Slack-gas
Google Apps Script to retrieve Slack messages
Preparation
- Prepare a slack app
- Create a slack app from here
- Select
From scratch - Fill
App Nameas your like, pick a workspace from which you want to retrieve messages - Create App
- Select
- Set scopes
- Go
OAuth & Permissions - In the
Scopes, add scopes forUser Token Scopes:channels:history,channels:readfor public channelsgroups:history,groups:readfor private channelsim:history,im:readfor direct messagesmpim:history,mpim:readfor group direct messagesusers:readfor the user list
- If you do not need private or direct messages, you can omit these scopes.
- Go
- Install and get token
- Go
OAuth & Permissions - Push
Install to WorkspaceatOAuth Tokens for Your Workspace - Copy
User OAuth Token - This
User OAuth Tokenshould be filled in secret.gs
- Go
- Create a slack app from here
- Prepare Google Sheets and an associated Apps Script project
- Make new Sheets
- Go
Extensions->Apps Script, then open Apps Script project - Make three
scripttype files: main.gs, params.gs, secret.gs - Copy contents of these files in this repository to the above files.
- Edit secret.gs in the Apps Script project to update
<YOUR_SLACK_TOKEN>as yourUser OAuth Tokenthat you got in the above procedure.
Parameter settings
Set parameters as you like:
| Name | Comment |
|---|---|
| TIME_ZONE | Set your time zone. Set null to use the script's time zone. |
| FULL_CHECK | If true, no limit is set at API to get messages. If false, set the oldest as the latest message's time stamp in the channel sheet. If false, messages in the thread could be ignored even if they are newer but the parent messages are older. |
| MAX_MESSAGES | Max number of messages to retrieve in the one job. 100 or 200 are safe, but 500 may exceed the time limit of the Apps Script (6 min). But in most cases, you can just re-run the script and the job will retrieve the remaining messages. |
| FILL_EACH | If true, fill each message in the sheet one by one. Otherwise, all messages in the channel are filled at the same time. This option may be useful if you have many messages in the channel and want to set MAX_MESSAGES higher, but it makes the job slow. |
| CHANNEL_TYPES | Set channel types that you want to retrieve. Types are: public_channel, private_channel, mpim, and im. Multiple types can be set as a comma-separated string like 'public_channel,private_channel,mpim,im'. |
| CHANNEL_INCLUDE | Channels to be included. If it is empty, no filter is applied by this value. |
| CHANNEL_EXCLUDE | Channels to be excluded. |
| CHANNEL_EXCLUDE_ARCHIVED | If true, archive channels are excluded. |
| SAVE_FILE | If true, files attached to messages are saved in Google Drive. |
| REMOVE_SAME_NAME_FILES | If true, older attached files with the same name are removed. This breaks links in the older messages. |
| COVERAGE | Time in seconds of the retrieving period for messages. 2592000 (60*60*24*30) to retrieve messages in about a month. Set 0 or null to retrieve all messages. |
| CHECK_THREAD_TS_IN_SHEET | If true, check threads that were already filled in the sheets. |
| THREAD_TS_COVERAGE | Time in seconds of the retrieving period for messages in the thread. |
| SAVE_MESSAGE_JSON | If true, messages are saved as a JSON format in Google Drive. Note: This makes the job very slow and only ~100 messages can be retrieved. |
| REMOVE_OLD_MESSAGE | If true, saved message files are removed when newer same time stamp messages are saved (it happens when the message is edited). |
| UPDATE_COLUMN_NAME | If true, column names are updated even if the sheet already exists. |
| DATETIME_COLUMN_WIDTH | Column width of Datetime. |
| USER_COLUMN_WIDTH | Column width of User. |
| MESSAGE_COLUMN_WIDTH | Column width of Message. |
| UNIXTIME_COLUMN_WIDTH | Column width of Thread time stamp. |
| EDITED_TS_COLUMN_WIDTH | Column width of UnixTime. |
| THREAD_TS_COLUMN_WIDTH | Column width of Edited time stamp. |
| PIGINATE_LIMIT | A limit number to retrieve objects by the slack API at one time. |
Retrieve messages by hand
- Open main.gs in the Apps Script project
- Save files by pushing the save (disc icon) button.
- Select
runfunction. - Run the job by
Run
If you see a time-out error, you can retry until all messages are retrieved.
Schedule job
It is good to schedule the job to retrieve messages every day.
- Go
Trigger(Clock icon) in the Apps Script project. Add Trigger- Choose which function to run:
run - Which runs at deployment:
Head - Select event source:
Time-driven - Select type of time based trigger:
Day timer - Select time of day:
0 am to 1 am
- Choose which function to run:
This trigger runs the job between 0 am to 1 am every day.
More comments on parameters
TIME_ZONE
If TIME_ZONE is null, the script sets TIME_ZONE as Apps Script Project's time zone.
It could be different from your real time zone.
Please set it in params.gs, or check and update the time zone of the project's time zone.
SAVE_MESSAGE_JSON
Google Apps Script's job has a time limit of 6 min. It is too short to retrieve many messages at once.
If SAVE_MESSAGE_JSON is true, about 100 messages are the upper limit to be done in 6 min.
If you don't have so many messages or want to retrieve only the recent and set a short COVERAGE value,
it may not a problem.
Otherwise, set MAX_MESSAGES as 50~100 and run the job sometime until all messages can be retrieved.
This full message information may not be needed or you can obtain it by the export function of Slack.
Therefore, SAVE_MESSAGE_JSON = false is recommended for most cases.
If your workspace has a few posts per day, you can set SAVE_MESSAGE_JSON=false for the daily job.
FULL_CHECK/COVERAGE/CHECK_THREAD_TS_IN_SHEET/THREAD_TS_COVERAGE
If FULL_CHECK = false, only newer messages than the latest message in the channel retrieved in the Sheet.
If CHECK_THREAD_TS_IN_SHEET = false and the thread starts before the latest message,
messages in the thread can not be retrieved even if they are newer than the latest message.
It happens when the thread starts message is older than Now - COVERAGE, too.
If you have a long time thread (especially if 90 days and more),
it may be good to set CHECK_THREAD_TS_IN_SHEET = true and THREAD_TS_COVERAGE = 31536000 (1 year).
Otherwise, it may be good to set FULL_CHECK = true, COVERAGE = 2592000 (1 month) and CHECK_THREAD_TS_IN_SHEET = false for the daily job.