Build a Simple Custom Slack Bot using @slack/client and Node

19 Aug 2016 . TUTORIALS . Comments #tutorials

Recently, we officially switched from Hipchat to Slack at work. I wanted to make a simple slack bot that can help me to choose whom to pick on for PR reviews. I made a randomizer that takes in a list of names and outputs two names.

Set up a bot user

1. Go to https://my.slack.com/services/new/bot and setup a bot user on slack.
2. Generate an API token.

Set up the node server

1. Make a new folder and cd into the folder
2. npm init
3. Install slack/client by doing npm install @slack/client --save
4. Create a new file named app.js

Make the slack bot

var token = 'YOUR SLACK BOT API KEY' || '';

var RtmClient = require('@slack/client').RtmClient;

var _ = require('lodash')

var rtm = new RtmClient(token, { logLevel: 'debug' });
rtm.start();


var CLIENT_EVENTS = require('@slack/client').CLIENT_EVENTS;

rtm.on(CLIENT_EVENTS.RTM.AUTHENTICATED, function(rtmStartData) {
  console.log(`Logged in as ${rtmStartData.self.name} of team ${rtmStartData.team.name}, but not yet connected to a channel`);
});


var RTM_EVENTS = require('@slack/client').RTM_EVENTS;

// Listens to all `message` events from the team
rtm.on(RTM_EVENTS.MESSAGE, function(message) {
  console.log(message, 'message')



  var str = message.text;
  // <@U22QZJNKA> is the my bot id. I am checking to see if someone @ my bot
  var n = str.includes("<@U22QZJNKA>")

  var array = str.split(', ');

  var splicedArray = array.splice(1);
  var lucky;
  var msg


  if (splicedArray.length > 1) {
    lucky = _.sampleSize(splicedArray, 2)
    msg = ':laser_cat: meow meow :thinking_face: ??? ' + lucky[0] + ' & ' + lucky[1] + ' today is your lucky day RUFFF RUFFFF :doge:!! :partyparrot: :beers::dealwithitparrot::hypnotoad: '
    //get rid of the emojis if you don't have them.
  }


  var params = {
    text: msg,
    channel_id: 'G20TSFYAX', //My channel id. You should switch to whatever channel id you want the bot to be in.

  }
  if (n) {
    // This will send the message to the channel identified by id 'G20TSFYAX'
    if (lucky) {
      rtm.sendMessage(params.text, params.channel_id, function messageSent() {
        // optionally, you can supply a callback to execute once the message has been sent
      });
    } else {
      params.text = 'meow meow :thinking_face: ???'
      rtm.sendMessage(params.text, params.channel_id, function messageSent() {
        // optionally, you can supply a callback to execute once the message has been sent
      });
    }

  }

});

Run the bot

nodemon app.js (if you have nodemon installed) or node app.js

The bot will work as long as you have it running it locally or deployed somewhere.

Results