Trigger an automation using the HTTP Webhook connector when a message is posted to Slack

About

Summary: Trigger an automation using the HTTP Webhook connector when a message is posted to Slack channel.

Applications: Slack, HTTP Webhook

Description

The HTTP Webhook connector allows RPA developers to trigger automations based on external events using webhooks. The HTTP Webhook connector generates a Webhook URL. This must be configured in the private Slack OAuth app settings and the respective event type must be enabled. The events are then instantaneously received by Orchestrator via this URL.

Use case

Managing customer support requests raised in a Slack help channel. The request must either create a Jira or Zendesk ticket or send a Slack notification to a team or user group using a Slack button.

This user guide walks you through the first workflow of this use case: triggering automations using the Webhook connector when a message is posted to Slack channel. For the second workflow, i.e., triggering automations based on the Slack Button Clicked event, see Use Slack Buttons when an opportunity is won in the CRM system.

This workflow uses the HTTP Webhook connector and its Webhook Event Happened trigger, Deserialize JSON, along with some Slack activities: Send Message to User and Get Channel Info. You can also use the Send Message to Channel or Send Reply activities.

Workflow

Note: If you want to save time, use the Trigger an automation using Webhook connector when a message is posted to Slack channel template in Studio Web to build this workflow.

1. Open Studio Web and create a new project.
2. Select the More options menu on the Manual trigger and select Change trigger.
3. From the trigger catalog, select HTTP Webhook: Webhook Event Happened. In this trigger activity:
   1. Add your Slack connection. The HTTP Webhook connector then generates a Webhook URL, which you will need in step 4.
      
      

      

      
      
   2. Add any additional filters, if needed. We recommend you use a filter for Channel ID, at least. Otherwise, any message in any channel of your workspace will trigger the event.
      • To add a filter on channel ID, select the Data filters field to access the Filter builder. In the first column, type body.event.channel, select the Equals operator, and add the channel ID in the third column.
        
   3. You can also rename the trigger activity to something more representative of your use case.
4. Copy the webhook URL generated in step 1.
   1. In a different browser tab, go to https://api.slack.com/apps and open your Slack private OAuth application.
   2. Navigate to the Event Subscriptions settings page.

      1. Set the Enable Events toggle to On.

      2. In the Request URL field, paste the webhook URL.
         
         

         

         
         
   3. Next, scroll down to Subscribe to events on behalf of users and select Add workspace event. Add the message.channels event. This retrieves events when a message is posted by a user on the channel. You can add any other events of your choice.
      
      

      

      
      
   4. Select Save Changes. Webhooks are now configured for your app.
   Note: The output of the Webhook connector (after the Webhook URL is configured for Slack) is in a specific JSON string format (a sample is provided in the section below). It must be converted to JSON object to use the event payload fields, such as channel ID, user ID, message text etc. in subsequent activities (with the help of JSON dot notation/VB expression). The Slack event payload can also be retrieved from https://api.slack.com/types/event. To avoid any errors, retrieve/log the event payload string using Log message before using JSON dot notation/VB expression.
5. Add a Deserialize JSON activity to your workflow. This step converts the JSON string output of the Webhook connector to JSON object.
   1. Select the JSON string input parameter to add a variable.
   2. Under Webhook Event Happened, navigate to Body > Content.
      
6. Add the Slack Get Channel Info activity to your workflow. At this step, you need to pass the output fields of the Deserialize JSON activity using JSON dot notation/VB expression to retrieve channel name. In the activity:
   1. For the Channel field, select See more icon to change input type and select Open expression editor. Use the entry below to pass the channel ID retrieved in the Webhook event.

      jSONObject("event")("channel").ToString

7. Add the Slack Send Message to User activity to your workflow. Now you want to send a message to a user (yourself) when a message is posted in a particular channel (a help channel) and enter the posted message and channel name using variables. In this activity:
   1. In the User input field, select the user from the drop-down list or manually type the user email address.
   2. In the Message field, type a message by entering the channel name (where the message was posted) and the message text content, using variables. For example: "There is a customer support request in channel <name>: jSONObject("event")("text")"
      • where <name> is retrieved from the output of Get Channel Info.
   3. In the Buttons actions fields, enter two button actions for Approve Ticket and Notify Team. Add the action ID (required), action name (required), style (primary/danger), confirmation title, confirmation text, confirm ok title, confirm deny title, in a comma-separated format:

      aks1,Approve Ticket,primary;
      aks2,Notify Team;

8. You are now ready to publish or run the project. Select the Publish button at the top of the workflow and enter the details such as Automation name, Description, and Workspace. The Version is updated automatically.
   

Sample JSON string

{
 "token": "SUAVTSGdUyb2qBaclIC14wKq",
 "team_id": "T02KZCJHY1W",
 "enterprise_id": "E02K962QC91",
 "context_team_id": "T02KZCJHY1W",
 "context_enterprise_id": "E02K962QC91",
 "api_app_id": "A04JJM6SUFM",
 "event": {
   "client_msg_id": "4abfc195-c381-4c8e-b952-00aa705ce507",
   "type": "message",
   "text": "YoYo",
   "user": "U02K95UU71Q",
   "ts": "1705418063.837779",
   "blocks": [
     {
       "type": "rich_text",
       "block_id": "moF7O",
       "elements": [
         {
           "type": "rich_text_section",
           "elements": [
             {
               "type": "text",
               "text": "YoYo"
             }
           ]
         }
       ]
     }
   ],
   "team": "T02KZCJHY1W",
   "channel": "C05LTLGRHEJ",
   "event_ts": "1705418063.837779",
   "channel_type": "channel"
 },
 "type": "event_callback",
 "event_id": "Ev06E0PJ7M45",
 "event_time": 1705418063,
 "authorizations": [
   {
     "enterprise_id": "E02K962QC91",
     "team_id": "T02KZCJHY1W",
     "user_id": "U02K95UU71Q",
     "is_bot": false,
     "is_enterprise_install": false
   }
 ],
 "is_ext_shared_channel": false,
 "event_context": "4-eyJldCI6Im1lc3NhZ2UiLCJ0aWQiOiJUMDJLWkNKSFkxVyIsImFpZCI6IkEwNEpKTTZTVUZNIiwiY2lkIjoiQzA1TFRMR1JIRUoifQ"
}