SUSI Slack Bot

Checking and removing SUSI Username Mentions in SUSI Slackbot

The SUSI Slackbot is a custom integration bot in slack. It responds to the user’s queries in the slack channels. It makes use of Slack Real Time Messaging APIs. In the background, it takes result from SUSI Server and also have some more added features. When the user mentions susi bot in the slack channels (eg. @asksusi), we know that the message is intended for susi. So now we need to remove the susi mention part, extract the rest of the message and send it to susi server. This blog explains how the messages are received from slack real time messaging API and how to remove the SUSI username mention. Storing the bot’s self id Before we can detect the susi username mention, we need to actually know the self id of the bot, which is a unique id assigned by the slack to the bot. Later, we use this id to detect the mention of susi. var Slack = require('@slack/client'); var RtmClient = Slack.RtmClient; var RTM_EVENTS = Slack.RTM_EVENTS; var appData={}; rtm.on(CLIENT_EVENTS.RTM.AUTHENTICATED, (connectData) => { // Cache the data necessary for this app in memory appData.selfId = connectData.self.id; }); Receiving message and processing it We will be receiving message from RTM API. The code for receiving the message is: var Slack = require('@slack/client'); var RtmClient = Slack.RtmClient; var RTM_EVENTS = Slack.RTM_EVENTS; rtm.on(RTM_EVENTS.MESSAGE, function(message) { var channel = message.channel; var text=message.text; //send reply only when mentioned or in direct message if(text && message.user!==appData.selfId && (text.indexOf(appData.selfId)!==-1 || channel.startsWith('D'))){ var susiMention='<@'+appData.selfId+'>'; text=text.replace(susiMention,''); The function passed as a callback executes only when we receive a new message. This message could be either a DM (Direct Message) or in a channel. We need to reply when the message mentions susi username or it is a DM. In the above code, we are checking if the message received is not from the bot itself, and is either from a DM or mentions susi username. Here is a breakdown of the message object we receive in the function: { type: 'message', channel: 'C9CLRN4M7', user: 'U9D7JU15Y', text: '<@U9H78R274> hello!', ts: '1526413229.000321'}   Type: This tells the type of the message. Channel: It contains the channel id of the slack channel where the message has been posted. User: It contains the user id of the author. Text: It contains the full text of the message, including mentions. We need to extract the mention part (<@U9H78R274>) and remove it. Ts: ts is the unique (per-channel) timestamp. Note: In case of DMs, the channel id will start with a “D”. In case of common channels, the channel id will start with “C”. That is how we can differentiate between a direct message and a message in a channel. Thus we first store the bot’s self id. Then, upon receiving a message we check if the message is not from the bot itself, is a Direct Message or if it is from a channel, its mentions susi. Then only the susi bot replies to the message. Result: Resources SUSI Slack bot repository:…

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How to Make SUSI AI Slack Bot

To make SUSI slack bot we will use real time messaging api of slack which will allow users to receive messages from bot in real time. To make SUSI slack bot you have to follow following steps: Steps: First of all you have to create a team on slack in where your bot will be running. To create a team go to https://slack.com/ and create a new team. After creating sign in to your team and got to apps and integration option by clicking on left corner. Click manage on top right corner and go to custom integrations to add configuration to Bots. After adding configuration data,bot username and copying API Token now we have to write code for setting bot in slack. To set up code see below steps:  Install Node.js from the link below on your computer if you haven’t installed it already. https://nodejs.org/en/ Create a folder with any name and open shell and change your current directory to the new folder you created. Type npm init in command line and enter details like name, version and entry point. Create a file with the same name that you wrote in entry point in above given step. i.e index.js and it should be in same folder you created. Type following commands in command line  npm install --save @slack/client. After slack/client is installed type npm install --save express after express is installed type npm install --save request and then npm install --save http when all the modules are installed check your package.json modules will be included within dependencies portion. Your package.json file should look like this. { "name": "slack-bot", "version": "1.0.0", "description": "SUSI Slack Bot", "main": "index.js", "dependencies": { "express": "^4.15.3", "http": "0.0.0", "request": "^2.81.0" }, "scripts": { "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1", "start": "node index.js" } } Copy following code into file you created i.e index.js. var Slack = require('@slack/client'); var request = require('request'); var express = require('express'); var http = require('http'); var app = express(); var RtmClient = Slack.RtmClient; var RTM_EVENTS = Slack.RTM_EVENTS; var token = process.env.APIToken; var rtm = new RtmClient(token, { logLevel: 'info' }); rtm.start(); //to ping heorku app after 20 minutes to keep it active setInterval(function() {        http.get(process.env.HerokuUrl);    }, 1200000); rtm.on(RTM_EVENTS.MESSAGE, function(message) { var channel = message.channel; var options = {       method: 'GET',       url: 'http://api.asksusi.com/susi/chat.json',       qs: {           timezoneOffset: '-330',           q: message.text       }   }; //sending request to SUSI API for response   request(options, function(error, response, body) {       if (error) throw new Error(error);       var ans = (JSON.parse(body)).answers[0].actions[0].expression;       rtm.sendMessage(ans, channel);   }) }); const port = process.env.PORT || 3000; app.listen(port, () => {   console.log(`listening on ${port}`); });   Now we have to deploy this code to heroku. Before deploying we have to make a github repository for chatbot to make github repository follow these steps: In command line change current directory to folder we created above and write git init git add . git commit -m”initial” git remote add origin <URL for remote repository> git remote -v git push -u origin master You will get URL…

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