NotyBot

Description

Slack application to manage reminders with commands.

The goal is build a simple mechanism that keeps reminders using Slack service to notify when they happen in our devices like PC or mobile phone.

Design decisions

1. I decided to save the state of the reminders into a NoSQL database because it's good for resume after shutdown or energy fault.

2. We have some level of abstraction in the database interface.

ReminderDB
BasicDB
MongoDB

3. Code modularity was keep in mind to give an easy way to add new commands and operations.

Starting with the types defined in NotyTypes.hs

• NotyReq: Represent requests by the user.
• NotyResp: Represent reply for an user request.

The same for the parsing module (Parsing.lhs) and communication settings for Slack (SlackConfig.hs) behind Linklater library.

Reminder API
DailyReminder		EventualReminder
ReminderTypes	NotyTypes	SlackConfig	Parsing

Architecture

We have a listener thread running in port 3000 that uses Reminder Manager's interface. After a command is received, processing functions will be executed, so can be happen the next:

1. Generate a direct reply.
2. Change the state of the reminders.
3. Launch a thread for new reminder.

When the waiting time of a reminder is reached, the system wakes up its thread that will send a message to the Slack channel and then check for a new iteration.

Install

Running server application:

Inside scripts, you will find:

1. deps.sh to install needed dependencies.
2. config.sh to configure the project with stack and download needed libs.
3. build.sh to build NotyBot application.
4. run.sh to run NotyBot application in a shell.
5. launch.sh to run NotyBot application with screen and record log file.

Register NotyBot in Slack:

We need to do some steps more to use NotyBot app in Slack:

1. Create an account and workspace in Slack
2. Create a channel where user NotyBot app
3. Crear una app en Slack API
4. Add features and functionalities:
   1. Incoming webhooks: Habilitarlo y crear un webhook en el canal donde se va a utilizar la app. Guardar la URL en un archivo llamado "hook" en el directorio raíz de este repo.
   2. Slash commands: Agregar dos comandos "eventual" y "daily", completar el campo "Request URL" con http://TU_IP_PUBLICA:3000 NOTA: Si no tienes IP pública puedes usar algún servicio como ngrok y asignar esa.
   3. Permissions: Entiendo que los que vienen por defecto alcanza, se podría agregar alguno si hiciera falta.
5. Instalar la app en el workspace

Modo de uso

Una vez que se haya instalado la aplicación en un canal de Slack y se encuentre en ejecución el servidor. Es posible utilizar los comandos para empezar a usarla:

Commands

• daily: To manage recurring reminders. Ex: Run in the park, water the plants, change toothbrush, etc
• eventual To manage reminders about defined datetimes. Ex: A meeting, anniversary, etc.

We defined 3 operations for each command.

Operations

• add Add new reminder.
• del Delete reminder.
• list List all reminders.

Example uses

Create reminder:

The next command creates a reminders with id "iD_rec" that will notify you at 7:30 pm during 8 days.

/daily add iD_rec at 19:30 repeat 7

The next command creates a reminders with id "clase2" that will notify you every 22 minutes once time.

/daily add clase2 every 22 minutes

he next command creates a reminders with id "cumple_juan" that will notify you at 20 of December of 2019 at 7:30 pm.

/eventual add cumple_juan on 2019-12-20 at 19:30

NOTE: The identifiers must be start with lowercase letter follow by any combination of alphanumeric chars, middle hyphen or underscore.

List pending reminders:

/eventual list

/daily list

Get a list with all pending reminders with some information associated.

Delete pending reminder:

/eventual del cumple_juan

/daily del iD_rec

TODOs:

• Distribute NotyBot into Slack App Directory:
  • Configure SSL certificate to use HTTPS.
  • Enable OAuth 2 y URL redirection.