends, and as it is, I can easily run the bot on my local machine whenever my friends feel like playing. Maybe I'll consider hosting it online in the future if I see a lot of interest in getting this bot online continuously.

2. Is it possible to play a contract bridge game with this bot?

• Yes, to a certain extent. Since floating bridge is practically contract bridge with less restrictions, you can always manually implement additional restrictions (e.g. fixed NS-EW partnerships) in the game and play it as a contract bridge game. One issue, though, is that the declarer partners will have to expose one of the cards belonging to the non-playing partner during the partner selection phase. In contract bridge, the non-playing partner will only expose his/her entire hand to the table after the first defender has opened the first round.

3. It seems like you wrote a stateless implementation of the floating bridge logic in the stateless_bridge.py. Is there any specific reason why such a stateless, functional implementation was chosen?

• Nope. I was just too bored and was looking for something challenging to do. Since I am familiar with floating bridge, I thought it'd be a good idea to create a Telegram bot for it. However, it seemed like implementing the bridge logic in the typical OO style would be pretty easy, and as such, I thought I'd try to implement it in a stateless and purely functional way instead to add more oomph to the task. In retrospect, I might have underestimated the complexity of the game logic, and the choice to write a stateless implementation of the naturally stateful game might have been a mistake. But then again, I had quite a lot of fun working on it, so ... ¯\(ツ)/¯

4. It seems like you are using the stateless_bridge.py as some sort of back-end engine and the Telegram bot as a front-end interface. Is it possible to implement a different front-end interface (e.g. web application) for the stateless_bridge.py?

• Yes, it is possible, but do take note that the stateless_bridge.py was developed with Telegram bot as front-end interface in mind. As such, the implementation may not land itself naturally in a typical back-end and front-end implementations for web applications. If you are interested to learn more, feel free to contact me via Telegram.