Using the Slack API (webhooks, RTM, Web, doesn't matter) is it possible to initiate a DM/Private channel with a user where the private IM channel doesn't already exist?
I am aware of the API call https://api.slack.com/methods/im.list which will show me the private IM channels that are already open, however this is an empty list for the bot as no real user will have DM'd the bot.
Basically, we have a list of users who need to be notified of something privately by a bot, and those users will not likely have DM'd the bot before, so the private channel will not yet exist. How can we create that channel using the API?
Well, the fool that I am just needed to RTFM.
https://api.slack.com/methods/im.open
This method opens a direct message channel with another member of your Slack team.
Arguments
This method has the URL https://slack.com/api/im.open and follows the Slack Web API calling conventions.
Related
I have a logic app which posts a channel chat message to teams automatically when a new item is created in SharePoint. This I have working but our client requires that all the team members receive a banner alert and activity feed which I am having a lot of difficulty with.
What I've already tried...
Using a Incoming web hook on the teams channel - this was a very simple way to post from the logic app but the incoming webhook don't seem to support mentions.
Using the msft graph api - The /team/channel/message endpoint can post messages and user mentions but the this endpoint doesnt support channel or team mentions. It also appears that the graph API needs to use delegated permissions to post messages in teams. I'm using application permissions as this is a logic app. The logic app HTTP post connector doesnt offer the "connect as username#tenant.com" some of the other connectors use.
Using the flowbot post message - Like the above channel and team mentions are supported here so the post is added to the channel but with no notification to the team members
Using a notification only bot - I thought I nearly had it with this one. Microsoft's node bot sample number 57 looked like it can do most of what I want, it iterates through the users in the team and messages them this a customisable alert message...
https://github.com/microsoft/BotBuilder-Samples/tree/master/samples/javascript_nodejs/57.teams-conversation-bot
However I can't see how this bot can be triggered from my logic app as it seems to require an existing conversation context or an #mention from within teams to start communicating with users.
What I'm considering trying next
Iterating users within the logic app - Next I plan to try and get team membership from the graph API and iterate the members in the Logic App, posting a message to each user separately. I had hoped to utilise the group #mention feature as a simpler way so I'd be grateful if anyone had any thoughts on other ways of doing this, or maybe there's something wrong with what I've already tried that you could give me some expertise on.
Thanks in advance ;)
Andy
You're on the right track with the Bot, but you're wanting to send something called a "Pro-active" message. You need the bot registered in the channel in order to get access to a few key properties (conversation id, service url, etc.), but you can use those to send a message from -outside- your bot (e.g. in an Azure Function). You might be able to do this directly from a Logic App, but I haven't tested that specifically.
To find out more, see my answer at Programmatically sending a message to a bot in Microsoft Teams but I've also got a recent blog post that you might find interesting for background on this at How Bots Actually Work.
Hope that helps
You can use Graph to post a message in 1:1 chat as long as you have the chat it. You can find the answer in this post Send message to personal Chat via Graph API
You can also call Graph API from Logic Apps. (https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/integrations-on-azure-blog/calling-graph-api-from-azure-logic-apps-using-delegated/ba-p/1997666#:~:text=Calling%20Graph%20API%20from%20Azure%20Logic%20Apps%20using,Manage%20-%3E%20Certificates%20%26%20secrets%20More%20items...%20)
I am trying to figure out how to send a direct message to a bot in slack using the Slack API and get the response by the bot. For example, I use chat.postMessage:
curl -X POST -d
'token=xoxp-xxxx-xxxxxxxxx-xxxx&channel=BOT_ID&text=where?&as_user=true'
https://slack.com/api/chat.postMessage
The bot respond with:
I'm at hubot-server1.localI'm at hubot-server2.local
I want to capture the response. What Slack API I can use to capture? chat.postMessage doesn't return it.
Thanks for any reply.
Regards...
There are no API methods that will directly return a response from a bot. To capture responses of bots (and users) you need to read the messages from a channel.
With the Web API you can do that by calling channels.history for public channels (or groups.history private channels and similar names methods for other conversation types. you can also use the new conversations.history method to access all types of channels).
Those methods will give you all messages of a channel and you will need to filter out the right message within your app.
You can also get all new messages for a channel with the RTM API and the Events API.
I created a websocket-based Slack bot (that plays chess). In order to return a graphical representation of the board (so PNG instead of simple ASCII) I must use a webhook since normal messages cannot have attachments.
The interaction with the bot is through direct messages and I have 1 webhook. If I set the channel in the wehook to '#username' the message gets posted in that user 'slackbot' DM. But I want it to be posted in my bot's DM with that user.
How do I do that?
Or is there an alternative instead of a webhook?
Thanks.
Henry
Direct messages between bot and user
If you want to use a bot-specific direct message channel instead of the general slackbot channel you need to open a direct message channel just as you would between any two users.
Open the direct message channel from your bot to a user with im.open (which will provide you with the channel ID). Then send the message to that channel ID, e.g. with chat.postMessage.
Important: Make sure you use the bot access token and not the general access token for all API calls.
Method for sending messages
I would recommend using the API method chat.postMessage instead of the webhook. It gives you more options than a webhook and of course also supports attachments.
I am trying to make a bot that will listen to all public & private channels, and IMs for a team, and will reply when it sees certain trigger words. This will be a "Slack App", installable to your team using the "Add to Slack" button, and includes a "Bot User".
I have asked for the "bot" OAuth scope, and subscribed to the "message.channels,message.groups and message.im" Team Events (at https://api.slack.com/apps/myAppId/event-subscriptions) but do not appear to receive event POSTs through the Events API when new messages are sent.
Adding the "channels:history,groups:history,im:history" scopes makes the bot receive these event POSTs, but I believe only for the user that added the bot, so it will not watch groups that the adding-user was not a member of, or IMs between 2 other users. This means that behaviour will be different, depending on which user installed my bot.
Is there a way of installing the app/bot for an entire team? The documentation seems to indicate that a 'bot' scope should have the ability to receive events, but I am not seeing this (I require the channels:history scope etc. above).
bot - request this scope when your Slack app includes bot user functionality. Unlike incoming-webhook and commands, the bot scope grants your bot user access to a subset of Web API methods, the RTM API, and certain event types in the Events API.
(from https://api.slack.com/docs/oauth-scopes)
The page on bots also claims that a bot can receive all messages through the RTM API:
This websocket will send you all of the messages and activity that happen in public and private channels that the bot user is invited to, as well as messages that are sent to it via direct message. A bot user opens this websocket with the RTM API by sending an authenticated call to the rtm.start API method. To learn more about connecting to the RTM API, read the documentation here.
(from https://api.slack.com/bot-users)
Is this same behaviour possible in the events API without needing to use the RTM API or add those additional scopes mentioned above?
I see from your comment that you have understood that the bot scope (and the channels.message Events subscription) allows your bot to receive from channels it is present in.
You have two options
1) you ask for channel.write scope in addition to bot, and you invite the bot in all channels (using the user token, not the bot token)
2) you work on your onboarding and figure out a way to get your "champion", ie the user who installed your app, to invite your bot in relevant channel.
Keep in mind that solution 1) is usually seen as very intrusive, especially in large teams where most people haven't heard of your app nor taken the decision to install it. But it can be suitable for some very specific use cases. Option 2) is the recommended route, but it is hard :-) Good luck!
i am working on a slack app (scope including bot and incoming webhooks). I can send message to a defined channel but i don't know how to stop using the "&channel=" parameter and just send messages to listening channels. By listening i mean, when the app is installed, user is asked where to post (channel or dm has to be chosen).
String postUrl = "https://slack.com/api/chat.postMessage?token=" + botAccessToken + "&as_user=false&channel=%23community&text=testing&username=CommunityQ";
Any hints would be useful.
I think you can't: According to the official Slack API documentation it is not possible to send messages to all/multiple listening channels:
Incoming webhooks output to a default channel and can only send
messages to a single channel at a time. You can override a custom
integration's configured channel by specifying the channel field in
your JSON payload.
I interpret this as "there is always exactly one channel your message is sent to"
Furthermore, Slack restricts this channel override feature for Slack apps:
You cannot override the default username, icon, or channel for
incoming webhooks attached to Slack apps.
I think there is a slight confusion here. I am not sure what the "incoming webhook" scope does that the "bot" scope cannot do. Here's how I see things
Either you want a lightweight, low-permission app that posts in one channel, and you'd use the incoming webhook scope
Or you want an app that can ask questions to the users, like which channels they'd like to have updated posted to, process answers, etc. Then you'd use the bot scope, and the bot can post in any public channel
If you give a bit more details in what you want to achieve we can perhaps help you better
If you want a more dynamic approach on sending messages into any channel I would suggest to user the API method chat.postMessage instead of an incoming webhook.
The API method can post messages into any channel (including private channels, DMs) as long as your token as access to it.
As Michael mentioned in his answer, it is not possible to post to multiple channels at the same time. You have to look through them and do multiple requests.