Building a bot with Botkit and the Slack Events API gives you access to all of the best tools and options available to create the best and most feature rich bot.
In order to get everything set up, you will need to configure a "Slack App" inside the Slack Developer Portal, and at the same time, configure a Botkit-powered bot. It only takes a few moments, but there are a bunch of steps!
Go to http://api.slack.com/apps and create a new application record.
You will receive a clientId and a clientSecret. You need these values - copy them into a temporary text file
for use in the following steps.
Now that you've got your clientId and clientSecret, you can start your Botkit app. Assuming you are using the Botkit Slack Starter Kit, this can be done by passing the values in via the command line:
clientId=<my client id> clientSecret=<my client secret> PORT=3000 node .
This will cause the Botkit application to boot up and start listening for messages via incoming web hooks.
With the Events API, Slack will send all information to your bot via simple web hooks. To receive web hooks, you will need a public internet address that is SSL-enabled.
During development, you can use a tool like ngrok.io or localtunnel.me to temporarily expose your development environment to the public internet. However, once you go live, you will need a real, stable address.
In the end, you will have a known url - for example https://my-dev-bot.ngrok.io -
that you will use to finish the configuration inside Slack.
Botkit and Slack use the oauth authentication system to grant bots access to connect to, read from, and send messages to Slack teams.
Click on the "Oauth & Permissions" tab in your Slack's app setting, and under
Redirect URLs, add: https://my-bot-url/oauth, then click save.
Click on the "Bot Users" tab and specify a name for your bot. This is the name that will be used by default when your application creates a new bot on a user's team.
In addition to a name, enable the option for "Always Show My Bot Online."
"Interactive messages" is Slack's fancy way of saying "buttons." In order to enable buttons,
under Request URL, add https://my-bot-url/slack/receive, then click save.
To start receiving messages, enable event subscriptions. First, under Request URL,
add https://my-bot-url/slack/receive. When you finish typing, Slack will verify
that this endpoint is properly configured. You must be running your Botkit application,
and the application must be accessible at the URL specified for this to work.
Once verified, click "Add Bot User Event", and using the dropdown that appears,
select all of the message.* events: message.channels, message.groups, message.im, message.mpim.
This tells Slack to send your bot all messages that are sent in any channel or group
in which your bot is present. Add other events as needed.
Finally, scroll to the top of the page and switch "Enable Events" to "on". Your bot is now ready to receive messages!
Now that your bot is configured, and your application is up and running,
you can login and add your bot. Visit https://my-bot-url/login, and you
will be automatically directed to Slack's login page. Login and choose a team.
You'll get one more confirmation before being redirected back to your app.
Meanwhile, your bot should appear inside your Slack team! You should receive a friendly welcome message!
Using Botkit Studio's conversation design tools and the powerful Botkit SDK, you can build your dream bot!