Formating messages

[marcuslindblom]

How can I format messages from my hubot scripts? This message: msg.send "Foo <@U123> bar <http://slack.com>" generates Foo @U123 bar <http://slack.com> when my hubot prints it to a channel? Are there any script example using more advanced formatting?

[errodr]

Take a look at attachments: https://api.slack.com/docs/attachments

[marcuslindblom]

@errodr Ok, but in my coffee script, how do I compose a message after msg.send?

module.exports = (robot) ->

  robot.respond /team (.*)$/i, (msg)->
    team = msg.match[1]
    query msg, "http://api.xxx.xx/#{team}"

  query = (msg, url) ->
    msg.http(url)
    .get() (err, res, body) ->
      data = JSON.parse(body)
      if err
        msg.send "Fail! Something went wrong. Couldn't start the build for some reason"
      else
        if data
          msg.send ""
        else
          msg.send "Fail..."

[errodr]

Here is an example of what I used to send the attachment:

  sendMessage = (results, msg) ->
    robot.emit 'slack-attachment',
      message:
        room: msg.message.room
      content: results

You can see that a slack-attachment is emitted. The content (results) of that message is of the form:

{
  "fallback": "New ticket from Andrea Lee - Ticket #1943: Can't rest my password - https://groove.hq/path/to/ticket/1943",
  "pretext": "New ticket from Andrea Lee",
  "title": "Ticket #1943: Can't reset my password",
  "title_link": "https://groove.hq/path/to/ticket/1943",
  "text": "Help! I tried to reset my password but nothing happened!",
  "color": "#7CD197"
}

[marcuslindblom]

@errodr emit does not send anything to slack. How can I use msg.send and format the message?

[yusufhm]

@marcuslindblom were you able to find a solution for this?

[marcuslindblom]

@yusufhm no, sorry, and I couldn't find any working example.

[yusufhm]

@marcuslindblom I've been able to do it using the customMessage() method from the adapter (lines 254-281 in https://github.com/slackhq/hubot-slack/blob/master/src/slack.coffee). Here's how I used it:

# create the message with attachment object
msgData = {
  channel: res.message.room
  text: "Latest changes"
  attachments: [
    {
      fallback: "Comparing #{latestRelease.name}...#{latestRelease.target_commitish} - #{compare.html_url}",
      title: "Comparing #{latestRelease.name}...#{latestRelease.target_commitish}"
      title_link: compare.html_url
      text: commits_summary
      mrkdwn_in: ["text"]
    }
  ]
}

# post the message
robot.adapter.customMessage msgData

Look at both the method code and the Attachment documentation somebody posted earlier and you should be able to do what you want.

[technicalpickles]

This is a duplicate of https://github.com/slackhq/hubot-slack/issues/43 . I just posted a work around there, but basically it's like @yusufhm posted, you can send a customMessage to do it.

[DEGoodmanWilson]

This is being resolved in v4. Closing for the time being.

[CatTail]

@DEGoodmanWilson When v4 will be released?

[sutyrin]

@CatTail v4 is out! @DEGoodmanWilson How do we send attachments in v4? Cannot find example easily. Thanks!

[DEGoodmanWilson]

@spacediver It is easy: Just add fields to your message object, per the docs: https://api.slack.com/docs/message-attachments

[sutyrin]

@DEGoodmanWilson Should I do msg.send or robot.emit? I cannot google up useful (and v3-friendly) examples. If i do

            msg.send({
                attachments: [{
                    title: 'title',
                    fallback: 'title',
                    title_link: 'http://example.com',
                }],
                username: process.env.HUBOT_SLACK_BOTNAME,
            });

It ends up displayed in rich, but just like if as_user was set to false. Adding as_user: true into object does not help. Calls like msg.send('plain text'); displayed correctly (as if as_user=true, with icon and bot user link).

How to do that right?

Thanks.

[DEGoodmanWilson]

Where are you adding as_user into the object? Just to verify?

[sutyrin]

like this:

msg.send({
    attachments: [{
        title: 'a title',
        fallback: 'a fallback'
        title_link: 'http://example.com',
    }],
    username: process.env.HUBOT_SLACK_BOTNAME,
    as_user: true,
});

(sibling to attachments, parallel to documentation).

[DEGoodmanWilson]

OK, that's a bug! Just wanted to verify. Let's take this to a new issue?

[sutyrin]

Sure, thanks! Should be tested on xoxb- bot token.

[p00j4]

I'm trying to pass attachment using chat api like this:

attachment = {
       attachments: [{
        title: 'a title'
        fallback: 'a fallback'
        title_link: 'http://example.com'
       }]
     }
robot.adapter.client.web.chat.postMessage(msg.message.room, {attachment}, {as_user: true, unfurl_links: false})

Tried this too:

attachment2 = {attachments:[
         text: "Message content"
         title: "message title"
         image_url: "https://www.snipstock.com/assets/cdn/png/new/b50c79a7995782cedc741493b3c13e6b.png"
      ]}
robot.send attachment2

But it fails with invalid_array_arg

nhandled rejection SlackAPIError: invalid_array_arg
  at makeAPICallPromiseResolverInner (/home/ubuntu/pooja/scripts/myhubot/node_modules/@slack/client/lib/clients/client.js:156:22)
  at handleHttpResponse (/home/ubuntu/pooja/scripts/myhubot/node_modules/@slack/client/lib/clients/transports/call-transport.js:105:5)
  at handleTransportResponse (/home/ubuntu/pooja/scripts/myhubot/node_modules/@slack/client/lib/clients/transports/call-transport.js:142:19)
  at apply (/home/ubuntu/pooja/scripts/myhubot/node_modules/@slack/client/node_modules/lodash/lodash.js:483:17)
  at wrapper (/home/ubuntu/pooja/scripts/myhubot/node_modules/@slack/client/node_modules/lodash/lodash.js:5293:16)
  at Request.handleRequestTranportRes (/home/ubuntu/pooja/scripts/myhubot/node_modules/@slack/client/lib/clients/transports/request.js:20:5)
  at apply (/home/ubuntu/pooja/scripts/myhubot/node_modules/@slack/client/node_modules/lodash/lodash.js:483:17)
  at Request.wrapper [as _callback] (/home/ubuntu/pooja/scripts/myhubot/node_modules/@slack/client/node_modules/lodash/lodash.js:5293:16)
  at Request.self.callback (/home/ubuntu/pooja/scripts/myhubot/node_modules/request/request.js:187:22)
  at emitTwo (events.js:106:13)
  at Request.emit (events.js:191:7)
  at Request.<anonymous> (/home/ubuntu/pooja/scripts/myhubot/node_modules/request/request.js:1048:10)
  at emitOne (events.js:96:13)
  at Request.emit (events.js:188:7)

Am I missing something in syntax?

[aoberoi]

@p00j4 that method takes the following arguments: channel_id, text, options. so your code should look something like this:

robot.adapter.client.web.chat.postMessage(msg.message.room, "message content", {
  as_user: true,
  unfurl_links: false,
  attachments: [
    {
      title: 'a title',
      fallback: 'a fallback',
      title_link: 'http://example.com'
    }
  ]
})

[p00j4]

ah! thanks @aoberoi the bug was with me sending "as_user" etc in different argument. Thanks much for the quick help 👍

[UtpalDas6]

as_user=true is not sending DM as user its still sending as bot. Please help.