slacktion

Build a slash command for Slack without the boilerplate.

Example

const Command = require('slacktion').Command;
 
let repeater = Command(DATA_POSTED_BY_SLACK, VALIDATION_TOKEN);
 
repeater.action(/reverse (.*)/, 'reverse [text]: Repeats back the text in reverse',
    (data, matches, callback) => {
      callback({
        response_type: 'ephemeral',
        text: matches[1].split('').reverse().join('')
      });
    }
  )
  .action(/.*/, '[text]: Repeats back the text',
    (data, matches, callback) => {
      callback({
        response_type: 'ephemeral',
        text: data.text
      });
    }
  )
  .execute((err, result) => {});

Installation

$ npm install slacktion

Features

• validate token
• define multiple actions with regular expressions
• automatically build a help action that explains the command's usage

Usage

Create a command

Instantiate your command by passing it the data Slack posted to your URL and the validation token you received from Slack when creating the command.

const Command = require('slacktion').Command;
let repeater = Command(DATA_POSTED_BY_SLACK, VALIDATION_TOKEN);

action(pattern, description, handler)

A simple command might have just one action:

repeater.action(/.*/, '[text]: Repeats back the text',
  (data, matches, callback) => {
    callback(null, {
      response_type: 'ephemeral',
      text: data.text
    });
  }
);

The pattern should be a regular expression that will be executed against the text a user enters. You can use capture groups to parse the text and those matches will be sent to your handler.

The description is a string that will be used to automatically build a help action. For example, the action above would respond with the following when a user types "/repeat help":

• /repeat [text]: Repeats back the text in reverse

The handler should look like (data, matches, callback) => {}. The data object includes all the data posted to your URL from Slack. The matches array includes the results of executing the pattern against the text sent from Slack (i.e., everything that the user typed after the command). The callback follows Node's standard (err, result) => {} style.

Multiple actions

A more complex command can define multiple actions, each with their own regular expression to match against whatever the user typed.

repeater.action(/reverse (.*)/, 'reverse [text]: Repeats back the text in reverse',
    (data, matches, callback) => {
      callback({
        response_type: 'ephemeral',
        text: matches[1].split('').reverse().join('')
      });
    }
  )
  .action(/.*/, '[text]: Repeats back the text',
    (data, matches, callback) => {
      callback({
        response_type: 'ephemeral',
        text: data.text
      });
    }
  )

execute(callback)

Execute the command, which will find the first action with a pattern that matches the text received from Slack run that action's handler.

repeater.execute((err, result) => {
  // handle err or result
});

If no matching action is found, the error will be null and the result will be a simple message explaining that the text could not be matched to an action.

Options

When creating your command, you can force it to respond to the URL Slack provides for delayed responses instead of the original request.

let cmd = Command(DATA_POSTED_BY_SLACK, VALIDATION_TOKEN, {
  force_delay: true
});

This can be useful if you want to respond in a channel without showing the original command and without setting up an incoming webhook. You can immediately acknowledge the response and customize that message with the delay_response option.

let cmd = Command(DATA_POSTED_BY_SLACK, VALIDATION_TOKEN, {
  force_delay: true,
  delay_response: {
    response_type: 'ephemeral',
    text: '10-4, good buddy'
  }
});