# slack-exporter

A Slack bot and standalone script for exporting messages and file attachments from public and private channels, using Slack's new Conversations API.

A similar service is provided by Slack for workspace admins at [https://my.slack.com/services/export](https://my.slack.com/services/export) (where `my` can be replaced with your full workspace name to refer to a workspace different than your default). However, it can only access public channels, while `slack-exporter` can retrieve data from any channel accessible to your user account.

## Authentication with Slack

There are two ways to use `slack-exporter` (detailed below). Both require a Slack API token to be able to communicate with your workspace.

1. Visit [https://api.slack.com/apps/](https://api.slack.com/apps/) and sign in to your workspace.
2. Click `Create New App`, enter a name (e.g., `Slack Exporter`), and select your workspace.
3. In the left-hand panel, navigate to `OAuth & Permissions`, and scroll to `User Token Scopes` (**not** `Bot Token Scopes`).
4. Select the following permissions: 
    - `channels:read`, `channels:history`
    - `groups:read`, `groups:history`
    - `mpim:read`, `mpim:history`
    - `im:read`, `im:history`
    - `users:read`
5. Select `Install to Workspace` at the top of that page (or `Reinstall to Workspace` if you have done this previously) and accept at the prompt.
6. Copy the `OAuth Access Token` (which will generally start with `xoxp` for user-level permissions)

## Usage

### As a standalone script

`exporter.py` can create an archive of all conversation history in your workspace which is accessible to your user account.

1. Run the following (replacing the value with the user token you obtained in the [Authentication with Slack](#authentication-with-slack) section above).

    ```shell script
    export SLACK_USER_TOKEN=xoxp-xxxxxxxxxxxxx...
    ```

2. Run `python exporter.py --help` to view the available export options.

### As a Slack bot

`bot.py` is a Slack bot that responds to "slash commands" in Slack channels (e.g., `/export-channel`). To connect the bot to the Slack app generated in [Authentication with Slack](#authentication-with-slack), create a file named `.env` in the root directory of this repo, and add the following line:

```text
SLACK_USER_TOKEN = xoxp-xxxxxxxxxxxxx...
``` 

Save this file and run the Flask application in `bot.py` such that the application is exposed to the Internet. This can be done via a web server (e.g., Heroku), as well as via the ngrok service, which assigns your `localhost` server a public URL.

To use the ngrok method:

1. [Download](https://ngrok.com/download) the appropriate binary.
2. Run `python bot.py`
3. Run the ngrok binary with `path/to/ngrok http 5000`, where `5000` is the port on which the Flask application (step 2) is running. Copy the forwarding HTTPS address provided.

Return to the Slack app you created in [Authentication with Slack](#authentication-with-slack) and navigate to the `Slash Commands` page in the sidebar. Create the following slash commands (one for each applicable Flask route in `bot.py`):

| Command         | Request URL                               | Arguments    | Example Usage        |
|-----------------|-------------------------------------------|--------------|----------------------|
| /export-channel | https://`[host_url]`/slack/export-channel | json \| text | /export-channel text |
| /export-replies | https://`[host_url]`/slack/export-replies | json \| text | /export-replies json |

where, if using ngrok, `[domain]` would be replaced with something like `https://xxxxxxxxxxxx.ngrok.io`.

Navigate back to `OAuth & Permissions` and click `(Re)install to Workspace` to add these slash commands to the workspace.