Datastores

Datastores

This sub-app guides you on how to use datastores. If you haven't set up the Slack CLI and the project on your local machine yet, visit the top-level guide document first.

Supported Workflows

• Task Manager Workflow: Demonstrate how to interact with datastore records
• PTO Workflow: Demonstrate how to use TTL for datastore records

Task Manager Workflow

In this example workflow, you will create a link trigger, click the link to start the workflow, and see the terminal output logs to know how the datastore API calls work.

Create a Link Trigger

Triggers are what cause workflows to run. These triggers can be invoked by a user or automatically as a response to an event within Slack.

A link trigger is a type of trigger that generates a Shortcut URL, which, when posted in a channel or added as a bookmark, becomes a link. When clicked, the link trigger will run the associated workflow.

Link triggers are unique to each installed version of your app. This means that Shortcut URLs will be different across each workspace, as well as between locally run and deployed apps. When creating a trigger, you must select the workspace that you'd like to create the trigger in. Each workspace has a development version (denoted by (local)), as well as a deployed version.

To create a link trigger for the workflow in this template, run the following command:

$ slack trigger create --trigger-def ./Datastores/triggers/link.ts

After selecting a Workspace, the trigger should be created successfully.

After selecting a Workspace, the output provided will include the link trigger Shortcut URL. Copy and paste this URL into a channel as a message, or add it as a bookmark in a channel of the workspace you selected.

Running Your Project Locally

While building your app, you can see your changes propagated to your workspace in real-time with slack run. In both the CLI and in Slack, you'll know an app is the development version if the name has the string (local) appended.

# Run app locally
$ slack run

Connected, awaiting events

Once running, click the previously created Shortcut URL associated with the (local) version of your app. This should start the included sample workflow.

To stop running locally, press <CTRL> + C to end the process.

Manual Testing

Once you click the link trigger in a channel, the trigger starts the Datastores/workflows/form_demo.ts workflow, which runs the Datastores/functions/tasks_demo.ts function, which performs various datastore API calls and outputs it in the console.

Run Queries via Slack CLI

When you want to run ad-hoc queries and/or do bulk data inserts, slack datastore query command is useful for it!

$ slack datastore put '{"datastore": "tasks", "item": {"id": "1", "title": "Make a phone call"}}'

🎉  Stored below record in the datastore: tasks
{
  "id": "1",
  "title": "Make a phone call"
}

$ slack datastore query '
{
  "datastore": "tasks",
  "expression": "begins_with(#title, :title)",
  "expression_attributes": {"#title": "title"},
  "expression_values": {":title": "Make a "}
}
'

🎉  Retrieved 1 items from datastore: tasks

{
  "id": "1",
  "title": "Make a phone call"
}

Deploying Your App

Once you're done with development, you can deploy the production version of your app to Slack hosting using slack deploy:

$ slack deploy

After deploying, create a trigger for the production version of your app (not appended with (local)). Once the trigger is invoked, the workflow should run just as it did when developing locally.

Project Structure

manifest.ts

The app manifest contains the app's configuration. This file defines attributes like app name and description.

slack.json

Used by the CLI to interact with the project's SDK dependencies. It contains script hooks that are executed by the CLI and implemented by the SDK.

Datastores/datastores

Datastores can securely store and retrieve data for your application. Required scopes to use datastores include datastore:write and datastore:read.

Datastores/functions

Functions are reusable building blocks of automation that accept inputs, perform calculations, and provide outputs. Functions can be used independently or as steps in workflows.

Datastores/workflows

A workflow is a set of steps that are executed in order. Each step in a workflow is a function.

Workflows can be configured to run without user input, or they can collect inputs by beginning with a form before continuing to the next step.

Datastores/triggers

Triggers determine when workflows are executed. A trigger file describes a scenario in which a workflow should be run, such as a user pressing a button or when a specific event occurs.

What's Next?

To learn more about other samples, visit the top-level guide to find more!