Update Slack implementation from Bot to App

[dacort]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Slack has made the move more towards apps than bots. This appears to be largely due to their old "bot" implementation requiring global permissions and new apps are more appropriately scoped. The current bot implementation is not deprecated, but we don't know if or when it will be.

From https://api.slack.com/authentication/quickstart

You can now select individual scopes for your bot token, rather than just one umbrella bot scope that grants access to many methods, some of which you may not need.

Describe the solution you'd like
Option 1: Update our documentation to reflect the current best practice approach
Option 2: Overhaul our Slack implementation to use a proper "App"

How important is this feature to you?
Slack is an important way that folks share Metabase questions.

Additional context
Discovered while looking into #12382

⬇️ Please click the 👍 reaction instead of leaving a +1 or update? comment

[dacort]

Enumerating the methods we currently use and their docs/deprecation status based on slack.clj:

Method	Scope	Deprecated?
channels.list	channels:read	Y
users.list	users:read	N
files.upload	files:write	N
chat.postMessage	chat:write	N
rtm.start(?)	bot (classic)	Y

That said, I created a new Bot app and added the necessary scopes and images and the MetaBot avatar aren't getting set properly.

chat:write.customize scope is required to set a customized avatar and username. Still unsure why the file upload isn't working with the new app.

[matthewlent]

@dacort nit users:read

[ctivanovich]

I'm attempting to set this up now at my organization--is it still a requirement that the API be set-up specifically for a channel called metabase_files?

[dacort]

is it still a requirement that the API be set-up specifically for a channel called metabase_files?

Yes, although it can be archived if you like. Note that you still need to create a “bot” user and not an app.

[ctivanovich]

is it still a requirement that the API be set-up specifically for a channel called metabase_files?

Yes, although it can be archived if you like. Note that you still need to create a “bot” user and not an app.

Also, this is a bit misleading. I think what you mean is you must create an app, and a bot user for that app. There is no "just a bot user" option anymore, everything is encapsulated in the Slack API app service now.

[dacort]

@ctivanovich Please take a look at the workaround in #12382 - we're still using the "bot" user in Slack and have not migrated to proper apps yet. You can still create a bot user using the link in that ticket.

This ticket is for researching what the required permissions are to move to an app.

[manghat]

It would also be great if metabot could send files into private channels.

[flamber]

@manghat I think you're looking for #2694 - support for private channel

[nmuldoon]

We just received a notification (below) from Slack that the API used by the Metabase Bot will be deprecated on 24th February 2021. Rewriting the bot as an app before then would be greatly appreciated.

The Conversations API is a one-size-fits-all replacement for a variety of APIs that are used to read and write information about channels, private channels, direct messages and multi-party direct messages. On 24th February 2021, Slack will end support for any methods preceding the Conversations API. We’ve detected that your organisation has created Slack apps using these legacy methods. If users expect your app to work in channels of any kind, you’ll need to verify use of the Conversations API by following these suggested next steps.

[dacort]

@nmuldoon Thanks for the notice, Slack integration is certainly critical so will address this in an upcoming release.

[camsaul]

We don't use channels.list anymore -- I fixed this in #12921

[Limess]

The date above rapidly approaching, are there still plans to address this before then?

[flamber]

@Limess Which date? Metabase has been using Conversations API since 0.36.0. Additional information would be appreciated.

[Limess]

Ah thanks, I didn't find it clear from the above that this was changed - if this is the case that's great.

As an aside, while re-adding metabot to our slack install, I tried creating a new Slack app, and adding the appropriate scopes - rather than using a bot integration, and received this error in the metabase logs:

2021-01-13 15:14:38,403 WARN integrations.slack :: {:error-code "not_allowed_token_type", :message "Slack API error: not_allowed_token_type", :response {:ok false, :error "not_allowed_token_type"}}
	at metabase.integrations.slack$do_slack_request.invokeStatic(slack.clj:65) ~[metabase.jar:?]
	at metabase.integrations.slack$do_slack_request.invoke(slack.clj:47) ~[metabase.jar:?]
	at metabase.integrations.slack$GET.invokeStatic(slack.clj:70) ~[metabase.jar:?]
	at metabase.integrations.slack$GET.doInvoke(slack.clj:67) ~[metabase.jar:?]
	at metabase.integrations.slack$handle_error.invokeStatic(slack.clj:38) ~[metabase.jar:?]
	at metabase.integrations.slack$handle_error.invoke(slack.clj:26) ~[metabase.jar:?]
	at metabase.integrations.slack$handle_response.invokeStatic(slack.clj:45) ~[metabase.jar:?]
	at metabase.integrations.slack$handle_response.invoke(slack.clj:40) ~[metabase.jar:?]
	at metabase.integrations.slack$do_slack_request.invokeStatic(slack.clj:63) ~[metabase.jar:?]
 "api.slack$fn__71273$fn__71276.invoke(slack.clj:25)"
 "api.slack$fn__71273.invokeStatic(slack.clj:21)"
 "api.slack$fn__71273.invoke(slack.clj:13)"
 "api.slack$fn__71273$fn__71276.invoke(slack.clj:25)"
 "api.slack$fn__71273.invokeStatic(slack.clj:21)"
 "api.slack$fn__71273.invoke(slack.clj:13)"

Is that mechanism supported?

[flamber]

@Limess That's what this issue is - about updating Metabase to allow using the App instead of the Bot.

[cernael]

@flamber I just upgraded from 0.35.3 to 0.37.6, but I see no changes in the Slack integration, which I expected to do.

Do I understand correctly that, while the integration in Metabase has switched over to the Conversations API, there's still stuff in the Bots Slack app that allows use of the old API, and that's why it still shows up in the warnings in my Slack admin interface?

[flamber]

@cernael Metabase does not support App, only the Bot. That is what this issue is about. I don't know what warning you're seeing.

[cernael]

@flamber In my Slack admin page, Bots show up on this warning page. And Metabot is the only one we're using. As someone with very limited knowledge of how Slack apps in general, and the Bots app in particular, work, the warning here makes me a bit uneasy.

On reflection, it seems reasonable that the warning arises because some Bot, somewhere, still uses the deprecated API, and that the shutdown only will mean that that bot breaks. But it's not really clear that that is the case.
Slack could have been clearer by also breaking down the usage to the API tokens I have generated for Bots.
Metabase could have been clearer by including a more explicit mention of the switch to Conversations in the release notes for 0.36.0 - up until now the only mention of a fix I've found is your offhand comment above. I did just now go looking deeper, and while there is a mention of Slack in the 0.36.0 release notes, neither it nor the linked issues ever explicitly mention the Conversations API by name - it's only by digging into the code itself, in #12921 (which is not even the issue linked from the release notes), that I get solid hints that this is fixed.

[flamber]

@cernael If you have just upgraded, then you'll see MetaBot on that list - as it says:

Apps listed here have used at least one of these deprecated APIs within the last 30 days.

While we are trying to become better at making release notes, in 0.36.0 release notes it links to the issue #12678 and was fixed by PR #12921.
Anyhow this is going way off-topic.

[codyborn]

I've received a notice that the metabase slack bot rtm.start functionality will be deprecated beginning November 30, 2021 for newly created connections.
Is there an existing alternative to the Slack bot? Is there any ETA on the Slack app? Thanks!