This app brings oft-used GitHub functionality - such as creating new issues - to Slack using functions and workflows.
Guide Outline:
- Supported Workflows
- Setup
- Create a Link Trigger
- Running Your Project Locally
- Deploying Your App
- Project Structure
- Resources
- Create new issue: Create and assign new issues in repositories.
Before getting started, make sure you have a development workspace where you have permissions to install apps. If you don’t have one set up, go ahead and create one. Also, please note that the workspace requires any of the Slack paid plans.
To use this sample, you first need to install and configure the Slack CLI. Step-by-step instructions can be found in our Quickstart Guide.
Start by cloning this repository:
# Clone this project onto your machine
$ slack create my-github-app -t slack-samples/deno-github-functions
# Change into this project directory
$ cd my-github-app
A personal access token is required when calling the GitHub API. Tokens can be created in your developer settings on GitHub.
Your personal access token allows your application to perform the API calls used by functions as though it was from your GitHub account. That means all issues created from the Create GitHub issue workflow will appear to have been created by the account associated with the personal access token in use!
To access public repositories, your personal access token should have the following scopes:
public_repo
,repo:invite
read:org
read:user
,user:email
read:enterprise
To prevent 404: Not Found
errors when attempting to access private
repositories, the repo
scope must also be included.
After selecting the necessary scopes, generate then copy your personal access token.
Storing your access token as an environment variable allows you to use different tokens across local and deployed versions of the same app.
When developing locally, environment
variables found in the .env
file at the root of your project are used. For
local development, rename .env.sample
to .env
and add your access token to
the file contents (replacing ACCESS_TOKEN
with your token):
# .env
GITHUB_TOKEN=ACCESS_TOKEN
Deployed apps use environment variables
that are added using slack env
. To add your access token to a Workspace where
your deployed app is installed, use the following command (once again, replacing
ACCESS_TOKEN
with your token):
$ slack env add GITHUB_TOKEN ACCESS_TOKEN
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 (dev)
), as well as a deployed version.
To create a Link Trigger for the "Create New Issue" Workflow, run the following command:
$ slack trigger create --trigger-def triggers/create_new_issue_shortcut.ts
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.
Note: this link won't run the Workflow until the app is either running locally or deployed! Read on to learn how to run your app locally and eventually deploy it to Slack hosting.
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 (dev)
appended.
# Run app locally
$ slack run
Connected, awaiting events
Once running, click the
previously created Shortcut URL associated with the
(dev)
version of your app. This should start a Workflow that opens a form used
to create a new GitHub issue!
To stop running locally, press <CTRL> + C
to end the process.
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 new Link Trigger for the
production version of your app (not appended with (dev)
). Once the Trigger is
invoked, the Workflow should run just as it did in when developing locally.
Activity logs for the production instance of your application can be viewed with
the slack activity
command:
$ slack activity
The app manifest contains the app's configuration. This file defines attributes like app name and description.
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.
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.
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 input by beginning with a form before continuing to the next step.
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.
To learn more about developing with the CLI, you can visit the following guides:
To view all documentation and guides available, visit the Overview page.