✍ Bridging Communication Gaps with MuleSoft and Slack

Today’s accelerated world, efficient communication and seamless integration are necessary for a business to strive.

An influential integration that significantly improves communication and streamlines processes, is the integration of MuleSoft with Slack.

This Integration augments visibility and validates that relevant information is easily accessible to people whenever required.

This blog post delves into Slack integration with MuleSoft, exploring its functionalities, advantages, and practical usage.

Understanding MuleSoft and Slack:

MuleSoft:

A Leading Integration platform that connects enterprises’ applications, data, and devices, providing Anypoint platform offers tools to streamline integration processes.

MuleSoft is a platform that provides IT the tools to automate everything. This includes integrating systems and data, automating workflows and processes, and creating incredible digital experiences .

Slack:

SLACK is an acronym for “Searchable Log of All Communication and Knowledge”.

Slack is a messaging app for business that connects people to the information that they need. By bringing people together to work as one unified team, Slack transforms the way that organizations communicate.

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Integration between Slack and MuleSoft

➤ Prerequisites

Before starting, the following prerequisites must be fulfilled by the developer:

🗹 MuleSoft Anypoint Studio installed.

🗹 A Slack Workspace with necessary permissions.

🗹 Anypoint Platform access.

🗹 Slack channel created.

➤ Create a slack app:

1. Navigate to Slack API: Traverse to api.slack.com.

2. Create a New App:

There are two ways to create a Slack app:

⋆ by using an app manifest

⋆ from scratch.

However, before moving further, let’s understand the app manifest.

✦ What is an app manifest ?

App Manifest is a structured JSON or YAML file used to define a Slack app’s configuration, settings, and permissions.

Using the app manifest, developers can specify details about the Slack App, such as display information, OAuth Configuration, Settings, Features and Event Subscriptions.

Today, we explore how to create a Slack app from scratch.

The App needs to be named and given a workspace where it can be created.

Once the required details are provided, an app is provisioned in the workspace selected, and you are routed to the basic information tab of the Slack app.

3. Set Up OAuth & Permissions:

➣ Traverse to “OAuth & Permissions” under “Features.”

➣ Add the required scopes under “OAuth Tokens & Redirect URLs.” For event subscriptions, you may need scopes like “channels:read”, “chat:write”, “groups:read”, “im:read”, and “mpim:read”.

4. Install the App to Workspace

➣ Click “Install App to Workspace.”

➣ Authorize the app to access the workspace.

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Ways to Integrate Slack:

Major ways to Integrate Slack are as follows:

1. Slash command.
2. Event subscription.
3. Incoming webhooks.
4. Interactive components.

Pre-requisite for Integration:

Create and deploy a Mule application to the Anypoint runtime manager. In the reference, we are using an implementation where we send a message to Slack.

✓ Mule App Creation and Setup:

Below are the configurations required for the Integration.

Referring to the App credentials from Basic Information under the created App and assigning the values in slack connector configuration.

The MuleSoft artifact is a simple implementation which sends messages to a Slack channel.

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Integrating Slack with MuleSoft using Slash Command:

To create a slash command, navigate to Slash command under the created App and proceed with Create New Command.

Provide details like command name and request URL as the URL of the MuleSoft application endpoint.

The available command list is visible on the Successful creation of the slash command.

Post creation, navigate to the essential information section of the Slack app and Proceed with Installing the App.

Post successful installation of the App, a success message is displayed.

Once the application is successfully installed in the workspace, try the Slack command created. A successful message for the command is seen, visible only to the command issuer (the user entering the command on the channel), and the output of the Slack command is created.

✦ Use cases for Slash command integration from a customer perspective could be as follows:

1. Customer Support and Issue Management.
2. Sales and CRM Updates.
3. HR and Employee Services.
4. IT Operations and Incident Response.
5. Marketing Campaign Management

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Integrating Slack with MuleSoft via Event subscription:

Slack event subscription integration allows an application to receive real-time notifications about specific activities and events within a Slack workspace.

✦ Why do we need slack event subscription integration ??

1. It provides real time monitoring and notification which helps in teams informed instantly about important activities.
2. Helps in automated workflow triggers which reduces manual intervention and increases efficiency by automating responses to specific events.
3. Enhances user engagement by providing contextual assistance and timely information based on user actions, improving user experience.
4. Improves data collection and analytics by collecting valuable data on user interactions and activities , helping in gaining insights and improve processes.

When an event occurs that the application is subscribed to, Slack sends the payload to the application on the defined endpoint URL.

1. Enable Event Subscriptions:

• In the Slack app settings, go to “Event Subscriptions.”
• Toggle the “Enable Events” switch to on.

2. Set Request URL:

Once the Event Subscription is enabled, provide the application URL of the MuleSoft Application created earlier with flow catering to the Event Subscription, as shown in the image here.

Add the URL of the Mule application that would be listening to events from Slack as Request URL.

A very important point that needs to be noted here is that for every Event request sent by Slack, Slack expects a response within 3000ms (3 Seconds). If the response is not received within 3 seconds, Slack will retrigger the same request and could get into an infinite loop.

3. Subscribe to Bot Events:

• Scroll down to “Subscribe to Bot Events.”
• Add the events you want the app to subscribe to, such as message.channels.

Deploy the Mule application to a runtime environment accessible from the internet.

Once the Mule application is ready, test the event subscription by triggering events in Slack.

✦ Use cases for Event subscription from a customer perspective could be as follows:

1. Customer Engagement and Community Building.
2. Sales and Marketing Notifications.
3. Internal Communication and Approvals.
4. Order Processing and Tracking.
5. Customer Support and Incident Management.

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Integrating Slack with MuleSoft via Incoming webhook :

Before we integrate slack using webhook, it is imperative to under what a webhook is and what an incoming webhook is.

✦ What is webhook ?

A webhook is a method of augmenting or altering the behavior of webpage or web-application using custom callbacks.

These callbacks may be maintained, modified, and managed by third-party users and developers who may not necessarily be affiliated with the originating website or application.

✦ Use Cases of webhook:

1. Notify a CI/CD pipeline to start a build when a new commit is pushed.
2. Inform an e-commerce platform when a payment is completed.
3. Send notifications to a chat application when specific events occur.

✦ What is incoming webhook ??

Incoming webhooks is a method of bringing information from a third-party service into a chat safely and securely.

It uses HTTP requests with a JSON payload that includes the message and other optional details.

To enable the incoming webhook from slack, activate incoming webhook from the application settings.

After enabling the incoming webhook, proceed with adding the webhook to your dedicated channel.

Once you proceed with adding the webhook to your workspace, proceed with selecting the channel.

Select the channel from the drop-down menu. Once the webhook is added, you will be able to see the webhook URL.

In order to integrate, add a flow in the Mule application, provide the message that needs to be posted (it could be anything according to the requirements), and send the message to the HTTP request with the URL as the Slack app webhook URL.

The message from the application gets posted to the Slack channel and configured with Webhook.

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Integrating Slack with MuleSoft using interactive components:

Interactive components in Slack, such as buttons, menus, and dialogues, can profoundly enhance the functionality of Slack apps.

Scenario: Employee Leave Request Management

In the corporate environment, efficiently managing employee leave requests is crucial.

Slack is used often for communication within organizations, whereas MuleSoft serves as Integration platform to connect various systems.

By integrating interactive Slack components (menus) with MuleSoft, we can streamline the process of submitting and managing leave requests.

Implementation:

1. Go to api.slack.com.
2. Open the previously created App.
3. Configure OAuth & Permissions, Add necessary permissions (commands, chat:write, interactive_components).
4. Create an interactive message in slack with a static select menu using Block Kit.
5. Create MuleSoft application with logic for the incoming message from the menu and process accordingly.

6. Once the application is deployed to the runtime manager, enable Interactivity & Shortcuts under Features in the Slack App and update the application URL.

7. Re-install the application to slack and we are good to go.

✦ Use Cases of Interactive components:

1. Employee Onboarding Process.
2. IT Support Ticket Management.
3. Approval Workflows.
4. Meeting Room Booking.
5. Project Management Updates.
6. Inventory Management.
7. Customer Support Escalation.
8. Sales Order Processing.

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Conclusion :

This Integration bridges communication gaps, enhances visibility, and streamlines processes within an organization.

By harnessing the features of MuleSoft Anypoint platform’s and slack’s communications tools, businesses can ensure timely information access, improve collaboration and automate workflows.

The blog explores various methods of integration, including slash command, incoming webhooks, incoming webhooks and Interactive components.

Every approach presents specific advantages and practical examples, highlighting the versatility and effectiveness of uniting MuleSoft’s integration functions with Slack’s communication platform.