Slack - DevOps Management

Description

The provided sample includes:

• Get a bot user token in Slack
• Get a list of channels in a Slack Team
• Post formatted messages to Slack in different channels using Bot User.
• Post email notifications from Gmail to Slack as messages. The sample Solution sends out emails' summary in formatted messages to Slack from your configured Gmail account. You can post mails' contents as messages to any channel you want.

This sample shows how Linx automatically reads emails from GMail and post formatted messages to Slack. Once this Slack integration is active, the sample posts messages to Slack Channel.

---

Additional resources

• Create New App in Slack
• Slack API documentation
• Test apis from browser
• Slack reference for block kit
• How to find your Channel Id in Slack
• How to use the ReadEmail plugin from Linx

---

Installation

Pre-requisites

• Linx Designer
• Slack account
• Gmail account

Linx Designer

This solution was developed in the Linx Designer v5.21.0.0 and v6.4.1

---

Get a bot user token from Slack

1. Create a new app

2. Choose from Scratch.

   • Enter App Name, e.g linx-bot-github
   • Choose a workspace and click on create app

3. Under 'Add features and functionality'

   • Click on Bots

4. Under 'First, assign a scope to your bot token'

   • Click on Review Scopes to Add

5. Go to Scopes section

   • Click on Add an OAuth Scope - Choose the following from the list:
     • im:history
     • chat:write
     • channels:history
     • im:write
     • chat:write.public
     • channels:read
     • groups:read
     • im:read
     • mpim:read

6. As the above is done, a message You can now show tabs on App HomeManage which tabs your user sees in your app’s home. Go to App Home will appear.

7. Scroll the page up and go to the section OAuth Tokens for Your Workspace

8. Click on the button Install to workspace and click on Allow

9. Once successful, you will be directed to the OAuth Tokens for Your Workspace section

10. Click on the Copy Button to copy the Bot User OAuth Token. Note that it starts with xoxb-

Configure the Solution's $.Settings for Slack :

1. SlackBotUserOAuth: Paste the token copied above
2. JSONSampleFile: Sample JSON text file path
3. SlackUri : Slack API Url.

---

Configure the Solution's $.Settings with your email details :

Linx email configuration will help you get started with email plugin in Linx.

Steps to create an App password

1. Go to the Google Account section
2. Select Security
3. Make sure 2-Step Verification is switched 'On'
4. Select App passwords
5. Verify yourself
6. Select 'Other'
7. Provide a name (e.g. Linx)
8. Click Generate
9. The password that you have to use in Linx will display

Note: After setting up your App password, you can switch 2-Step Verification 'Off' again.

This sample was setup using a Gmail instance.

1. GmailUserName: Username of your email account.
2. GmailPassword: App password.

The sample GMail Read function properties are configured as follows:

1. Mark as read: True
2. Only unread items: True

Usage

Authentication for Slack

Requests are authenticated via a Bearer access token included in the Authorization header of each request.

When making requests to the GitHub, you must also include the following header:

Accept: application/x-www-form-urlencoded , application/json

---

Slack Utilities Samples

AuthorizationTest

A function to test if you've entered the right token and the right channel. Tests the api https://api.slack.com/methods/auth.test/test

BuildSampleBlock

• Parameters:
  • HeaderText : string type.
• Result:
  • SectionText : string type.

PostMessageAPI

Calls the Post message API https://api.slack.com/methods/chat.postMessage

• Parameters:
  • blocks : JSON format as string type.

GetChannels

Calls the Get API https://api.slack.com/methods/conversations.list. Lists all channels in a Slack team.

GetChannelForName

Gets the Channel's name.

---

Running the Sample

PostJSONMessageToSlack

• Copy Paste the file JSONSample.txt to C:\Work\slack\JSONSample.txt
• In the Demo Folder, Click on the function named PostJSONMessageToSlack.
• Parameters
  • channelId : Enter Channel Id to post message.

PostMessageToAllChannels

• In the Demo Folder, Click on the function named PostMessageToAllChannels to post to all channels.

PostMessageToChannelForChannelName

• In the Demo Folder, Click on the function named PostMessageToChannelForChannelName to post to a channel.

PostMessageToSlack

• In the Demo Folder, click on the function named PostMessageToSlack to post to a channel.
• Parameters
  • Header Text : Text to be displayed as header
  • Section Text: Text to be displayed in section
  • ChannelId: Channel Id

PostEmailContentsToSlack

• In the Demo Folder, Click on the function named PostEmailContentsToSlack. Only unread items will be read, and messages containing the From, Subject, Date will be sent to Slack. The default channel is General.

Contributing

For questions please ask the Linx community or use the Slack channel.

License

MIT