Introduction to Slack App Development

An introduction to Slack applications, chatbots, and chatops. Learn the basics of Slack application development including features like incoming webhooks, bot users, events API, slash commands, Slack APIs, RTM API, and some best practices.

Transcript

1. App Development February 23, 2018 | Serhat Can @srhtcn
2. About me MSc at METU Previously Software Engineer Technical Evangelist at OpsGenie
3. About • Searchable Log of All Conversations and Knowledge • The fastest growing SaaS company. Of all time. • Over 6 million apps installed (2016 number)
4. More than 6 million daily active users
9. Twitter Chatbot
10. ChatOps is “Placing tools directly in the middle of the conversation”   — Jesse Newland, GitHub
11. Outline • Terminology • App Development Lifecycle • Features • Slack APIs • Designing Slack Messages • Tips and Tricks
12. Terminology (for Slack beginners) Workspace (Team) channel channel channel Workspace (Team) channel channel
13. Message Terminology
14. Development Terminology Custom Integrations (Old) Incoming Webhooks Slash Commands Bot Users Outgoing Webhooks Web API Legacy Tokens
15. Development Terminology Custom Integrations (Old) Incoming Webhooks Slash Commands Bot Users Outgoing Webhooks Web API Legacy Tokens Internal integrations (apps) Published apps Apps
16. Internal integrations Only for your team Easy installation SSL is recommended but not required Published Apps For you and other workspaces Implement OAuth flow SSL is required
17. App Development Lifecycle
18. App Development Lifecycle Void of features, uninstalled Has features but can only be installed by your workplace Open to installation by other workspaces Submitted to the Slack app directory
20. Creating Apps
21. Slack App Features
22. Incoming Webhooks
23. Incoming Webhooks The simplest way to send messages into Slack. HTTP requests with a JSON payload curl -X POST -H 'Content-type: application/json' \ --data '{"text":"This is a line of text.\nAnd this is another one."}' \ https://hooks.slack.com/services/T00000000/B00000000/XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX
24. Incoming Webhooks Slack's standard message markup *bold* _italic_ Message attachments to display richly-formatted message blocks
25. Interactive Messages
26. Interactive Messages Simplify complex workflows and empower users to take decisive action
27. Interactive Messages ▪ Buttons ▪ Menus ▪ Dialogs
28. Interactive Messages - Buttons Simplify complex workflows and empower users to take decisive action
29. Interactive Messages - Menus Choose from a series of options Easy to fill up Slack users and channels
30. Interactive Messages - Dialogs Triggered by clicking on buttons, selecting from menus, or invoking slash commands. Dialogs contain a variety of guided input types.
31. Interactive Messages Configure a Request URL for your application
32. Interactive Messages You send JSON payload as always Your registered action URL would receive a payload of JSON You receive: • the callback_id you set when creating the message • the specific name of the clicked button • and the corresponding value of that same clicked button
33. Slash Commands
34. Slash Commands Interact with your app directly from Slack.
35. Slash Commands Built-in Commands /topic /remind /search /invite Slack App Commands /genie /giphy /deploy /hangout
36. Slash Commands Your registered URL receives the response via HTTP POST.
37. Responding to a command You’ve got 3000 milliseconds to respond If it takes more than 3000 ms, return 200 OK Send your message ASYNC
38. Bots (Bot Users)
39. Bot Users Conversationally interact with external services or your custom code by building bot users
40. Bot Users • Profile photo, name, bio • Post message, upload file • Invite and kick Difference: • They can’t login
41. Bot Users Slack app bot users Custom bot users
42. Bot Users Bot users interact with people two ways: • Real Time Messaging API (RTM) ◦ Websocket connection ◦ Receive all messages and activity • Events API
43. Event Subscriptions (Events API)
44. Event Subscriptions (Events API) Don’t call us, we’ll call you
45. Event Subscriptions (Events API) Subscribe to the event types you need
46. Event Subscriptions (Events API) Governed by OAuth permission scopes If you have files:read scope You can choose to subscribe to any or none of the file-related events like file_created and file_deleted
48. RTM Websocket connection (Stay connected) Subscribe to everything Events API Call you with HTTPS requests (Push subscription) Subscribe to only what you want If the RTM API is a fire hose, the Events API is a watering can — easy to wield and useful
49. Permissions
50. Permissions OAuth permission scopes • Web API, • Events API, • RTM API, • Slash Commands, • Incoming Webhooks
51. Scope Actions There are currently only three classes of action: • read: Reading the full information about a single resource. • write: Modifying the resource in any way e.g. creating, editing, or deleting. • history: Accessing the message archive of channels, DMs, or private channels.
52. Installing Apps
53. Installing Apps
54. Installing Apps
56. Slack API • Authenticate with OAuth 2.0 • HTTPS is a must • JSON response with failure info in the response body • HTTP RPC-style methods https://slack.com/api/METHOD
57. Slack API • Web API • Events API • Real Time Messaging API • New Conversations API (Part of Web API) Public channels, private channels, DMs... They are all conversations! • SCIM API The Slack SCIM API is used by SSO partners to help provision and manage user accounts and groups. Only available on the Plus plan and Slack Enterprise Grid
58. Web API Object Types
59. Meet the tokens
60. Messages
61. How to Send Messages • Incoming Webhooks • Web API • RTM API • Responding to slash commands • Responding to message button actions
62. Guidelines for Building Messages • Stay in the flow • Keep formatting simple • Don’t get too attached
63. In Channel means everyone in the channel can see the response “In Channel” vs “Ephemeral” responses Ephemeral means only the command issuer can see the response
64. Delayed and Multiple Responses You have to respond to a command or button within 3000 milliseconds If your execution takes more time; • Return the 200 OK response immediately • Use response_url or Web API to send your response
65. Advanced Message Formatting https://api.slack.com/docs/messages/builder
66. Tips and Tricks
67. Slack Developer Kits • Slack Developer Kit for Node • Slack Developer Kit for Python • Slack Developer Kit for Hubot • Botkit • Microsoft Bot Framework • Widely-used open source libraries available for a lot of languages
68. NLP for Bots Bot users should try to understand what you are saying. You can use services like; • Amazon Lex • Api.ai • Wit.ai
69. And... • Read the “Best Practices” pages • Understand your audience • Check App blueprints to start quickly • Talk with Slack DevRel Team if necessary • Follow Slack’s Roadmap
70. Work with us engineering.opsgenie.com opsgenie.com/careers
71. @srhtcn @serhatcan @serhatcan
72. Demo Services AWS Lambda APIs Involved Events API OpsGenie API Web API https://github.com/serhatcan/serverless-opsgenie-slack-alert-unfurling
73. https://github.com/serhatcan/serverless-opsgenie-slack-alert-unfurling