Setup

Introduction

To enable the Slack activities, you must enter authentication details in the Slack Scope activity. These authentication details give a Robot the ability to take action on your behalf and access your permitted data.

To generate and grant the authentication details, and and start building your automation project, complete the following steps:

1. Create a new Slack App (no coding required)
2. Add app permissions
3. Install your app to your workspace
4. Build your project

After creating your app, Slack assigns it a unique Client ID, Client Secret (i.e. app credentials), and an OAuth Access Token (for unattended automation) that you'll enter in the Slack Scope activity's authentication properties.

Steps

Before using the Slack activities, follow the steps below to generate or collect the required input data for the Slack Scope activity.

1. Create a Slack app

To use the Slack activities, you can create a simple Single-workspace app. The steps and example below assumes that you have, and are a member of, an existing workspace.

1. Sign in to your Slack workspace or have the Slack desktop application open.

   • If you sign in using the URL above, you'll need your workspace Slack URL.

2. Go to Your Apps and click the Create New App button.

   
   

   

   
   

3. Enter your App Name, select the Development Slack Workspace and click the Create App button.

   
   

   

   
   

After you create your app, you're taken to the Basic Information page. This is where you can find the Client ID and Client Secret that you'll need for attended automation authentication in the Slack Scope activity.

Before you copy and paste these into your activity, you should configure the OAuth & Permissions features by following the steps in the next section.

Note:

While you technically can, it's not recommended because you would need to share your Client Secret with them.

If you're interested in sharing your app with team members, you can use the unattended automation mode because it relies on a shareable OAuth Access Token.

2. Add app permissions

Adding permissions to your app is done using scopes. Scopes define the API methods this app can call and the information it can access in the workspace it’s installed on. Many scopes are restricted to specific resources like channels or files.

Note:

Adding scopes directly to your app is not required if you plan to run attended automation only. If you run attended automation, you select your scopes using the Scopes property in the Slack Scope activity.

Because setting scopes in your app enables both unattended and attended automation, we recommend completing the steps below before you start using the activity package; this allows you to freely switch between the modes.

1. In the left-hand navigation, click the OAuth & Permissions.

2. In the Redirect URLs section, click the Add New Redirect URL button and enter your URL.

   • If you don't know the URL you should enter, you can leave it empty for now.

   • When you try connecting to your app with the Slack Scope activity for the first time (using attended automation) the activity opens a new web page that displays an OAuth Error. This error includes the redirect URL (i.e., Passed URI) that your workspace is using. You can copy this URL and enter it as your Redirect URL .

     
     

     

     
     

3. In the Scopes section, add the permission scopes that you want to assign to your app and click the Save Changes button (see the complete list of the Scopes to add in the next section).

   
   

   

   
   

Scopes to add

The following are the scopes required for the different Slack activities. Also included in the table is each scope's mapping to to the Scopes property values from the Slack Scope activity.

Scope	Activity	Scopes property
channels:write Modify your public channels	Create Channel Invite to Channel Join Channel Leave Channel Remove from Channel Send Message	PublicChannels
groups:write Modify your private channels	Invite to Channel Leave Channel Remove from Channel Send Message	PrivateChannels
im:write Modify user’s direct messages	Invite to Channel Leave Channel Remove from Channel Send Message	DirectMessages
mpim:write Make changes user’s group messages	Invite to Channel Leave Channel Remove from Channel Send Message	GroupMessages
files:write:user Upload and modify files as user	Send Message	Files
files:read Access the workspace’s files, comments, and associated information	Download File Send Message	Files
channels:read Access information about user’s public channel	Get Messages	PublicChannels
groups:read Access information about user’s private channels	Get Messages	PrivateChannels
im:read Access information about user’s direct messages	Get Messages	DirectMessages
mpim:read Access information about user’s group messages	Get Messages	GroupMessages
channels:history Access user’s public channels	Get Replies	PublicChannels
groups:history Access content in user’s private channels	Get Replies	PrivateChannels
im:history Access content in user’s direct messages	Get Replies	DirectMessages
mpim:history Access user’s group messages	Get Replies	GroupMessages
chat:write:user Send messages as user	Reply Send Message	Chat
search:read Search your workspace’s content	Search	(included with DirectMessages and/or GroupMessages)
users.profile:write Modify user’s profile	Update Status	Users
users:read.email View the workspace members' email addresses	Invite to Channel Remove from Channel	Users
users:read View the workspace's list of members and their contact information	Invite to Channel Remove from Channel	Users

After selecting your scopes, you're ready to install your app to your workspace by following the steps in the next section.

3. Install your app to your workspace

Depending on how your workspace is administered, you may need to request to install the app.

1. In the OAuth Tokens & Redirects URLs section, click the Install App to Workspace button or Request to Install button.

   
   

   

   
   

2. After the app is installed, an OAuth Access Token is generated.

   • Similar to the Client ID and Client Secret, the OAuth Access Token is used for authentication purposes. The differences between the two become applicable when run your automation project.

     • If running attended automation, the Slack Scope activity needs values in the Client ID, Client Secret, Scopes properites.

     • If running unattended automation, the Slack Scope activity only needs a value in the OAuth Access Token property.

       
       

       

       
       

4. Build your project

1. Create a new automation project.

   1. Open UiPath Studio.
   2. Under New Project, click Process (this opens a New Blank Process window).
   3. Enter a project Name, Location, and Description.

   4. Click Create.

      
      

      

      
      

2. Install the UiPath.Slack.Activities package.

   1. In the Design ribbon, click Manage Packages (this opens the Manage Packages window).
   2. Under All Packages, click Go!
   3. In the Search bar, enter Slack.

   4. Click, install, and accept the license for the UiPath.Slack.Activities.

      • For more information about Uipath Studio packages, see Managing Packages in the Studio Guide.

        
        

        

        
        

You're done!

Now that you have completed the setup, you can start adding the Slack activities to your project.

Next steps

For a hands-on learning experience and to quickly start using the activities, see the Quickstart guides. These guides provide step-by-step instructions to help you create working samples of the different activities so that you can verify the connection to your Slack workspace and get familiar with the input/output properties.

To learn more about the Slack activities (including example property inputs/outputs), see the Activities page for a complete activity list and links to the activity detail pages.