slack011y-bus

A tool can connect to public Slack channels for storing messages with threads and interacts with specific slack actions eg:

• can reply for main or thread a message
• can create and print basic statistics
• can pop up a custom form where you can a specific question for a requestor
• etc. If you use Slack channel as support channel this tool should perfectly fit for you.

Features:

• Monitoring Slack channel - e.g. you can control your slack support channel
• Framework intercepts Slack messages, labels and stores messages
• Allows granular monitoring types of requests
• Results can be presented using Grafana framework(some examples attached)

Installation:

• Create db (currently the tool supports only MySql)
  • local db for testing

    docker run --name slack011y-bus-db -d \                                                                                                                                                                
    -p 3306:3306 \
    -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=change-me \
    -v slack011y-bus:/var/lib/docker/volumes/volumename/_data mysql:8 

    docker exec -it <docker-id> sh -c "mysql --user=root --password=change-me"

  • create database and slack user

    CREATE DATABASE slacky_bus;
    CREATE USER 'slacky_bus_user'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'slacky_bus_user';
    GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON slacky_bus.* TO 'slacky_bus_user'@'%';

  • run the script slack-bus/db.sql
  • send the db details to environments

      export DB_USER=
      export DB_PASSWD=
      export DB_HOST=
      export DB_DB=
      export DB_PORT=

• Setup Slack to allow collecting data
  • Go to https://api.slack.com/apps/
  • Create a "new webapp" - https://api.slack.com/authentication/basics#creating
    • Create an app "from scratch"
    • Add "App Name" and pick the "workspace from the list"
  • Go to https://api.slack.com/apps//oauth? and export following items:
    • Add "Scopes/Bot Token Scopes"
      • https://api.slack.com/scopes/channels:history
      • https://api.slack.com/scopes/chat:write
      • https://api.slack.com/scopes/reactions:read
      • https://api.slack.com/scopes/reactions:write
      • https://api.slack.com/scopes/users:read
      • https://api.slack.com/scopes/users:read.email
    • Click "install to workspace" on first widget
    • export SLACK_TOKEN <- "Bot User OAuth Token" *

      export SLACK_TOKEN=xoxb-..
      export SLACK_WORKSPACE_NAME=
        ```

    • export SIGNING_SECRET < "Signing Secret" from https://api.slack.com/apps//general? *

      export SIGNING_SECRET=xxx
        ```

  • Go to https://api.slack.com/apps//event-subscriptions?
    • Switch a toggle to "on"
    • Add url which will be used for intercepting messages (use ngrok for local testing)
      • keep the "/slack/events" as url suffix
      • e.g. "https://2137-18-134-225-225.ngrok.io/slack/events"
    • Go to "Subscribe to bot events" tab
      • Add Bot User Event
      • Slack-Bus app requires following permissions
        • https://api.slack.com/events/message.channels
        • https://api.slack.com/events/reaction_added
        • https://api.slack.com/events/reaction_removed
    • Go to https://api.slack.com/apps//interactive-messages?
      • Add url which will be used for intercepting messages (use ngrok for local testing)
        • keep the "slack/interactive-endpoints" as url suffix
        • e.g. "https://2137-18-134-225-225.ngrok.io/slack/interactive-endpoints"
  • Add apps to your Slack workspace
    • https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/help/articles/202035138-Add-apps-to-your-Slack-workspace
  • Add slack011y-bus to channel
    • https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/z-chatops/1.1.0?topic=slack-adding-your-bot-user-your-channel

Configuration:

• The configuration can be handled by
  • api
  • swagger - http:///admin/api/v1/swagger/
• Add a channel to the slack-bus app
  • use swagger "channels" to see more options

  • curl -X 'POST' \
    'http://<slack011y-bus-url>/admin/api/v1/channels/' \
    -H 'accept: application/json' \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    -d '{
    "channel_id": "BOGUS_CHANNEL_ID",
    "channel_name": "slack011y-bus-test"
    }'

Features

- Labelling messages using emojis

• track messages with emojis (swagger can help with this as well) - set action for specific emoji(request type)
  • swagger - http:///admin/api/v1/swagger/ - "types" to see more options

  • curl -X 'POST' \
    'http://<slack011y-bus-url>/admin/api/v1/channels/' \
    -H 'accept: application/json' \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    -d '{
    "types": {
      "not_selected_response": "You haven't selected a type for your message.",
      "emojis": {
        "additionalProp1": {
          "emoji": "U+1F198",
          "alias": "sos",
          "image": "cloud-pr.png",
          "color": "#619BFF",
          "meaning": "Need help"
      }
    }

- Daily report

• 
• Shows unclosed requests

- Question form

• 
• adding custom question form for getting some more details about asking issue
• recommendations - based on questions form answers we can prepare common recommendations for requestors
  • swagger - http:///admin/api/v1/swagger/ - "types" to see more options

- Start reactions

• a custom emoji reaction which we can add to main message - it triggers changing reqeust status from "initial" to "working"
  • swagger - http:///admin/api/v1/swagger/ - "start_reactions" to see more options

- Completion reactions

• a custom emoji reaction which we can add to main message - it triggers changing reqeust status from "working" to "completed"
  • swagger - http:///admin/api/v1/swagger/ - "completion_reactions" to see more options

- Close idle request

• crom job which change status to "closed" for unclosed idle messages - if there is no any thread reaction for the request in defined period of time, the user will be informed and the message will be closed