Slack Interactivity

Overview

The ‘Slack Interactivity’ action integrates the Blink Bot for Slack into your workspace, allowing you to perform common Slack actions within your workflows. Messages from Blink to Slack are sent through the Blink bot

The ‘Blink Bot’ is named Blink by default and displays the Blink logo.

This action allows you to send a personalized message to a user or channel. The message can include a variety of interactive components, such as date pickers, checkboxes, text inputs, multiple choice selections, and more. Use this action to gather all the necessary information in a single interaction, formatted to best suit the type of data you are collecting. The Slack Interactivity action is made up of three distinct actions:

Slack Interactivity Action

To use the Slack Interactivity action, it is essential to use the Slack Block Kit Builder for building and previewing your messages before executing the step.

The blocks passed to Slack Interactivity steps must include at least one actions block with a button element. Such button elements should have their value field set to a non-empty, unique value.Input blocks must have their block ids set to a non-empty, unique value.The only interactive element that is supported is a button element, and it should reside inside an actions block as described above. Including interactive button elements inside other blocks (e.g. accessory of a section block) will not block/fail the execution of the step, but will cause an error when the recipient presses the button.

The Slack Block Syntax

When using the Slack Block Kit Builder to create Blocks for the Slack Interactivity actions, it’s essential to remember that the Slack Block syntax differs from the syntax required in the Slack Interactivity blocks section.

Slack Block Syntax- Examples

[
  {
    "type": "section",
    "text": {
      "type": "mrkdwn",
      "text": "You have a new request:\n*<fakeLink.toEmployeeProfile.com|John Doe - New file request>*"
    }
  },
  {
    "type": "section",
    "fields": [
      {
        "type": "mrkdwn",
        "text": "*Type:*\nAccess to File containing sensitive data."
      },
      {
        "type": "mrkdwn",
        "text": "*When:*\nSubmitted Aug 10"
      },
      {
        "type": "mrkdwn",
        "text": "*Last Update:*\nMar 10, 2024 (1 years, 7 months)"
      },
      {
        "type": "mrkdwn",
        "text": "*Reason:*\nAccess Permissions to Dev File."
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "type": "actions",
    "elements": [
      {
        "type": "button",
        "text": {
          "type": "plain_text",
          "emoji": true,
          "text": "Approve"
        },
        "style": "primary",
        "value": "click_me_123"
      },
      {
        "type": "button",
        "text": {
          "type": "plain_text",
          "emoji": true,
          "text": "Deny"
        },
        "style": "danger",
        "value": "click_me_123"
      }
    ]
  }
]

Creating a Send a Message Step

Add Blink Bot For Slack

Open General Settings in Blink

Set up the Blink Slack Bot by clicking your username in the bottom left corner and go to “General” settings.

Connect Blink to Slack

In the General Settings, click the “Connect to Slack” button.

Grant Slack Permissions to Blink

A dialog window will open, asking for access permissions: “Blink is requesting permission to access the Blink Ops Slack workspace”.

Confirm Connection to Slack

Click ‘Allow’. It will then display that your account is “Connected to Slack”.

Build Your Workflow

Add Slack Interactivity Action to Workflow

In the Workflow Editor, click to open the Action panel and search for “Slack Interactivity” action. Alternatively, you can drag the action to the step.

Choose 'Send Message' as Action Type

In the dropdown menu under “Action Type”, select the “Send Message” option.

Fill in the Parameters

Enter the following parameters:

Parameter	Description
Action Type	Choose the Send Message or Update Message Action Type.
To	The recipients email address or Slack channel.
Blocks	Array of blocks that compose the message. Must include at least one action block.
Thread Timestamp (ts)	The thread timestamp(only if sent to (Slack channel).
Timeout in minutes (optional)	Timeout in minutes for the recipient to respond.
Advanced- Include user info	Includes the user’s information together with their response.
Advanced- Keep blocks after user response	Keep the interactivity blocks after the user responds to the message, together with the user’s response.

Create or Select Slack Connection

Next, create a Slack connection by navigating to the top-right hand corner of your Step, select Connection required and then select an existing connection or create a new connection by selecting Create new connection.

Run a Test Execution of the Step

Once these steps are completed, you can select the button to execute a trial run of the step or the test run button to execute a test run of your Workflow.

Respond to Slack Message in Channel

When this Workflow is executed, the designated Slack channel you have entered in the text field, will receive the message. Subsequently, you will have the option to engage with the message by writing a response and then pressing the submit button.

Upon recipient interaction (triggered by action button clicks), the system collects values from all input blocks, allowing the Workflow to resume from the paused step.

Once the recipient clicks the submit button, the message will be updated to Processing your response.... It is up to the creator of the Workflow to decide what to do with the interaction.

View Slack Response in Workflow Output

You can then navigate back to your Workflow where you can find your Slack-written response in the output of your Workflow.

Creating an Update a Message Step

Select the 'Update Message' Action Type

To modify a previously sent message, select the Update Message option from the Action Type dropdown.

Fill in The Required Parameters

Parameter	Description
Action Type	Choose the Send Message or Update Message Action Type.
Channel ID	The ID of the channel.
To	The recipients email address.
Blocks	Array of blocks that compose the message. Must include at least one action block.
Timestamp (ts)	Timestamp of the message to be updated.
Timeout in minutes (optional)	Timeout in minutes for the recipient to respond.
Response message	A message the recipient of the question will receive after responding.

Please note, when using the Update Message action, you must use the channel and ts(TimeStamp) values above from the output of the response message created in your Slack channel.

View Updated Message in Slack

Upon revisiting your Slack channel, you will notice that the message reflects the most recent adjustments you made to the message within the blocks section of your Workflow:

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