err-backend-slackv3

Slack Events and Real Time Messaging backend for Errbot

Purpose

This backend has been developed to support both the Slack Events and Real Time Messaging APIs using the latest SDK from Slack.

The backend has been made available outside the core errbot project to allow development and user feedback to happen on independent release cycles.

It is the hope and intention of the authors that this backend will eventually be incorporated as part of the official errbot project.

Connection methods

Slack has been making changes to their OAuth and API architecture that can seem quite confusing. No matter which OAuth bot token you're using or the API architecture in your environment, slackv3 has got you covered.

The backend will automatically detect which token and architecture you have and start listening for Slack events in the right way:

• Legacy tokens (OAuthv1) with Real Time Messaging (RTM) API
• Current token (OAuthv2) with Event API using the Event Subscriptions and Request URL.
• Current token (Oauthv2) with Event API using the Socket-mode client.

Backend Installation

These instructions are for errbot running inside a Python virtual environment. You will need to adapt these steps to your own errbot instance setup. The virtual environment is created in /opt/errbot/virtualenv and errbot initialised in /opt/errbot. The extra backend directory is in /opt/erbot/backend.

1. Create the errbot virtual environment

mkdir -p /opt/errbot/backend
virtualenv --python=python3 /opt/errbot/virtualenv

2. Install and initialise errbot. See here for details

source /opt/errbot/virtualenv/bin/activate
pip install errbot
cd /opt/errbot
errbot --init

3. Configure the slackv3 backend and extra backend directory. Located in /opt/errbot/config.py

BACKEND="SlackV3"
BOT_EXTRA_BACKEND_DIR=/opt/errbot/backend

4. Clone err-backend-slackv3 into the backend directory and install module dependencies.

cd /opt/errbot/backend
git clone https://github.com/errbotio/err-backend-slackv3
pip install -r /opt/errbot/backend/err-backend-slackv3/requirements.txt

5. Configure the slack bot token, signing secret (Events API with Request URLs) and/or app token (Events API with Socket-mode). Located in /opt/errbot/config.py

BOT_IDENTITY = {
    'token': 'xoxb-...',
    'signing_secret': "<hexadecimal value>",
    'app_token': "xapp-..."
}

Setting up Slack application

Legacy token with RTM

This was the original method for connecting a bot to Slack. Create a bot token, configure errbot with it and start using Slack. Pay attention when reading this document explaining how to create a "classic slack application". Slack does not allow Legacy bot tokens to use the Events API.

Current token with Events Request URLs

This is by far the most complex method of having errbot communicate with Slack. The architecture involves server to client communication over HTTP. This means the Slack server must be able to reach errbot's /slack/events endpoint via the internet using a valid SSL connection. How to set up such an architecture is outside the scope of this readme and is left as an exercise for the reader. Read this document for details on how to configure the Slack app and request URL.

Current token with Events Socket-mode client

Create a current bot token, enable socket mode. Configure errbot to use the bot and app tokens and start using Slack. Read this document for instructions on setting up Socket-mode.