slack_bot

A repo containing the code for a slack bot using an AWS lambda instance.

Requirements

AWS Account

Python 3.6 Runtime (Select once you have your lambda function environment and API Gateway created)

DynamoDB Tables: [bot_id: [id = 1, BOT_ID], karma_scores: [user, karma]]

Google Account Google Custom Search API Enabled: Once your Google API Account is made enable "Custom Search API" for your project

Spotify Access

Slack App API Access

Invoke

Once running the bot knows the following commands

@BOT_NAME help - sends user a private message with all known commands

@BOT_NAME reverse me - reverse text entered after command

@BOT_NAME image me - use text after command to query Google for an image

@BOT_NAME youtube me - use text after command to query youtube for a video

@BOT_NAME anime me - use text after command to query anime news network for anime info

@BOT_NAME manga me - use text after command to query anime news network for manga info

@BOT_NAME wiki me - use text after command to query wikipedia for an article

@BOT_NAME gif me - use text after command to query google for gifs

@BOT_NAME spotify me [track|album|artist|playlist] - use text after command, including one of the media types in brackets, to query spotify for a song, album, artist, or playlist

@BOT_NAME table flip - responds with a tableflip emoji

@BOT_NAME put it back - responds with a reversetableflip emoji

@BOT_NAME flip coin - responds with either head or tails

@BOT_NAME decide - responds randomly with one of the words after this command

@BOT_NAME call the cops - responds with an image of anime cops with the caption "You Called"

@BOT_NAME kill me - reacts to user message, kicks user from channel, and sends user a DM with a quote about death

@BOT_USER shame - You must @USER_NAME (might figure out how to display with a user name search)

@BOT_USER praise - You must @USER_NAME (might figure out how to display with a user name search)

@BOT_USER emojify me - Finds the first emoji in the command, then writes out the rest of the command using the given emoji and :nothing:

@BOT_USER magic me - Retrieves information on the requested Magic: the Gathering card from the Scryfall API. Also aliased to 'card me'

Other Bot Interactions:

Delete Bot Message:

If a bot has posted something you didn't want it to. You can respond with an emoji to have the
bot delete that message. Currently the emoji is :delet: Yes it's misspelled. If you ever make your
own feel free to change it in the code or make it configurable

Environment Variables

BOT_TOKEN is the slack apps token more info is here:

GOOGLE_CUSTOM_SEARCH_KEY: Once you've enabled you Custom Search API check there it's the: Search Engine ID

GOOGLE API KEY: You can generate one in the Google API Under Credentials

GOOGLE_CUSTOM_SEARCH_KEY: Genereate a custom search engine in API key should be generated with search engine

SLACK_SECRET: Under General Information in slack API. Used to ensure bot only responds to requests from slack

SLACK_USER_TOKEN: User token of the person who made the bot (must have kick user priveldges for certain commands)

SPOTIFY_CLIENT_ID: Client ID for Spotify (check the spotify docs in the requirements section)

SPOTIFY_CLIENT_SECRET: Client Secret for Spotify (check the spotify docs in the requirements section)

Notes on Google API

https://cse.google.com/cse/all (In the web form where you create/edit your custom search engine enable "Image search" option and and for "Sites to search" option select "Search the entire web but emphasize included sites")

After setting up you Google developers account and project you should have your developers API key and project CX (aka search engine id)

Notes on Setting Up A Slack Bot on AWS

A Good Starting Tutorial:

https://chatbotslife.com/write-a-serverless-slack-chat-bot-using-aws-e2d2432c380e
he also provides a direct link to a more full version than in his tutorial:
https://gist.github.com/zedr/226fab1c28f3bec8d656f6b54cea742f

Some Gotchas from his tutorial:

don't listen to him about the API stuff that might have been true at one point but now
you must set the `Use Lambda Proxy integration` But really what you SHOULD do is go to the
lambda service and when you start creating a new lambda function it will ask if you want to
create an new API Gateway. Say yes and it will handle all that BS for you. (You will still have to
grab the INVOKE URL (remember to actually drill down to the method (e.g. ANY, POST, etc) to get the full
path)

Testing this function.

AWS has a way to test this via the Test button next to save. You can click on the drop down next
to it and use the following JSONS

Reverse me test

{
  {
    "body": "{\"token\":\"TEST_TOKEN\",\"team_id\":\"TEAM_ID\",\"api_app_id\":\"APP_ID\",\"event\":{\"client_msg_id\":\"MSG_ID\",\"type\":\"app_mention\",\"text\":\"<@APP_ID> reverse me I am a palindrome tacocat\",\"user\":\"USER_WHO_SENT_MESSAGE\",\"team\":\"TEAM_ID\",\"channel\":\"CHANNEL_ID\"},\"type\":\"event_callback\",\"event_id\":\"EVENT_ID\"}"
  }
}

Image me test

{
  {
    "body": "{\"token\":\"TEST_TOKEN\",\"team_id\":\"TEAM_ID\",\"api_app_id\":\"APP_ID\",\"event\":{\"client_msg_id\":\"MSG_ID\",\"type\":\"app_mention\",\"text\":\"<@APP_ID> image me Tacos\",\"user\":\"USER_WHO_SENT_MESSAGE\",\"team\":\"TEAM_ID\",\"channel\":\"CHANNEL_ID\"},\"type\":\"event_callback\",\"event_id\":\"EVENT_ID\"}"
  }
}

Misc Notes

Easiest way to find a channel:

Open up your slack workspace in your favorite browser. Now navigate to the channel you want to post in. Check your URL. Notice that last string of letters and numbers in the URL changes as you click around. Those numbers the channel ID

Remember for your bot to post you must give it events to listen to that's handled in the Slack.api website.

AWS does provide the ability to check the status of calls against your function via the CloudLogs. I won't go into detail here but the AWS docs are pretty good.

Testing your function is being called correctly from the Gateway API

Drill down to the ANY method in your API (it can be POST GET etc. But if you did what I said above it will be any) Now click on it. You see that cool diagram that just showed up? See the Test button click it. Select Post from the drop down box and copy that JSON I gave up above and click Test It will output the log of the Cloud API Gateway trying to hit your currently saved lambda function (NOTE Not the the DEPLOYED one the one you have saved) Saved is either the same or newer that deployed

Deploying your function:

Until it's deployed no one is gonna be able to use it. Slack can't call it. So just click on the Actions button and Deploy API and that should deploy your app and now people can hit it.