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The first bot plugin I want to create is based on [!m](http://motivate.im/) from numerous IRC channels. This is a great, simple way to help keep people motivated in your channels.
So the way that Slack's RTM
bot project works
0:00
is that all of your Slack bots plugins
live in this plugins directory.
0:04
Now they can be a single file or
they can be a directory of files.
0:08
If you find that you need
more than one file for
0:12
a plugin you definitely want
to use a directory, and
0:14
then put stuff wherever it makes
sense in individual modules.
0:16
If everything's compact and
simple, then one file is fine.
0:20
I'm gonna be using directories for
both of these plugins,
0:23
even though they're really simple and
could be done with single files.
0:26
I like the directories,
just because things might grow.
0:29
So the first thing I'm gonna do here
is I'm gonna make a new folder.
0:33
The first one I'm gonna do
is the motivation plugin.
0:36
So I'm gonna make a folder
in here called motivation.
0:39
And then inside of this
motivation directory,
0:42
I'm gonna make a file inside
there that's named motivation.py.
0:46
Okay, so now I have this file and
it's blank.
0:52
And the kinda cool thing,
is that the Slackbot doesn't really have
0:55
a whole lot of requirements for
how these plugins are created.
1:00
You can do a lot of just
kind of however you want.
1:04
But there are two special important
variables that you'll find yourself
1:07
using a lot.
1:11
So the first one is outputs,
which is an empty list, and
1:12
the next one is crontable,
which is also an empty list.
1:16
Now the outputs variable lets you send
output to different channels and users,
1:20
which are one and the same thing in Slack.
1:25
The crontable controls timed operations,
like if you were doing a plugin to
1:27
remind users about something after
a certain time, or you wanted to send out
1:32
an update every day at noon saying
hey everybody, go get lunch.
1:36
I can delete the crontable one,
1:41
because I'm not gonna be
doing any crontable stuff.
1:42
I'm going to leave it though, just
because it's good to have as a reminder.
1:45
Maybe I find myself
wanting to use it later.
1:50
The only other thing that is definitely
1:52
required by the slack bot is the functions
that are used to handle different events.
1:56
So they all start with the word process,
so def process.
2:01
And then after that is whatever
event you want to handle.
2:07
So for both the plugins that I'm gonna be
building, I wanna trigger things based on
2:10
message events, so when someone
types a message into a channel.
2:14
So I'm going to name
these process_message,
2:18
because we're processing messages and
they always take a variable named data.
2:20
It doesn't have to be named data, but
I have a single variable which represents
2:25
all the data from
the event that's coming in.
2:29
Now inside of here I can
do whatever I need to do.
2:31
So let's see,
to start I'm just gonna look for
2:35
messages that start with
an exclamation mark and an M, or !m.
2:38
So if data ("text"), which is the key
that contains the text of the message
2:42
.lower().startswith("!m"), then
I need to do something.
2:48
Now I wanna make some sort of output for
the plugin, and to do that,
2:54
I have to append something
to the outputs list.
2:59
Each item in the outputs list
is itself a list with two items.
3:02
The first item is the channel
to send the output to.
3:07
This can be a public channel,
a private channel, a user's DM,
3:09
a group DM, whatever.
3:13
Anywhere that the bot is present,
the bot has to be there.
3:14
So if you're talking to the bot,
then the bot 's there.
3:18
If the bot 's in your channel, which right
now you can see there's only one member,
3:23
then the bot 's there.
3:26
So we'll have to invite the bot into the
channel before we can actually use the bot
3:28
in the channel.
3:31
And the second thing you send back is
the text you wanna send to the channel.
3:33
So I'll do outputs.append, and
then the first thing I want to append,
3:37
which let's see,
let's make this a list here.
3:41
And like that and okay.
3:47
So the first thing I need to
send is the data ["channel"].
3:51
So this is the channel that
the message came in on.
3:54
I'm just gonna send it
right back to that channel.
3:57
And I'm gonna send "Great job!".
4:00
Okay, so pretty simple.
4:04
So we'll start the bot.
4:06
And then like I said,
the bot's online, but
4:12
I need to invite the bot to the channel.
4:14
So I'll do /invite@frog_bot, And
now frog_bot's in the channel.
4:17
Okay, so now if I send a message,
hey froggy,
4:24
then nothing shows up anywhere.
4:29
But if I do !m froggy,
then frog_bot comes back with great job.
4:33
So great, I have the bot
working super basic how I want.
4:39
Now I want this plugin to be
more sophisticated though, so
4:45
I need to add some more
functionality to it.
4:49
So the first thing that I wanna do, is I
wanna have a bit better of a trigger for
4:52
messages that are appropriate for
the bot to respond to.
4:55
As part of that,
I think I can catch whether or
4:59
not an individual person was
mentioned in the message.
5:00
So to do that,
I'm gonna import the RE library.
5:04
No, not review, what are you doing, Adam?
5:09
[LAUGH] And then I'm gonna make
a new variable here that I'll call
5:13
trigger_message, which
those are just a way for
5:17
me to know whether or
not the message triggered the bot.
5:20
So I'll do re.compile,
and then if the beginning
5:24
of the string is !m,
maybe a space maybe not.
5:29
And then @, And then a username,
5:33
And then whenever you're
looking at usernames in Slack,
5:42
the actual message always ends up with
the username being inside of less than and
5:46
greater than symbols,
kind of like HTML tags.
5:52
So if there's that, then,
And that can be re.I.
5:55
There we go, make this a little wider.
6:02
Okay, so it starts with !m.
6:07
It may or may not have a space, and it may
or may not have a user name inside of it.
6:09
Okay, so that's cool.
6:15
So if that happens,
then I want to do the message.
6:17
So I'm gonna do a new thing here.
6:20
I'm gonna do catch =
trigger_message,match(data'[text']),
6:22
and if catch.
6:32
So if something got caught, then
username = catch.groupdict and ['user'].
6:34
Now the groupdict is always gonna
have a user in it, no matter what.
6:42
But there may or may not be something
inside of there, maybe none.
6:46
So if username is not None:, so
6:50
if there is a username,
then user = _lookup_user.
6:53
Which I'm gonna have to write in
the minute with the username that came in.
6:58
And I want the message to be, That
7:02
.format (user['user'] and [name].
7:07
So this _lookup_user method that
I'm going to write in a minute, or
7:13
function I'm gonna write in a minute, will
go and look up the user in Slack's API and
7:17
send us back their user object,
which has a user field.
7:22
And inside of that user field,
there's a name field.
7:25
If I don't have a user name,
then text is going to be = data['text'],
7:28
whatever came out there, and
then everything that's past that, right?
7:34
So I've got the exclamation mark as 0,
I've got the m as 1,
7:40
I have a space as 2, so
I want from 3 on, right?
7:47
And then the message is going to
be text if there's anything there,
7:52
or random.choice from (group_pronouns).
7:57
All right, and then outputs.append.
8:03
This is the same idea as before,
data["channel"], and
8:07
then I'm gonna add a little
bit of emoji to this.
8:11
So, I'm going to add in a ":tada:, and
then that, an !, and another :tada:".
8:14
And then let's format this with
random.choice(congratulations),
8:23
which is another list I'm gonna
have to create in a minute.
8:27
And the message that was generated by
our stuff, by this one or this one.
8:31
Okay, so let's go back over this and
then I'll add in the methods and
8:39
stuff that we need.
8:43
So we have a regex that catches !m and
8:44
then an optional space and
an optional username.
8:48
And then we have the,
(data['text'], all right?
8:52
There has to be some text there.
8:58
And we try to catch it, we catch to
see if the thing gets triggered.
9:00
If it does, then we check to
see if there's a username.
9:04
If there's a username then we're
gonna look up that user and
9:07
use their name in the message.
9:10
If there's not, then we're gonna grab
whatever comes out after the !m.
9:11
And then we're gonna send either that
back if there's something there, or
9:19
we're going to send back
a random group pronoun.
9:22
So great work everyone kind of thing, and
9:24
then we're gonna pin that to
the channel with a little bit of emoji.
9:27
Okay, so what about this _lookup_user and
these other two things?
9:33
Well, first of all,
I'm using random in here twice,
9:37
so let's go ahead and import random.
9:40
And then I want to create
a couple of new lists.
9:44
And the first of these is gonna
be the congratulations list,
9:50
which I always had to think
about how to spell that.
9:53
So I'm just gonna add
in a few things here.
9:55
I'll do "Great job",
"Amazing", "You rock",
9:57
"OMG", and "You're awesome".
10:04
And maybe one more,
let's just do "Great work".
10:09
Okay, and look, I talked about I had
to think about it every time, and
10:13
then I misspelled it still,
crongratulations, congratulations.
10:17
Okay, and then the other one I
need to do is the group_pronouns.
10:21
And in here I'll just do good words for
everyone as a group,
10:28
because I'm congratulating
the whole room at that point.
10:32
"everyone", "everybody",
10:36
"y'all" one of my favorites, "mortals",
10:40
"peeps", "folks", and how about "minions"?
10:44
Some of those are a little
tongue-in-cheek, I guess.
10:49
All right, so those are good.
10:52
Now though, I need to create this
_lookup_user method or function.
10:55
So lookup_user is gonna take a (user):,
and it's gonna return
11:01
slack_client.api_call, which uses
the Slack client to make an API call.
11:05
And then, you specify the endpoint,
which is gonna be "users.info".
11:11
And then, you specify any arguments
that you want to send through.
11:15
And the user is gonna be the user
that comes through there.
11:18
Now to use this,
I need to import slack_client, and that is
11:21
from client import slack_client.
11:26
So this is a little library you
can see right here client.py.
11:31
That's the one that will
connect to Slack and
11:35
give you a client out to the user,
or out to the API.
11:38
Okay, so more complicated plugin, but
11:44
nothing really weird here,
all fairly simple stuff.
11:47
So, let's restart the bot, And
11:52
so now,
I should be able to do !m with my name,
11:58
nd the frog_bot should respond with
Great job@kennethlove, all right.
12:01
One thing to notice is this
doesn't highlight my name.
12:07
I don't believe bot users are allowed to
mention people, so it'll have their name.
12:10
If they have highlight set up or whatever,
it should highlight because of that but,
12:15
it's not gonna ping them if they're,
for instance, away.
12:19
And let's see, if I just put in !m
Kenneth then I get You rock Kenneth.
12:24
And if I just do !m I get You rock peeps!,
so that's the message for the whole group.
12:29
So that's awesome,
got the whole thing working.
12:35
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