Covid Tracker Slack app

Example Slack app to track COVID19 cases worldwide.

Pre-requisites

• Familiarity with Slack and Slack apps
• Basic knowlege of javascript/node.

Tools and Technologies

• Node/NPM
• Bolt for JavaScript: Slack sdk for javascript
• Slack Block kit: Slack's UI framework for building interactive apps.
• Slack Block kit builder: For UI prototyping .
• Ngrok: To create a public URL and tunnel requests to your own development environment
• Covid19 public API

Features

• Slash command /covid-tracker top5 to list top 5 countries by reported cases
• AppHome: Show worldwide cases summary on app's Home tab

Implementation

1. Create a Slack app

• https://api.slack.com/apps
• Add Scopes.
• Install app in development workspace.

2. Setup a bolt project

• Install node/npm
• Install @slack/bolt npm dependency

3. Slash command

• Create slash command /covid-tracker-24 top5 in app configuration page.
• Implement app.command code.

4. App home

• Subscribe to app_home_opened event in app configuration page.
• Implement app.event code.

Next steps ?

1. Explore these platform features

• Shortcut and Modals
• Interactivity
• Link Previews

2. App distribution

3. Publish to app directory

Best practices

• Use Granular Bot Permissions and bot tokens as much as possible.
• Acknowledge events comming from slack in 3 seconds or Use response_url
• Understand API rate limits.
• Use interactive blocks instead of plain text messages.