Der BergdoktorBot – A Doctolib doctor's appointment Telegram notifier

Get Telegram notifications about the most recent doctor's appointments on doctolib.de. This script will notify you every minute as long as appointments exist within the next UPCOMING_DAYS. The next appointment outside of that threshold is additionally notified on the hour.

ℹ️ 🔒 🔧 Remember that this static script does not know anything about your doctolib details behind your login so you have to monitor and adjust it on the go to reduce unwanted notifications.

Setup

Telegram

The setup follows these instructions. For simplicity I tried to compress it even more in the following step by step list:

1. Create a Telegram bot using @botfather (FAQ).

   • Username: @<NAME>Bot
   • Disable Allow Groups?
   • Turn on Group Privacy

   The bot Token will be available once the bot is created.
   Write it down, you'll need it in a later step.

2. Create a private group. Overyone in the group will see the messages from your bot.

   • Group name: MyPrivateGroup
   • Group Type: private

   Warning: Do not edit special permissions for users as this will convert the group into a supergroup which does not work with this code.

3. Temporarily enable Allow Groups? on the bot.

4. Add the bot to the group.

5. Immediately deactivate Allow Groups? on the bot after adding it to the group.

6. Post a test message into the group via the app or the browser (required to get the next step running). Start message with / in order for the bot to be able to read it (Group Privacy is turned on by default).

7. Retrieve group chat_id by visiting https://api.telegram.org/bot<BOT_TOKEN>/getUpdates in the browser.
   Write it down, you'll need it in a later step.

8. Let the bot send a test message via visiting https://api.telegram.org/bot<BOT_TOKEN>/sendMessage?chat_id=<GROUP_CHAT_ID>&text=Test in the browser.
   The message should appear in the group chat.

Script

1. Insert the bot Token into the constant TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN
2. Insert the chat_id into the constant TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID

You do not have to be signed in to doctolib.de in order to do do the next steps that will get your search query.

1. Navigate to doctolib.de
2. Use the search mask to find a doctor you want to make an appointment at and hit search
3. Once your on the doctor's landing page open your browsers dev tools, select the Network tab and leave it open for the next steps
4. Click on TERMIN BUCHEN
5. Answer the following questions in the appointment wizard until you reach the date overview that says Wählen Sie das Datum für den Termin
6. Copy the URL of the browser into the constant BOOKING_URL
7. Select the filter Fetch/XHR within the Network tab in order to make it easier to find the correct request URL
8. Look for a request to availabilities.json… and click on it in the list of requests
9. Copy the value of the Request URL in the detail view and paste it into the constant AVAILABILITIES_URL

Cron

First of all the script has to be made executable.

chmod +x /path/to/notifyDoctolibDoctorsAppointment.py

Next, schedule the script execution via the cron.

crontab -e

E.g. this cron entry will run it every minute from 7:00 AM to 23:59 PM.

* 7-23 * * * python /path/to/notifyDoctolibDoctorsAppointment.py

Settings

Adjust those constants to get the most out of your notifications.

TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN

Paste your Telegram bot Token in this constant.

⚠️ The script will abort if you don't provide this data.

Type str.

Default ''.

TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID

Paste your Telegram chat_id in this constant.

⚠️ The script will abort if you don't provide this data.

Type str.

Default ''.

BOOKING_URL

Paste your doctolib booking URL in this constant. The Telegram message will contain a link to this page in case of available appointments.

Type str.

Default https://www.doctolib.de/.

AVAILABILITIES_URL

Paste the complete URL to the Doctolib availabilities.json (including parameters) in this constant.

⚠️ The script will abort if you don't provide this data.

Type str.

Default ''.

APPOINTMENT_NAME

If you have multiple instances of the script running and share the same Telegram channel it's a good idea to make notifications allocatable.

Type str|None.

Default None.

MOVE_BOOKING_URL

Provide a link to your Termin verschieben page behind your login to navigate fastest to the booking page and move the appointment in one go. When set, an extra link will be sent in addition to the BOOKING_URL link.

Type str|None.

Default None.

UPCOMING_DAYS

Paste the number of days from today, that you want to monitor appointments for, in this constant.

ℹ️ Doctolib has a limit of 15 days.

Type int.

Default 15.

MAX_DATETIME_IN_FUTURE

If you already have an appointment within the next UPCOMING_DAYS you can set this date in this constant so that the script only notifies for earlier dates.

E.g.

MAX_DATETIME_IN_FUTURE = datetime(2023, 6, 16, 12, 0, 0)

Type datetime.

Default 15 days in the future.

NOTIFY_HOURLY

Whether to notify late appointments (outside of the UPCOMING_DAYS range) hourly.

Type bool.

Default False.