Connect a bot to Slack

APPLIES TO: SDK v3

There are two ways in which you can configure Slack messaging app:

• Use Azure Bot Service portal to connect your bot
• Use the Slack adapter

Create a Slack application for your bot

Log into Slack and then go to create a Slack application channel.

Create an app and assign a Development Slack team

Enter an App Name and select a Development Slack Team. If you are not already a member of a Development Slack Team, create or join one.

Click Create App. Slack will create your app and generate a Client ID and Client Secret.

Add a new Redirect URL

Next you will add a new Redirect URL.

1. Select the OAuth & Permissions tab.
2. Click Add a new Redirect URL.
3. Enter https://slack.botframework.com.
4. Click Add.
5. Click Save URLs.

Create a Slack Bot User

Adding a Bot User allows you to assign a username for your bot and choose whether it is always shown as online.

1. Select the Bot Users tab.
2. Click Add a Bot User.

Click Add Bot User to validate your settings, click Always Show My Bot as Online to On, and then click Save Changes.

Subscribe to Bot Events

Follow these steps to subscribe to six particular bot events. By subscribing to bot events, your app will be notified of user activities at the URL you specify.

1. Select the Event Subscriptions tab.

2. Click Enable Events to On.

3. In Request URL, enter https://slack.botframework.com/api/Events/{YourBotHandle}, where {YourBotHandle} is your bot handle, without the braces. The bot handle used in this example is ContosoBot.

   

4. In Subscribe to Bot Events, click Add Bot User Event.

5. In the list of events, select these six event types:

   • member_joined_channel
   • member_left_channel
   • message.channels
   • message.groups
   • message.im
   • message.mpim

   

6. Click Save Changes.

   

Add and Configure Interactive Messages (optional)

If your bot will use Slack-specific functionality such as buttons, follow these steps:

1. Select the Interactivity & Shortcuts tab and enable Interactivity.
2. Enter https://slack.botframework.com/api/Actions as the Request URL.
3. Click the Save changes button.

Gather credentials

Select the Basic Information tab and scroll to the App Credentials section. The Client ID, Client Secret, and Verification Token required for configuration of your Slack bot are displayed.

Submit credentials

In a separate browser window, return to the Bot Framework site at https://dev.botframework.com/.

1. Select My bots and choose the Bot that you want to connect to Slack.
2. In the Channels section, click the Slack icon.
3. In the Enter your Slack credentials section, paste the App Credentials from the Slack website into the appropriate fields.
4. The Landing Page URL is optional. You may omit or change it.
5. Click Save.

Follow the instructions to authorize your Slack app's access to your Development Slack Team.

Enable the bot

On the Configure Slack page, confirm the slider by the Save button is set to Enabled. Your bot is configured to communicate with users in Slack.

Create an Add to Slack button

Slack provides HTML you can use to help Slack users find your bot in the Add the Slack button section of this page. To use this HTML with your bot, replace the href value (begins with https://) with the URL found in your bot's Slack channel settings. Follow these steps to get the replacement URL.

1. On https://dev.botframework.com/bots, click your bot.
2. Click Channels, right-click the entry named Slack, and click Copy link. This URL is now in your clipboard.
3. Paste this URL from your clipboard into the HTML provided for the Slack button. This URL replaces the href value provided by Slack for this bot.

Authorized users can click the Add to Slack button provided by this modified HTML to reach your bot on Slack.