SlackBlocks for Airtable

Elevate your Slack messages from Airtable with a touch of refinement. slackblocks-4-airtable is a script designed to enrich your notification game. By following a simple setup, you can send well-structured and visually appealing messages right from your Airtable base to Slack.

How it Works

1. Copy and paste the script into an Airtable script automation.
2. Create an array variable to contain your message, utilizing the $.{blockType} syntax to design your message.
3. Use $.build(message) to assemble your message, ready for dispatch.
4. Send it off to Slack via a POST request to the Slack Webhook URL, including your message in the body payload.

Example

Instantiating the SlackBuilder Class

To get started with creating and sending messages, you'll first need to instantiate the SlackBuilder class. This class is designed to abstract the process of creating message blocks and sending them to Slack. Here's how to do it:

Instantiate the SlackBuilder class, passing your Slack Webhook URL as an argument to the constructor:

// replace 'webhook_url_here' with your webhook URL
const $ = new SlackBuilder('webhook_url_here');

Now you have a SlackBuilder object, denoted by $, which you can use to build and send messages to Slack.

Remember, the Slack Webhook URL is crucial for the SlackBuilder to be able to send messages to your Slack workspace. Ensure you've followed the Setting Up Slack Webhooks section to obtain your Webhook URL.

Once that's done you will be able to create your message as part of an array, of blocks.

const slackMessage = [
 $.header("This is a header message"),
 $.divider(),
 $.mrkdwn("You can _even_ input *Markdown* and include <github.com|links>")
]

once you've done that you can then build and send your slack message via your webhook with this command

$.build(slackMessage).send();

Getting Started

1. Copy the script from this repository.
2. Follow the example above to create your first enhanced Slack message from Airtable.
3. Enjoy better, more engaging notifications!

Setting Up Slack Webhooks

Before you can send messages to Slack using slackblocks-4-airtable, you'll need to set up a Slack Webhook. Follow the steps below to create a new Webhook URL for your Slack workspace:

1. Navigate to Slack Apps and click on Create New App.
2. Give your app a name and select the Slack workspace where you want it to reside, then click Create App.
3. In the Add features and functionality section, click on Incoming Webhooks.
4. Toggle the switch to On to activate incoming webhooks.
5. Scroll down and click on Add New Webhook to Workspace.
6. Select the channel where you want your app to post messages and click on Authorize.
7. You'll now see your new Webhook URL under the Webhook URLs for Your Workspace section. Copy this URL as you'll need it to use slackblocks-4-airtable.

Testing Messages with Slack Block Kit Builder

Before sending messages to a live Slack channel, you might want to test the output using the Slack Block Kit Builder. This tool allows you to preview your message blocks and make any necessary adjustments. Here's how to do it:

1. Build your message blocks in your script as shown in the Usage section above.
2. Instead of sending the message, log the message object to the console:

// build for copy/paste to slack block kit builder
console.log($.build(messageBlocks).message);

Contributing

Feel free to fork this project, open a pull request or submit any ideas on how we could improve this script!

License

MIT

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Happy messaging!