ronbot (in no particular order)

• is a slackbot that does things
• is a node/express app
• uses circleci to deploy to heroku
• uses a postgres db with one table
• uses docker for local development
• should probably have some tests

@ronbot [command]

sfgov-content-sandbox (re)create sf.gov content sandbox on pantheon based on production
what's <acronym> unfurls an acronym
schedule <sheet_id|sheet_range> schedules messages based on info in google sheet
refresh <acronyms> refreshes a thing (just that one actually)
quote - be prepared to receive wisdom
help - this menu
acronyms
schedule messages example

Local development

1. Get added as a collaborator for ronbot at https://api.slack.com/apps

2. Get and start ngrok

3. Set up environment

   • Get Docker
   • Clone this repo and install dependencies
   • Create .env file
   • Start the app

4. Update urls

5. Read some docs

6. Misc notes

Get added as a collaborator

You'll need to be added as a collaborator for ronbot in order to see the settings on https://api.slack.com/apps. Talk to a slack admin in SFDS to set this up.

For local development, the most important thing is to be able to update the Event Subscriptions request url.

ngrok

ngrok (pronounced "en-grok") allows you to expose a web server running on your local machine to the internet.

Get ngrok: https://ngrok.com/download

Once downloaded, open a terminal and start it up:

$ ngrok http 4390 # this port number can be anything you like

And you should see this:

ngrok by @inconshreveable                                                                                                                   (Ctrl+C to quit)
                                                                                                                                                            
Session Status                online                                                                                                                        
Account                       Anthony Kong (Plan: Free)                                                                                                     
Version                       2.3.34                                                                                                                        
Region                        United States (us)                                                                                                            
Web Interface                 http://127.0.0.1:4040                                                                                                         
Forwarding                    http://9cd5682e.ngrok.io -> http://localhost:4390                                                                             
Forwarding                    https://9cd5682e.ngrok.io -> http://localhost:4390                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                            
Connections                   ttl     opn     rt1     rt5     p50     p90                                                                                   
                              2       0       0.02    0.01    2.78    5.01        

The port you use when starting ngrok will be the same you assign to the PORT var when you create your .env file

Set up environment

Get Docker

Download Docker and read the docs on setting up.

Or skip that and jump to the bottom of this readme for some helpful commands after docker-compose up --scale pgadmin=0

Clone this repo and install dependencies

git clone git@github.com:SFDigitalServices/ronbot.git
cd ronbot
npm install

Create .env file

Create a .env file in the root of the project. It should look like this:

SLACKBOT_TOKEN=abcdefg12345678 # get this info from https://api.slack.com/apps/AM11J7ULV/oauth
CIRCLECI_API_TOKEN=abcdefg12345678 # get this info from https://circleci.com/account/api
PORT={port number from nrgok above}
GOOGLE_CONFIG= # google config json string (notes below)
GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=./google-credentials-heroku.json
ACRONYMS_SHEET={"id":"13fcfWufGFEIVvca-1hP7mchVg9q6n7LOvdxYDBTdQiw","range":"Sheet1"}
NOTETAKERS_SHEET={"id":"1InM7iZlUqNy3L_oiB6CfskISQAx1W24v05R0sLrfI1c","range":"ronbot"}
DATABASE_DEV_URL=postgres://user:pass@postgres:5432/db

THe GOOGLE_CONFIG environment variable is a json string that you get after creating a service account via the google clould platform console. This env var is only necessary if you need to interact with the google sheets api add/edit a ronbot command. If you don't need to, simply set it to {}

Start the app

This app uses docker for local development. This command will start up the container for the ronbot app. The --scale pgadmin=0 option excludes the pgadmin service. It's there if you want it, but it's not necessary

docker-compose up --scale pgadmin=0

Verify that ngrok is forwarding and all is well:

curl -I https://9cd5682e.ngrok.io

Update urls

Update the event subscriptions url and interactive components request url to your local ngrok url

Go to https://api.slack.com/apps/AM11J7ULV/event-subscriptions and update the Event Subscriptions url to the ngrok url from the steps above (in this case: https://9cd5682e.ngrok.io/slack-events).

Do the same for the Interactive Components request url: https://api.slack.com/apps/AM11J7ULV/interactive-messages (in this case: https://9cd5682e.ngrok.io/slack-interactive)

Any interactions with ronbot should now be hitting your local environment.

When finished with development on your local machine, be sure to change the event subscriptions url back to https://ronswanbot.herokuapp.com/slack-events. And the slack interactive url back to http://ronswanbot.herokuapp.com/slack-interactive.

If these urls aren't reverted and you shut off your computer, ronbot will be unresponsive to anyone trying to interact with him.

Read some docs

Slack api documentation: https://api.slack.com/#read\_the\_docs

Docker docs: https://docs.docker.com/

Heroku docs: https://devcenter.heroku.com/

Misc notes

• the app uses nodemon so the docker container doesn't have to be shut down and restart every time there is a code change

• if you want to heroku pg:psql to run some queries against the postgres db on heroku, you'll also need to have a local installation of postgres or you'll get the The local psql command could not be located. error. There are a bunch of ways to do this. Here's one:

  • Download Postgres.app
  • put this in ~/.bash_profile
    • export PATH="/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/latest/bin:$PATH"

docker exec -it container_name bash # execute an interactive bash shell in container_name

docker exec -it db_container_name psql -U username db_name # interact with the database db in db_container_name as username

heroku pg:psql --app ronswanbot < ./db-init/init.sql # run a sql script on the heroku postgres db