starter-python-bot

Overview

A simple starting point for creating a Beep Boop hostable, Python based Slack bot.

Visit Beep Boop to get the scoop on the the Beep Boop hosting platform. The Slack API documentation can be found here.

Assumptions

• You have already signed up with Beep Boop and have a local fork of this project.
• You have sufficient rights in your Slack team to configure a bot and generate/access a Slack API token.

Usage

Run locally

Install dependencies (virtualenv is recommended.)

pip install -r requirements.txt
export SLACK_TOKEN=<YOUR SLACK TOKEN>; python ./bot/app.py

Things are looking good if the console prints something like:

Connected <your bot name> to <your slack team> team at https://<your slack team>.slack.com.

If you want change the logging level, prepend export LOG_LEVEL=<your level>; to the python ./bot/app.py command.

Run locally in Docker

docker build -t starter-python-bot .
docker run --rm -it -e SLACK_TOKEN=<YOUR SLACK API TOKEN> starter-python-bot

Run in BeepBoop

If you have linked your local repo with the Beep Boop service (check here), changes pushed to the remote master branch will automatically deploy.

First Conversations

When you go through the Add your App to Slack flow, you'll setup a new Bot User and give them a handle (like @python-rtmbot).

Here is an example interaction dialog that works with this bot:

Joe Dev [3:29 PM]
hi @python-rtmbot

Slacks PythonBot BOT [3:29 PM]
Nice to meet you, @randall.barnhart!

Joe Dev [3:30 PM]
help @python-rtmbot

Slacks PythonBot BOT [3:30 PM]
I'm your friendly Slack bot written in Python.  I'll ​*​_respond_​*​ to the following commands:
>`hi @python-rtmbot` - I'll respond with a randomized greeting mentioning your user. :wave:
> `@python-rtmbot joke` - I'll tell you one of my finest jokes, with a typing pause for effect. :laughing:
> `@python-rtmbot attachment` - I'll demo a post with an attachment using the Web API. :paperclip:

Joe Dev [3:31 PM]
@python-rtmbot: joke

Slacks PythonBot BOT [3:31 PM]
Why did the python cross the road?

[3:31]
To eat the chicken on the other side! :laughing:

Code Organization

If you want to add or change an event that the bot responds (e.g. when the bot is mentioned, when the bot joins a channel, when a user types a message, etc.), you can modify the _handle_by_type method in event_handler.py.

If you want to change the responses, then you can modify the messenger.py class, and make the corresponding invocation in event_handler.py.

The slack_clients.py module provides a facade of two different Slack API clients which can be enriched to access data from Slack that is needed by your Bot:

1. slackclient - Realtime Messaging (RTM) API to Slack via a websocket connection.
2. slacker - Web API to Slack via RESTful methods.

The slack_bot.py module implements and interface that is needed to run a multi-team bot using the Beep Boop Resource API client, by implementing an interface that includes start() and stop() methods and a function that spawns new instances of your bot: spawn_bot. It is the main run loop of your bot instance that will listen to a particular Slack team's RTM events, and dispatch them to the event_handler.

License

See the LICENSE file for license rights and limitations (MIT).