Added Slack role

[kingoftheconnors]

This is a role for using Matrix-Appservice-Slack.

There is no documentation yet, but to use it you need to define slack_control_room_id and matrix_appservice_slack_enabled in the inventory/host_vars/.../vars.yml file.

The --tags=setup-all and start work fine, but if you check the journalctl -fu matrix-appservice-slack you'll PROBABLY get a Unhandled rejection Error: connect ECONNREFUSED error. The matrix port connects to the homeserver itself, similar to the discord appservice and is right now set to 8008.

After I settle a few other projects, I hope to cycle back to this, but feel free to give it a whirl if you want!

[kingoftheconnors]

Info about using this bridge further can be found at https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-slack

It'll detail how to get the "control-room-id" (which is easy in Riot because you can just write any message in the control-room-channel and then use check-source) and how to invite the bot if you get that far.

[spantaleev]

Thank you for starting on this! 👍

I haven't tested anything yet, but I've submitted some feedback based on what I saw from just reading the code.

I think it moves us in the right direction. Even if it doesn't completely make the bridge work, it should bring us to a point where we're almost there.

[Cadair]

@kingoftheconnors @spantaleev Is there anything in here that could be made easier by changes in the slack AS itself? I am currently making a bunch of changes to it, so I could fold in any feedback you have.

One of the things I plan to add is making the path to the registration file configurable in the config.json file.

[kingoftheconnors]

@kingoftheconnors @spantaleev Is there anything in here that could be made easier by changes in the slack AS itself? I am currently making a bunch of changes to it, so I could fold in any feedback you have.

One of the things I plan to add is making the path to the registration file configurable in the config.json file.

One thing that hurt organizationally was how the slack-registration file and databases had to be placed in a specific file together. If more freedom for where slack-registration and the database files could be found (such as saying "-d /data -f "/config" to signify looking for the databases in the /data file and the registration file in the /config file), that would help with organizing the files on the HS.

Also, the documentation could be better. The significance of 8008 and homeserverURL vs inboundURI is never explained.

[spantaleev]

Off the top of my head, I can't figure out why we need to pass -p MATRIX_PORT to app.js, when we've already specified the homeserver URL in the configuration file.

[Cadair]

@spantaleev it's the port the appservice listens on for pushes from synapse where as the HS url is the other way around?

@kingoftheconnors Yeah, I will look into separating the config and the data, probably have the data locations specified in the config json.

[Cadair]

So it turns out there is a dbdir: option in config.json which allows you to specify where the data goes. Looks like I didn't document it anywhere though 🤦‍♂️

[Cadair]

I added config for the HS registration file in matrix-org/matrix-appservice-slack#143

[spantaleev]

Once matrix-org/matrix-appservice-slack#143 gets merged, it looks like we should be able to add this to the configuration in matrix_appservice_slack_configuration_yaml:

dbdir: /data
hs_registration_file: ./registration.yaml

This assumes that we've done the split into a /data directory and a config directory (mounted at /usr/src/app/userconfig).

I guess we also depend on:

• matrix-appservice-slack getting a new release (or at least having develop merged to master, which is probably what :latest is cut from)
• the cadair/matrix-appservice-slack Docker image receiving an update (either :latest or :develop). Looks like the last update is from 8 months ago.

---

Since dbdir has ~always been a thing, we can probably start using it right now, without waiting for anything.

As for hs_registration_file, we can probably wait and see if something happens.. or just call our file slack-registration.yaml for now.

[Cadair]

I hope to push a new docker image for testing this week or next, and hopefully there will be a release of the slack AS itself in the next couple of weeks as well.

[kingoftheconnors]

Awesome. Be sure to drop a comment here to let us know when the docker update gets online!

I can take care of the re-integration for it.

[spantaleev]

According to matrix-org/matrix-appservice-slack#139, it looks like we may need to define homeserver.media_url as well.

[Cadair]

Yes I think so.

[Cadair]

I have pushed a new docker image with the tag "cadair", it folds in a lot of my open PRs at the moment. It should have the latest updates to specifying the registration path via the cli

[Cadair]

matrix-org/matrix-appservice-slack#143 is merged fyi.

[kingoftheconnors]

According to matrix-org/matrix-appservice-slack#139, it looks like we may need to define homeserver.media_url as well.

Would that be matrix.{{matrix_domain}} or just {{matrix_domain}}?

[kingoftheconnors]

@Cadair is -p {{matrix_appservice_slack_matrix_port}} still needed?

[Cadair]

Yes, you have to specify to the AS what port the HS is attempting to connect to.

[spantaleev]

According to matrix-org/matrix-appservice-slack#139, it looks like we may need to define homeserver.media_url as well.

Would that be matrix.{{matrix_domain}} or just {{matrix_domain}}?

It should be matrix.{{ matrix_domain }}.

[kingoftheconnors]

So the bridge now can be reached, the proxied url (matrix.DOMAIN/appservice_slack) is reachable by the slack api, and I've been able to follow the directions by the appservice README, so a lot more progress has been made.

Right now there's a problem in linking channels, since the bridge doesn't seem to recognize when channels are linked and just says
Oops - SlackEventHandler failed: UnknownChannel { channel: 'CJVQ3ATT8' }
to all messages, regardless of which channel it's in.

[spantaleev]

I wonder if that's a bridge problem or something that's wrong with our configuration.
@Cadair?

[Cadair]

I have also commented on the AS issue. Make sure that the bridge is getting events from synapse, specially the link commands.

[spantaleev]

Looks like this might be fully functional now, given that networking has been fixed?

[kingoftheconnors]

Networking has been fixed. There's a small to-do list left though:

• I'm having trouble with Slack->Matrix messages. I need to get to the bottom of that first
• I need to make a how-to in the docs file based on the Discord setup tutorial
• I need to squash all the commits together to save space on the timeline

[kingoftheconnors]

Also, the slack role doesn't implement the cadair image. I know a few of cadair's PRs have been pulled in, so do I still need to do that?

[kingoftheconnors]

It works! Maybe try it out yourself, but if my bridge is anything to go off of, the slack role is functional!

... Although it still uses the :latest docker image rather than the :cadair one.

[Cadair]

Now 0.3 is out I should rebuild the latest image. Although I should find out about the official docker image as well.

[Cadair]

The latest tag of the docker image is now the master branch of the repo, which is the 0.3 release. So we should be good to go.

I have had a read over this and it looks great. I might try and deploy it on my personal server today.

[kingoftheconnors]

It seems media_URL may be wrong, since the profile pics aren't being bridged. I'll be taking a look at this later today.

[kingoftheconnors]

Alright, fixed! I just forgot to update my docker image. 😆

[spantaleev]

Seems like this is coming along nicely!

Thank you for all the hard work @kingoftheconnors and @Cadair!

[spantaleev]

Anything else that needs to be done before this gets merged?

[kingoftheconnors]

Not right now. There's currently work for an official docker image for the appservice, but that probably won't be up for a while. Once that's up, I'll probably open a new PR for that one. This role works and I'm using it for my own server as we speak!

[Cadair]

There is already an official image for develop, just not stable yet.

…

On 18 August 2019 17:47:59 BST, kingoftheconnors ***@***.***> wrote: Not right now. There's currently work for an official docker image for the appservice, but that probably won't be up for a while. Once that's up, I'll probably open a new PR for that one. This role works and I'm using it for my own server as we speak! -- You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: #205 (comment)

-- Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

[kingoftheconnors]

Hm. Should we wait for that to stabilize or move over to that one now?

[Cadair]

I will check with Halfy.

…

On 18 August 2019 17:54:00 BST, kingoftheconnors ***@***.***> wrote: Hm. Should we wait for that to stabilize or move over to that one now? -- You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: #205 (comment)

-- Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

[Cadair]

I suggest we stay with this one until we get a stable release of the official image. I think this is ready to merge.

[spantaleev]

It's been a long ride, but I'm happy to finally merge this, so that everyone could start bridging to Slack easily!

Thank you for the great work and perseverance! 👍

Announced in dd0f355.