This howto describes how to setup the Slack provider included in discourse-chat-integration.
It allows posting notifications to Slack, managing rules using Slash Commands, and posting transcripts back to Discourse. Slash command instructions can be found by typing /discourse help. Transcript can be created using the context menus on Slack posts.
Install
If you haven’t already, install the discourse-chat-integration plugin, and make sure its enabled via the chat integration enabled site setting.
Setup Slack
Head over to Slack API: Applications | Slack and create a new app. If you’re not already logged in, you’ll be prompted to do so. (you may need to click on this link again, as it doesn’t seem to redirect after login )
Click Create New App
Choose a name (can be anything), and select the Slack Team you want it to be a part of
In the left-hand menu, under “Features”, click “OAuth & Permissions”.
Scroll down to “Scopes / Bot Token Scopes”, and add each of these to enable the plugin to post messages to your Slack workspace:
chat:write
chat:write.customize
Go to the Settings > Install App page page, click Install to Workspace, and authorise the app with your team
Copy the OAuth Access Token, and paste it into your Discourse site settings under chat_integration_slack_access_token
Go to the Basic Information page, copy the Verification Token, and paste it into your Discourse site settings under chat_integration_slack_incoming_webhook_token
At the bottom of the Basic Information page, you can set your bot’s icon, name and description.
Setup some “Rules” for your channels, according to the discourse-chat-integration instructions, or alternatively use the slash commands within a channel to get started.
Add the Discourse bot user to the channels you want it to be able to post to:
From the left-hand menu of your Slack client page, right click the channel name you’d like to add the app to and click View Channel Details:
After configuring Slack integration, you try the /discourse slash command and see the following error in Slack:
/discourse failed with the error "dispatch_failed"
Cause
It’s likely that this is due to a configuration error. Verify that the value you have configured for Request URL is correct. It should be in this form:
I’m very excited to try this plugin. I gave installing it a shot by following these instructions carefully, but when I go to test a slash command on slack I get:
slackbot Darn - that slash command didn't work (error message: `403_client_error`). Manage the command at Discourse Integration.
This would suggest that it’s an issue with the authentication of slack to your Discourse instance. Can you double check that the incoming webhook token has been copied across correctly? (step 12 above) Make sure there’s nothing weird being copied before/after (e.g. spaces)
Ugh, I went through the instructions twice, and realized I copied the verification token incorrectly. My issue was completely PEBKAC :(- thanks for the (immediate) help!
New rule:/discourse [watch|follow|mute] [category] [tag:name]
(you must specify a rule type and at least one category or tag)
watch – notify this channel for new topics and new replies
follow – notify this channel for new topics
mute – block notifications to this channel
The integration doesn’t seem to be able to find tags. edit: Ugh… I just saw the docs that the syntax for tags is [tag:name] … sorry I missed that…
I noticed that the help files are hard coded to the slash command “/discourse”… I pulled down the source and got as far as finding the strings in the locale files and where they’re invoked in the helper. I would like to issue a PR to allow the slash command in help files to be configurable (my integration uses my sitename as the command…) but I’m not sure how persistence works with Discourse plugins. If I submitted a partially complete PR would you be able to provide some pointers or would that be a waste of time ?
Also, where would be the best place to add feature requests ?
The easiest way to change this to a different command is to go to your discourse admin panel, CustomizeText Content, then type chat_integration.provider.slack into the search bar. You’ll find the “help” string in this list. Changes to this should persist across discourse/plugin updates
I think slack-specific ones in this topic, and general ones for the plugin in the main topic
You need to use the “OAUTH Token” method of authentication to slack, not the “Webhook” method. The instructions above should walk you through setting up the oauth method.
That did it. I think I broke it by foolishly trying to migrate the settings from the other slack plugin.
One thing I don’t understand is who can use the slack App I created. It is just me? If so, that’s a little sucky. If not, wait, anyone can control what categories get watched? I see “collaborators” in the slack API page. If I add a collaborator can they too control the rules?
Also, it seems that rules established in the Discourse web interface don’t show up in slack if you do a /discourse status. Is that right?
When you create slack apps, they are private to you. Only you can edit the settings of the app, and only you can install it onto an organisation. Notice the “Not Distributed” status:
You can then install your app onto your Slack organisation. If you have slash commands set up, anyone in that organisation can control the ‘rules’ for any channel they have access to, and so you should make sure to set the chat integration discourse username appropriately.
‘Collaborators’ of the Slack app means that they can edit the app’s settings (things like callback URLs, auth secrets etc.). It has absolutely nothing to do with who can configure ‘rules’ using slash commands.
/discourse status should list all of the rules for the current channel. So if you have set up rules for #general using the discourse admin interface, they should show up when you run /discourse status in #general. If that’s not working, it’s a bug.
Thanks, @david, that’s a huge help. It still seems a bit wild that any slack user can change what Discourse stuff gets posted to a channel, but I suspect that’s because I don’t understand slack.
I think it depends what kind of community you have in Slack. In my mind there are three main scenarios:
If any member of the public can join your Slack organisation, Slash commands probably aren’t a good idea. In this case it’s probably easiest to just manage the rules from the discourse admin panel.
If you have a fairly open forum, but a closed slack organisation (like I believe the discourse team do), then having slash commands is a nice convenience without any real issue (everyone in slack is trusted).
If you have a roughly 1:1 mapping between forum members and slack members (e.g. a corporate environment), it can be useful to allow individuals to manage the rules in their own slack channel. For example, the dev team might want to watch dev, and the support team support. Rather than forcing all this to be done by a discourse admin, they can do it themselves with slash commands. I think this is how @mcwumbly uses slack integration.
We’re starting to see some healthy adoption of Slack threads in some channels. I was a big skeptic at first, but as people find good patterns for using them, I can see their value. Does the transcript feature work with threads at all?
Should transcript export work with Direct Messages? I just tried with two different ones and it’ll say Loading the transcript... but nothing happens after that.
)
… sorry I missed that…
