Slack bot app template

In this repository you will find a ready-to-use Slack bot template for a DataRobot custom application. After creating the Slack application, you can immediately start configuring the bot messages and events.

The Slack bot code is based on the Bolt for Python starter template and comes with a small Flask app and start-app script to create a working DataRobot custom application.

Setup

Follow the configuration outlined in the steps below.

Create a new Slack app

Create a new Slack application via the Slack UI. Select either From scratch or From a manifest. DataRobot recommends selecting From a manifest if you have never set up an application before.

The repository includes a basic manifest.json that you can copy and paste into the app creation form. To set the app name, modify display_information > name. and for the bot name modify either features > bot_user > display_name or go to the Basic Information settings page after the application has been created. Other information, such as the app icon, color, or description can also be found in this page.

Next select the workspace to which you want to install the app. Next, paste the manifest into the text field. Make sure to select the JSON tab if you copied the manifest.json from this repository.

The last step asks to review the permissions given to the bot. The manifest from this repository allows for @-mentions and messages, meaning it has access to the chat history of public channels it is a member of.

Slack app configuration summary

• Create a new app from a manifest.
• Select the workspace for the app.
• Select JSON tab and paste the manifest.json (modify the app name display_information > name and bot name features > bot_user > display_name).
• Review the given permissions.
• Confirm the app creation.

Generate tokens

The instructions below outline how to generate the necessary tokens for the Slackbot app.

SLACK_APP_TOKEN: On the Basic Information page, scroll down to find the App-Level Tokens section. Click the button to generate a new token. Enter a name for the app token and add scope for connections:write, this will allow the app events over WebSockets. Click generate and note down the token to be used as SLACK_APP_TOKEN.

SLACK_BOT_TOKEN: The bot token can be found on the OAuth & Permissions page in OAuth Tokens section. You first need to install the app to your selected Slack workspace. In the OAuth Tokens section click install to {your workspace} and review the permissions. Once the app is installed, note down the displayed token as SLACK_BOT_TOKEN.

Short summary:

• Generate the SLACK_APP_TOKEN:
  • On Basic Information page, find App-Level Tokens.
  • Click the button to generate a new token.
  • Enter the token name and add the scope for connections:write.
  • Click generate and copy the token.
• Generate the SLACK_BOT_TOKEN:
  • On OAuth & Permissions page find App-Level Tokens section.
  • Install the app to your workspace.
  • Copy the OAuth token.

Run the app

You can run the Q&A app in DataRobot using a custom application or by running the app locally. Custom applications can be created via the Registry's Applications page or by using DRApps.

Define the variables for the app to communicate with Slack. If you run the app locally or via another environment, then you need to set the environment variables in the terminal that you use. When this app is run via the Applications page, the variables can be set with the preconfigured runtime parameters in the application source.

For a local run:

cd src
export SLACK_APP_TOKEN="xapp-..."
export SLACK_BOT_TOKEN="xoxb-..."
./start-app.sh

For the Applications page:

Use [DataRobot] Python 3.12 as the base environment and set the tokens in the runtime parameters section. To do that, click the edit icon, expand the value dropdown, and select Add credentials. Follow the instructions to add the tokens as API Tokens and return to the application source. Now select the newly created credentials to the corresponding variable. Lastly, scroll to the top of the application source and click Build application.

Test the bot

To test the bot, navigate to your Slack chat and use @-mention: @testbot Hello!. Be sure to use your own bot username and to invite them to the public channel that you're testing within. If the @-mention worked, you can also verify the messages sample by saying hello or bye.

Disable auto-stopping

Custom applications auto-stop after a while of inactivity. To turn this off for your Slack bot, please run the following command using your <application_id> and <authorization_token>:

curl --location --request PATCH 'https://app.datarobot.com/api/v2/customApplications/<application_id>/' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: <authorization_token>' \
--data '{
    "allowAutoStopping": false
}'

Add more actions

You can find examples for all available Slack listeners in the Bolt for Python starter template. The approach is the exact same as in this repository, but they provide other, more advanced actions. This workflow only focuses on how to add more message and event listeners. Note that some events might require additional scopes and permissions. These are all mentioned within the events list on https://api.slack.com/events. To add new scopes to an existing app, go to the Slack OAuth & Permissions page and find the Scopes section. Once you add new scope to the app it might require to be reinstalled.

Events

To configure events, navigate to src/listeners/events and create a new file that contains the function you would like to run as callback to an event. You can use the sample app mention as an example:

def app_mention_callback(event, logger, say):
  # Get the message text and user who mentioned the bot
  user_id = event["user"]
  message_text = event["text"]

  # Respond to the user in the channel
  say(f"Hi there, <@{user_id}>! You mentioned me with the text: {message_text}")

Once you have defined a callback function, it needs to be registered to the right event. Navigate to the __init__.py in events and add the event name with the callback to the matcher_map:

matcher_map = {
  "app_mention": app_mention_callback,
  # Add more events and callbacks here
}

Messages

Messages are registered almost the same way as Events. Navigate to src/listeners/messages and create a new file that contains the function you would like to run as callback. Here is another sample callback as example:

def goodbye_message_callback(context: BoltContext, say: Say, logger: Logger):
  try:
    farewell = context["matches"][0]
    say(f"{farewell}, see you next time!")
  except Exception as e:
    logger.error(e)

Once you have defined a callback function, it needs to be registered to the right text matcher. Navigate to the __init__.py in messages and add the string that should trigger the callback to the matcher_map:

matcher_map = {
  r'(hi|hey|hello)': welcome_message_callback,
  r'(goodbye|bye|farewell)': goodbye_message_callback,
}

Be aware that unrelated conversations could trigger the bot if the matching phrase is too common! As a default this bot template will ignore upper and lower case to avoid issues between Hi and hi. If you need the matcher to react differently between upper and lower case, edit the register function by removing re.IGNORECASE from app.message(re.compile(pattern, re.IGNORECASE))(callback)