Discussions Slack Integration: Notifications for New Posts

With this integration, Hub administrators are now able to:

• Get notified about new topics posted to categories on the discussion forum that are of special interest
• Get notifications sent directly to the user on slack
• Get notifications sent to any channel on Slack, to keep the right group of people in the loop

Here is a couple of examples of the Slack notifications:

1. Create a New Slack App

A. Slack App Settings

1. Go to https://api.slack.com/apps
2. Click on “Create New App”
3. Fill in the Name of the App (This can be changed anytime) and determine the Slack workspace to add this App to > Create App.
   

   

4. On the Basic Information page > Update the Branding of the App (scroll down to Display Information) > Save Changes
   

   

5. Great! Now that you have the basic information of the App set, you will need to set the type of permissions.

B. Set Permissions

1. Under the Features menu > click oAuth & Permissions > scroll down to Scope
2. Add the following items :
   1. chat:write
   2. users:read
   3. channels:history
   4. groups:history
   5. Im:history
      
      

C.Install the new App on your Slack workspace

1. On the same page (Under the Features menu > Click oAuth & Permissions) > Head over to the oAuth Tokens & Redirect URLs section
2. Click on “Request to Install”

   

3. Your Slack workspace administrator should have received a notification of this request

   

4. Once it's approved, you shall receive a notification on your Slack. If you click "Go to App Directory", you'll be brought back to the Slack App page.

   

5. Click on "Add to Slack"

   

6. Click on “Install App to Workspace”

   

7. The next window will ask you to authorize this App. Click "Allow" to approve the App to your Slack workspace.

2. Integrate App with Influitive Hub

A. Get Verification Security tokens:

• On the Slack API page, under Settings > Go to Basic Information > Scroll to App Credentials > Take note and Copy the Verification Token
  

  

B. Get OAuth Access Token

• On the Slack API page, under Features > Click on oAuth & Permissions > Scroll to Tokens for your Workspace > Take note and copy the Bot User OAuth Access Token
  

  

C. Connect slack app to Influitive

1. Navigate the Influitive Hub admin portal
2. Go to Discussion Tab > Settings 
   

   

3. Click on “Slack Notifications”
4. Enter Verification (Step 2A) and OAuth access (Step 2B) tokens > Click the Green Checkbox to save these.
5. After the token is input, go ahead and check the “Enable the slack chat-integration provider” checkbox > Click the Green Checkbox to save it.

3. Set up Notifications

1. In the same Discussions setting page > Switch to Integrations tab
   

   

2. Select +Link Channel and enter a Channel name (#NameofChannel) or a Slack User's username (@name)
   1. The Bot will need to be added into the Channel that it's trying to notify.
   2. Please note that the username is not the same as the @ tag used in Slack. To verify the correct username, ask the Slack user to check on their Slack Account Settings.
   3. Use the following URL to find out the Slack user's Username. Only the Slack user can access this for their profile - (Change the workspace_name with the name of your Slack workspace) 
      
      https://workspace_name.slack.com/account/settings#username
3. Once the User or Channel is added, click on Create a Rule
   
4. In this window, add the Discussions Category that you would like the Slack user/channel to be notified when new topics are created

   

5. Click "Save Rule"
   
6. You can test this integration by sending a Test message. Click on the Test button to choose an example topic.
   

   

Notifications Example

If the integration is targeted to a Channel, the App will post on the Channel with the Name of the Discussion poster, the Title of the Discussions and the content. If the integration is targeted to a specific user, the notifications will be sent by Slackbot.

Troubleshooting

If you see the following error message, make sure the bot user has been added to the channel correctly.