git-inbox

Slack bot to convert uploads into Git commits/PRs. Also, since Excel is so popular, transform XLSX into YAML for techies.

Setup

Deploy this repo to Heroku or any other Node.js host.

Set up environment vars (config vars in Heroku):

• TARGET_GIT_URL: Git repo URL for commit access
  • format: https://<user>:<personal-token>@github.com/<user>/<repo>.git
  • create personal access token on the GitHub Personal access tokens page
  • if your repo is at https://github.com/alice/hello-world and the secret personal access token is abcd1234, use: https://alice:abcd1234@github.com/alice/hello-world.git
• SLACK_AUTH_TOKEN: Slack bot integration token
  • to get the token: configure a new bot on the Slack bot config page
  • the secret token will look something like: xyz-12345678-ABCDabcd12345678

Add the description file to your repo root: .git-inbox.yml:

# file upload and conversion configuration
files:
  # simple file upload examples
  - hello/acme.txt # any file upload named "acme.txt" saved into "hello/acme.txt"

  - in: *foobar*.txt # any text file upload containing "foobar" in the name
    out: beep.txt # saved in "beep.txt"

  # Excel to YAML conversion examples
  - data/boop.yml # any Excel file upload starting with "boop" converted to YAML and saved into "data/boop.yml"

  - in: hi.xlsx # any Excel file named "hi.xlsx"
    out:
      format: yaml # convert to YAML
      path: my/sub/folder/hithere.yaml # save into given repo path

# publish to repo using GitHub pull requests
push:
  type: github-request # open a GitHub pull request
  base: master # use "master" as base branch (default)

# alternative mode: direct commit to branch
# push:
#   type: branch # push to branch
#   branch: development # commit to "development" branch

Now, any time you upload something to the Slack channel where the bot lives, it will commit that file and create a pull request to the target repo! 🤖

To Do

• local npm install git-inbox instructions to help try out/experiment
• Heroku button
• text/raw uploads
• CSV uploads
• show diff (if small) in Slack channel as inline attachment
• use Slack reaction to approve pull request
• issue pull request to branch instead of direct push
• allow multiple successive uploads to same PR
• cleanup work directory after push
• fix logging
• customizable committer/author
• declarative (target-first) file listener config

Development

npm install

cat <<EOF > env.sh
export TARGET_GIT_URL=https://<user>:<personal-token>@github.com/<user>/<repo>.git
export SLACK_AUTH_TOKEN=<auth-token>
EOF

# Slack tests
. env.sh
supervisor --extensions 'js,yml' slack.js