MITBot

Uses python-rtmbot Requires Python 2.7, unfortunately

Warning: Not sure what'll happen if you try to run this code when the real mitbot is active Usually don't need to modify mitbot.py. To make changes to the actual bot functions, modify plugins/main.py, or add a new plugins file.

How to run rtmbot stuff: Dependencies

• websocket-client https://pypi.python.org/pypi/websocket-client/
• python-slackclient https://github.com/slackhq/python-slackclient

Installation

1. Download the python-rtmbot code

    git clone git@github.com:slackhq/python-rtmbot.git
    cd python-rtmbot
   

2. Install dependencies (virtualenv is recommended.)

    pip install -r requirements.txt
   

3. Configure rtmbot (https://api.slack.com/bot-users)

    cp doc/example-config/rtmbot.conf .
    vi rtmbot.conf
      SLACK_TOKEN: "xoxb-11111111111-222222222222222"
   

Note: At this point rtmbot is ready to run, however no plugins are configured.

Add Plugins

Plugins can be installed as .py files in the plugins/ directory OR as a .py file in any first level subdirectory. If your plugin uses multiple source files and libraries, it is recommended that you create a directory. You can install as many plugins as you like, and each will handle every event received by the bot indepentently.

To install the example 'repeat' plugin

mkdir plugins/repeat
cp doc/example-plugins/repeat.py plugins/repeat

The repeat plugin will now be loaded by the bot on startup.

./rtmbot.py

Create Plugins

####Incoming data Plugins are callback based and respond to any event sent via the rtm websocket. To act on an event, create a function definition called process_(api_method) that accepts a single arg. For example, to handle incoming messages:

def process_message(data):
    print data

This will print the incoming message json (dict) to the screen where the bot is running.

Plugins having a method defined as catch_all(data) will receive ALL events from the websocket. This is useful for learning the names of events and debugging.

####Outgoing data Plugins can send messages back to any channel, including direct messages. This is done by appending a two item array to the outputs global array. The first item in the array is the channel ID and the second is the message text. Example that writes "hello world" when the plugin is started:

outputs = []
outputs.append(["C12345667", "hello world"])

Note: you should always create the outputs array at the start of your program, i.e. outputs = []

####Timed jobs Plugins can also run methods on a schedule. This allows a plugin to poll for updates or perform housekeeping during its lifetime. This is done by appending a two item array to the crontable array. The first item is the interval in seconds and the second item is the method to run. For example, this will print "hello world" every 10 seconds.

outputs = []
crontable = []
crontable.append([10, "say_hello"])
def say_hello():
    outputs.append(["C12345667", "hello world"])

####Plugin misc The data within a plugin persists for the life of the rtmbot process. If you need persistent data, you should use something like sqlite or the python pickle libraries.

####Todo: Some rtm data should be handled upstream, such as channel and user creation. These should create the proper objects on-the-fly.