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Passpobt

Passpobt (pronounced like "passport" but with a runny nose) is a simple bot that checks your Gmail for messages from midpass. It reminds you to approve your application whenever possible. The only supported mailbox provider is Gmail.

Problem

For Russian citizens, there is a website that allows you to apply for documents while abroad. The system is peculiar: you must check in daily to show you're still in queue for the desired document.

The website uses CAPTCHA to prevent software log-ins and sometimes changes your password. This, and the uncertainty of the process when it's my turn to retrieve the documents, led me to conclude that making this fully autonomous would take three to five times longer to implement.

I've simplified this bot to serve only one user. I didn't want to deal with multiple users and various mailbox providers. Though feasible via SMTP/POP3/IMAP, using the Google API here is both convenient and time-saving.

After you check in, you receive an email with the same subject. A 24-hour cooldown period then begins. This is why I can't just stop visiting the website, for example, every morning, because the cooldown window shifts.

To help remember to do this, the bot sends a notification 24 hours after my last check-in.

Usage

Create a .env file as per the provided example. You will need Google credentials, so please follow this guide to get them.

  • TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN - Create a Telegram bot in BotFather
  • TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID - ID of the chat between you and the bot
  • CREDENTIALS_PATH - The file you download by following Google's guide
  • GOOGLE_AUTH_HOST (optional) - Host to temporary run server for Gmail authorization
  • GOOGLE_AUTH_PORT (optional) - Port to temporary run server for Gmail authorization

To verify everything works, you can run tests. They send you a Telegram message to confirm everything is properly set up on the Telegram side with your parameters.

Authorization

Since you are not insane you will likely want to run this bot on the remote server. In order to authenticate, there is going to be deployed a simple server. It has to be localhost or serve over https. I haven't quickly figured out how to do it so here is how I've overcome this.

You have to forward traffic from the remote port to your local port. So that when you go to "localhost:xxxx" in your browser you are actually visiting "localhost:xxxx" of your server. In order to do so you need to run:

ssh -L 8080:localhost:8080 [email protected]