Inline Queries

Inline queries have been added in January 2016.

The user can call your bot by simply writing its username in the chat and a query.

After having enabled the inline mode enabled (by sending /setinline to @BotFather) the bot will start receiving inline_query updates.

Use the method answerInlineQuery to asnwer these updates. It requires an array of results to show to the user.

Results

Let’s create the results:

$bot->answerUpdate["inline_query"] = function ($bot, $message) {

    $bot->results->newArticle("Result1", "This is the first result.");

    $bot->results->newArticle("Result2", "This is the second result.");

};

Important

Remember that the parameter $reply_markup must not be encoded in JSON.

If you cannot see the answer of the bots but you don’t get any error message neither, check the $reply_markup parameter.

Sending the results

When we have added all the results, we are ready to send them:

$bot->answerUpdate["inline_query"] = function ($bot, $message) {

    // Creation of the results
    ...

    $bot->answerInlineQuery($bot->results->get());

};

Types

The type used in the example is article, have a look here for all types.

To create a result of a different type you can use addResult:

$bot->answerUpdate["inline_query"] = function ($bot, $message) {

    $bot->results->addResult([
            'type' => 'photo',
            'photo_url' => 'https://www.gstatic.com/webp/gallery/1.jpg',
            'thumb_url' => 'https://www.gstatic.com/webp/gallery/1.jpg'
         ]);

    $bot->answerInlineQuery($bot->results->get());

 };

To add multiple results simultaneously:

$bot->answerUpdate["inline_query"] = function ($bot, $message) {

    $bot->results->addResults([
            [
                'type' => 'photo',
                'photo_url' => 'https://www.gstatic.com/webp/gallery/1.jpg',
                'thumb_url' => 'https://www.gstatic.com/webp/gallery/1.jpg'
            ],
            [
                'type' => 'photo',
                'photo_url' => 'https://www.gstatic.com/webp/gallery/2.jpg',
                'thumb_url' => 'https://www.gstatic.com/webp/gallery/2.jpg'
            ]
    ]);

    $bot->answerInlineQuery($bot->results->get());

 };