Slack

A connector for Slack.

Requirements

  • A Slack account

  • A Slack App bot token.

    • Create a new Slack App and select the workspace you would like it in.

    • Navigate to the “Bot Users” section and add a bot, giving it a display name and username.

    • Navigate to the “Install App” section and install the app in your workspace.

    • Take note of the “Bot User OAuth Access Token” as this will be the token you need for your configuration.

Configuration

connectors:
  slack:
    # required
    token: "zyxw-abdcefghi-12345"
    # optional
    bot-name: "mybot" # default "opsdroid"
    default-room: "#random" # default "#general"
    icon-emoji: ":smile:" # default ":robot_face:"
    connect-timeout: 10 # default 10 seconds
    chat-as-user: true # default false

Usage

The connector itself won’t allow opsdroid to do much. It will connect to Slack and be active on the default-room but you will still need some skill to have opsdroid react to an input.

Luckily, opsdroid comes with few skills out of the box as well. So once you run opsdroid you will see that it joined either the room that you set up on default-room parameter in the configuration or it will be in the #general room.

Note: If opsdroid failed to join the room you can always invite him by clicking info>Members section>invite more people...

You can also interact with opsdroid through direct message. To do so, just click on opsdroid’s name and type something on the box that says “Message opsdroid”.

Example of a private message:

fabiorosado [7:06 PM]
hi

opsdroid APP [7:06 PM]
Hi fabiorosado

Rich layouts and blocks

Slack has support for rich layouts using a concept they call blocks. Blocks are JSON objects which describe a rich element, and a list of them can be passed instead of a message to produce rich content.

To do this you need to respond with an opsdroid.connector.slack.events.Blocks event which is constructed with a list of blocks.

Example

from opsdroid.skill import Skill
from opsdroid.matchers import match_regex
from opsdroid.connector.slack.events import Blocks


class BlocksSkill(Skill):

    @match_regex(r"who are you\?")
    async def who_are_you(self, event):
        await event.respond(Blocks([
                {
                    "type": "section",
                    "text": {
                        "type": "mrkdwn",
                        "text": "Hey! I'm opsdroid.\nI'm a natural language event driven automation bot framework.\n*What a mouthful!*"
                    },
                    "accessory": {
                        "type": "image",
                        "image_url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/opsdroid/style-guidelines/master/logos/logo-light.png",
                        "alt_text": "opsdroid logo"
                    }
                },
                {
                    "type": "actions",
                    "elements": [
                        {
                            "type": "button",
                            "text": {
                                "type": "plain_text",
                                "text": "Visit website",
                                "emoji": True
                            },
                            "url": "https://opsdroid.dev"
                        }
                    ]
                }
            ]
        ))

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1610850/58658951-ac523300-8319-11e9-8c2a-011469a436d0.png

Interactive Actions

Slack apps can use interactive features to achieve much more than just one-way communication. Apps can implement a number of interaction entry points that allow users to intentionally invoke a response from the app.

When one of those entry points is triggered, a new aspect is introduced to the interaction transaction — the interaction payload. This payload is a bundle of information that explains the context of the user action, giving the app enough to construct a coherent response.

For example, when you click a button in a rich Slack message or use a message action (a todo list app may have an “add to list” action that can be performed on any message) Slack will send an event to a separate webhook endpoint.

Configure Slack App for Interactive Events

  • Open your app’s management dashboard

  • Click on Interactive Components in the sidebar.

  • Toggle the Interactivity switch on.

  • Save the HTTPS URL of your bot’s slack interactivity endpoint (/connector/slack/interactions).

    • Example: https://slackbot.example.com/connector/slack/interactions

block_actions

from opsdroid.skill import Skill
from opsdroid.matchers import match_event
from opsdroid.connector.slack.events import BlockActions

class InteractionsSkill(Skill):

    @match_event(BlockActions, value="click_me_123")
    async def slack_interactions(self, event):
        await event.respond("Block Actions interactivity has been triggered.")

message_action

from opsdroid.skill import Skill
from opsdroid.matchers import match_event
from opsdroid.connector.slack.events import MessageAction

class InteractionsSkill(Skill):

    @match_event(MessageAction)
    async def slack_interactions(self, event):
        await event.respond("Message Action interactivity has been triggered.")

view_submission

from opsdroid.skill import Skill
from opsdroid.matchers import match_event
from opsdroid.connector.slack.events import ViewSubmission

class InteractionsSkill(Skill):

    @match_event(ViewSubmission)
    async def slack_interactions(self, event):
        await self.opsdroid.send(Message("View Submission interactivity has been triggered."))

view_closed

from opsdroid.skill import Skill
from opsdroid.matchers import match_event
from opsdroid.connector.slack.events import ViewClosed

class InteractionsSkill(Skill):

    @match_event(ViewClosed)
    async def slack_interactions(self, event):
        await self.opsdroid.send(Message("View Closed interactivity has been triggered."))