Slack Socket Mode support

Slack Morphism supports Slack Socket Mode starting with 0.10.x. Socket Mode allows your app to use the Events API and interactive components without exposing a public HTTP endpoint.

The mode is useful if you want to create an app that works with few workspaces and don't want to work with HTTP endpoints yourself.

Register your event callback functions

use slack_morphism::prelude::*;

async fn test_interaction_events_function(
    event: SlackInteractionEvent,
    _client: Arc<SlackHyperClient>,
    _states: SlackClientEventsUserState,
) -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error + Send + Sync>> {
    println!("{:#?}", event);
    Ok(())
}

async fn test_command_events_function(
    event: SlackCommandEvent,
    _client: Arc<SlackHyperClient>,
    _states: SlackClientEventsUserState,
) -> Result<SlackCommandEventResponse, Box<dyn std::error::Error + Send + Sync>> {
    println!("{:#?}", event);
    Ok(SlackCommandEventResponse::new(
        SlackMessageContent::new().with_text("Working on it".into()),
    ))
}

async fn test_push_events_sm_function(
    event: SlackPushEventCallback,
    _client: Arc<SlackHyperClient>,
    _states: SlackClientEventsUserState,
) -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error + Send + Sync>> {
    println!("{:#?}", event);
    Ok(())
}

let client = Arc::new(SlackClient::new(SlackClientHyperConnector::new()?));

let socket_mode_callbacks = SlackSocketModeListenerCallbacks::new()
    .with_command_events(test_command_events_function)
    .with_interaction_events(test_interaction_events_function)
    .with_push_events(test_push_events_sm_function);   

let listener_environment = Arc::new(
        SlackClientEventsListenerEnvironment::new(client.clone())
);

let socket_mode_listener = SlackClientSocketModeListener::new(
      &SlackClientSocketModeConfig::new(),
      listener_environment.clone(),
      socket_mode_callbacks,
);

Connect using socket mode to Slack

The following code initiates Web-sockets based connections to Slack endpoints using Slack Web methods and provided user token.

Slack Morphism supports multiple web-socket connections per one token to gracefully handle disconnects. By default it uses 2 connections to one token. To configure it see SlackClientSocketModeConfig;


// Need to specify App token for Socket Mode:
let app_token_value: SlackApiTokenValue = 
    config_env_var("SLACK_TEST_APP_TOKEN")?.into();
let app_token: SlackApiToken = SlackApiToken::new(app_token_value);

// Register an app token to listen for events, 
socket_mode_listener.listen_for(&app_token).await?;

// Start WS connections calling Slack API to get WS url for the token, 
// and wait for Ctrl-C to shutdown
// There are also `.start()`/`.shutdown()` available to manage manually 
socket_mode_listener.serve().await;

Important caveats

The time blocking of the SM listener callbacks is important

If your app blocks callbacks more than 2-3 seconds Slack server may decide to repeat requests again and also to inform users with errors and timeouts. So, if you have something complex and time-consuming in your callbacks you should spawn your own future, e.g:

    async fn test_push_events_sm_function(
        event: SlackPushEventCallback,
        _client: Arc<SlackHyperClient>,
        _states: SlackClientEventsUserState,
    ) -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error + Send + Sync>> {
        tokio::spawn(async move { process_message(client, event).await; });
        Ok(())
    }

Error handling function

It is highly recommended implementing your own error handling function:


fn test_error_handler(
    err: Box<dyn std::error::Error + Send + Sync>,
    _client: Arc<SlackHyperClient>,
    _states: SlackClientEventsUserState,
) -> http::StatusCode {
    println!("{:#?}", err);

    // This return value should be OK if we want to return successful ack
    // to the Slack server using Web-sockets
    // https://api.slack.com/apis/connections/socket-implement#acknowledge
    // so that Slack knows whether to retry
    http::StatusCode::OK
}

// Register it:
    let listener_environment = Arc::new(
        SlackClientEventsListenerEnvironment::new(client.clone())
            .with_error_handler(test_error_handler),
    );

The implementation allows you:

  • Return positive ack using http::StatusCode result / implement complex logic related to it. https://api.slack.com/apis/connections/socket-implement#acknowledge
  • Increase visibility and observability in general when errors happen in your app and from Slack/library.