================ Updates in Depth ================ Properties vs. Methods ====================== The event shown above acts just like a `custom.Message `, which means you can access all the properties it has, like ``.sender``. **However** events are different to other methods in the client, like `client.get_messages `. Events *may not* send information about the sender or chat, which means it can be `None`, but all the methods defined in the client always have this information so it doesn't need to be re-fetched. For this reason, you have ``get_`` methods, which will make a network call if necessary. In short, you should do this: .. code-block:: python @client.on(events.NewMessage) async def handler(event): # event.input_chat may be None, use event.get_input_chat() chat = await event.get_input_chat() sender = await event.get_sender() buttons = await event.get_buttons() async def main(): async for message in client.get_messages('me', 10): # Methods from the client always have these properties ready chat = message.input_chat sender = message.sender buttons = message.buttons Notice, properties (`message.sender `) don't need an ``await``, but methods (`message.get_sender `) **do** need an ``await``, and you should use methods in events for these properties that may need network. Events Without the client ========================= The code of your application starts getting big, so you decide to separate the handlers into different files. But how can you access the client from these files? You don't need to! Just `events.register ` them: .. code-block:: python # handlers/welcome.py from telethon import events @events.register(events.NewMessage('(?i)hello')) async def handler(event): client = event.client await event.respond('Hey!') await client.send_message('me', 'I said hello to someone') Registering events is a way of saying "this method is an event handler". You can use `telethon.events.is_handler` to check if any method is a handler. You can think of them as a different approach to Flask's blueprints. It's important to note that this does **not** add the handler to any client! You never specified the client on which the handler should be used. You only declared that it is a handler, and its type. To actually use the handler, you need to `client.add_event_handler ` to the client (or clients) where they should be added to: .. code-block:: python # main.py from telethon import TelegramClient import handlers.welcome with TelegramClient(...) as client: client.add_event_handler(handlers.welcome.handler) client.run_until_disconnected() This also means that you can register an event handler once and then add it to many clients without re-declaring the event. Events Without Decorators ========================= If for any reason you don't want to use `telethon.events.register`, you can explicitly pass the event handler to use to the mentioned `client.add_event_handler `: .. code-block:: python from telethon import TelegramClient, events async def handler(event): ... with TelegramClient(...) as client: client.add_event_handler(handler, events.NewMessage) client.run_until_disconnected() Similarly, you also have `client.remove_event_handler ` and `client.list_event_handlers `. The ``event`` argument is optional in all three methods and defaults to `events.Raw ` for adding, and `None` when removing (so all callbacks would be removed). .. note:: The ``event`` type is ignored in `client.add_event_handler ` if you have used `telethon.events.register` on the ``callback`` before, since that's the point of using such method at all. Stopping Propagation of Updates =============================== There might be cases when an event handler is supposed to be used solitary and it makes no sense to process any other handlers in the chain. For this case, it is possible to raise a `telethon.events.StopPropagation` exception which will cause the propagation of the update through your handlers to stop: .. code-block:: python from telethon.events import StopPropagation @client.on(events.NewMessage) async def _(event): # ... some conditions await event.delete() # Other handlers won't have an event to work with raise StopPropagation @client.on(events.NewMessage) async def _(event): # Will never be reached, because it is the second handler # in the chain. pass Remember to check :ref:`telethon-events` if you're looking for the methods reference. Understanding asyncio ===================== With `asyncio`, the library has several tasks running in the background. One task is used for sending requests, another task is used to receive them, and a third one is used to handle updates. To handle updates, you must keep your script running. You can do this in several ways. For instance, if you are *not* running `asyncio`'s event loop, you should use `client.run_until_disconnected `: .. code-block:: python import asyncio from telethon import TelegramClient client = TelegramClient(...) ... client.run_until_disconnected() Behind the scenes, this method is ``await``'ing on the `client.disconnected ` property, so the code above and the following are equivalent: .. code-block:: python import asyncio from telethon import TelegramClient client = TelegramClient(...) async def main(): await client.disconnected loop = asyncio.get_event_loop() loop.run_until_complete(main()) You could also run `client.disconnected ` until it completed. But if you don't want to ``await``, then you should know what you want to be doing instead! What matters is that you shouldn't let your script die. If you don't care about updates, you don't need any of this. Notice that unlike `client.disconnected `, `client.run_until_disconnected ` will handle ``KeyboardInterrupt`` with you. This method is special and can also be ran while the loop is running, so you can do this: .. code-block:: python async def main(): await client.run_until_disconnected() loop.run_until_complete(main()) Sequential Updates ================== If you need to process updates sequentially (i.e. not in parallel), you should set ``sequential_updates=True`` when creating the client: .. code-block:: python with TelegramClient(..., sequential_updates=True) as client: ...