LatexBot

Telegram Bot to convert any given LaTeX code in a Telegram Chat into a rendered picture for easy viewing.

Expanded on the original LatexBot. Unfortunately, the dependencies were all outdated and it didn't work anymore.

\convert converts any LaTeX code in a math environment

\convertraw converts any (multiline) LaTeX code in a normal LaTeX environment. Math mode has to be manually enabled with $s or a suitable environment. No adding of preamble packages are allowed.

\convertwithpreambleraw converts any (multiline) LaTeX code in a normal LaTeX environment. Everything is the same as \convertraw, except any lines starting with \use will be added to the preamble and not the main LaTeX body. Hence, no fancy stuff such as \makeatletter, etc.

Dependencies

Requires the following node_modules:

• node-telegram-bot-api
• tmp (only required if running in native mode)
• request (only required if running in web mode)

Usage

Copy your bot token into token.txt and launch the app using:

node server.js

Then everything should be up and running!

The app will check for the existence of pdflatex and convert (part of ImageMagick) to check if a native rendering of the latex equations is possible. This unfortunately only works on Linux machines. (If any Windows/Mac Developer will like to contribute, please do!)

If a native rendering is possible, the app will use the local installation of pdflatex to render the equations. convert will then be used to convert the rendered PDF equations to PNG.

To run in native mode, a full TeX installation should be available on the server running this app to ensure maximum compatibility. Otherwise, texliveonfly could possibly be employed on TeXLive installations. This was not done as the TeX installation may not be managed by tlmgr.

If a native rendering is not possible, then the app will use the rendering endpoint provided by quicklatex.com.

The generated image will then be sent to the user calling the bot.

Privacy

If privacy is a concern for you, clone this repository to your own server and install the necessary pre-requisites. Running this app in the native mode allows you to keep your data only to you and Telegram. Feel free to go through the (rather straightforward) code to ensure that your LaTeX equations will never be in the hands of anyone you don't want.

A copy of the bot runs at t.me/YCLaTeXbot.

Contributing

Feel free to make a PR!

Contributors:
oliverli, sunjerry019