Project state

[theveloped]

Hi David! I'm wondering if you can describe the current state of the project. Are there any parts missing or any open issues? Great work on the project by the way! Using slack for it's UI is an amazing idea!

[drbh]

@theveloped the current state of this project is incomplete and bug prone.

All of the code needed to make the proof of concept is contained in this project - however as noted in the README there are some major issues.

I think the project should be redone since the core logic isn’t too complex. Also since some of the node packages have been reported to not work on the newer OSX versions.

I think rewriting the project would be best next steps. However if you just wanna get it to run - I can help you get the correct Slack api keys and packages installed for your OS.

[theveloped]

Hi @drbh, thanks for the update!

I will have a look at the code a bit more thoroughly over the weekend. I was hoping to find an already working/robust project to integrate into one of my weekend projects, but alas.

Anything you would have done differently in hindsight?

[drbh]

@theveloped since my original comment i've thought about this project. Upon some review it might not be in that bad shape.

The major changes are pretty simple. Just rewrite the polling script in something lower lever (with more control).

Document the process to obtaining Slack keys - for the bot and the user.

If I have some free time soon, I think I'm going to revisit this project. Thanks for the feedback.

Can I ask what your weekend project is? Maybe some of my future efforts can be inline with your projects goals.

[theveloped]

Hi @drbh, nice to hear you might revisit the project! Like I said I think it is a great idea. We currently use a service called smallchat that allows one to add live chat to a website while using slack as the interface. It would be great to also have sms/imessage customer support in slack. I think that would be something this project would relly shine at!

[drbh]

@theveloped last night I decided to re-examine message-bridge and start rewriting some parts in Go. Luckily I found a bunch of code from other time's I started this exact process. Anyway - I now have a lot more stable version of message bridge.

I fixed a few bugs - added complete instructions for Slack setup and its a much leaner program on memory. Check it out here: https://github.com/drbh/go-message-bridge

go-message-bridge seems like a great fit for that use case. All you need is a Apple computer logged into iMessage and Slack credntials. Then a website could integrate a Slack chat - that triggers the go-message-bridge client and passes those to Messages. A blue text to browser solution!

If you have some experience with Go, getting https://github.com/drbh/go-message-bridge to work should be simple. Feel free to reach if you have any issues getting it running.

[drbh]

@theveloped update!

I've worked on an end user application that is easy to set up. Check it out here - I'd suggest making a new Slack Workspace and then adding the Slack Application to that Workspace ( for dev reasons ).

Please check out the site and try the application. It's in Beta at the moment so there may be bugs but it should work - either as an OSX app or by running the Golang code.

Check out the site here: http://talklby.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/

[theveloped]

Hi @drbh, I think you really knocked it out of the park with this! Great job!

I was already really happy with the new Go project but in this packaged from this could be a great little product as I think a lot of people would be interested in it.

One of the ideas you could look at is of using one thread (in slack) per conversation (in messages). This is how smallchat does it. The current approach works great too so I think it mainly depends on the target audience you are aiming for.

Finally, support for attachments/images would be great too. I will get back to you once I've been able to lay around with it a bit.