echobot

A basic example of interactive message flows in Slack, this skeleton app responds to a slash command invocation with an action block containing a select menu and button. Out of the box, it simply allows users to select/deselect members from their workspace.

The purpose of this repo is to reduce boilerplate when starting up a new Slackbot project. Build on/change the existing response logic to create your own personal interactive message flow.

Blocks are Slack's replacement for the now-deprecated message attachments. Read more about them here.

Setup

Follow the steps below to get the bot up and running:

1. After you've cloned the app, visit the Slack API dashboard and select Create New App.
2. Once the app is created, jump inside and select Add features and functionality.
3. Select Interactive Components and turn on interactivity for your app.
4. You will be prompted for a request URL: this is the API endpoint to which Slack will forward any callback messages your bot receives. While in the development process I highly recommend using ngrok. Once you have your URL, append /callback and input it on the Interactive Components page.
5. Setup two slash commands for the /add-users and /help endpoints from the Slash Commands tab of the dashboard
6. Next, select Bot Users from the sidebar and add a bot user to your app.
7. Visit the Oauth & Permissions tab and install the app to your workspace. This will generate access tokens for both you and the bot user.
8. Obtain your signing secret from the Basic Information tab and set it as an environment variable (required).
9. Obtain your bot's access token from the Oauth & Permissions page and set it as an environment variable (required).
10. Build the binary and start your server.
    • This project uses modules, which were first introduced in Go 1.11. Use of modules is optional in 1.11, so if you are working within your GOPATH you will need to enable the use of modules by running: export GO111MODULE=on

You're done! The bot is now installed to your workplace and capable of responding to the registered slash commands from any channels you invite it to.

Deployment

The project includes a basic deploy script for use with Google's App Engine. You will need to have the gcloud CLI installed to utilize this locally, otherwise you can deploy via the cloud shell.

By default, the app will be deployed to the GCP project specified via gcloud config set core/project PROJECT.

You can confirm your current project by running the following command: gcloud config get-value project