Python Slack Clients

This library implements Slack client classes in Python, to simplify the programmatic use of Slack.

The original necessity covered here was a way to let a recurrent script update people on slack about findings and pending actions, without sending a very long slack message every time.

SlackClient

The base class used for the others. Params for initialization are:

• token: Slack API token with permissions to access the workspace.
• logger (optional): logging.Logger object for logging messages.

SlackCanvasClient

A client for interacting with Slack Canvas. Params for initialization are:

• token: Slack API token with permissions to access the canvas.
• canvas_id: The ID of the Slack canvas to interact with.
• logger (optional): logging.Logger object for logging messages.

SlackListClient

A client for interacting with Slack lists that supports adding, removing, and (un)completing items. Params for initialization are:

• token: Slack API token with permissions to access the list.
• logger (optional): logging.Logger object for logging messages.
• list_id: The ID of the Slack list to interact with.
• webhook_add: The URL for the webhook to add items to the list.
• webhook_delete: The URL for the webhook to delete items from the list.
• webhook_complete (optional): The URL for the webhook to check or un-check the "completed" checkbox on items in the list.

The webhooks should correspond to existing workflows in Slack that handle adding and deleting items from the list::

workflow for webhook_add:

• start the workflow with a webhook (webhook_add is the URL for this)
  • takes the "name" parameter
• action: add an item to the list, with Name = name (other fields empty)

workflow for webhook_delete:

• start the workflow with a webhook (webhook_delete is the URL for this)
  • takes the "name" parameter
• action: select a list item by Name = name
• action: delete a list item, selected by the previous step

workflow for webhook_complete:

• start the workflow with a webhook (webhook_complete is the URL for this)
  • takes the "name" parameter
  • takes the "completed" parameter (should be "Yes" or "No")
• action: select a list item by Name = name
• action: update a list item, selected by the previous step, setting "Completed" to completed

Webhook URLs are obtained by editing the "Start the workflow..." step, and have a format like this: (X are alphanumeric characters, 0 are digits, and H are hexadecimal characters)

https://hooks.slack.com/triggers/XXXXXXXXX/0000000000000/HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Other functionality not implemented

Lists in slack also allow assignment to a person and setting a due date, but limitations in what slack workflows allow a proper interface could not be implemented in SlackListClient.

A client for working with CSV files was also attempted but was deemed impractical due to how files work in slack - we can't replace a file, we can just delete and recreate it, so even if the functionality could concievably be coded it would not be properly ergonomic in slack itself.