Add support for sending threaded messages

[nothingofuse]

Description

Would like the ability to send a message into a thread by passing thread-ts from a previous message, with optional flag to broadcast the threaded message to the channel.

What type of issue is this? (place an x in one of the [ ])

• bug
• enhancement (feature request)
• question
• documentation related
• example code related
• testing related
• discussion

Requirements (place an x in each of the [ ])

• I've read and understood the Contributing guidelines and have done my best effort to follow them.
• I've read and agree to the Code of Conduct.
• I've searched for any related issues and avoided creating a duplicate issue.

[filmaj]

Great idea for an enhancement 👍

[kuboon]

You can do it with "thread_ts" on payload.

see #74 (review)

[robgutsopedra]

Hey @kuboon, I tried this approach some time ago, and had some issues. Something does not work quite well with the output of the action. Let me explain my situation:

1. First I send the message (which is properly and correctly sent)

     -  name: Slack Notification for deployment
        id: slack_notif
        uses: slackapi/slack-github-action@v1.23.0
        with:
          payload: "{\"text\":\"Manual deployment\", \"blocks\":[{\"type\":\"section\",\"text\":{\"type\":\"mrkdwn\",\"text\":\"Deployment of X to Y by Z , V1 to V2\"}}]}"
        env:
          SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL: ${{ secrets.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL }}
          SLACK_WEBHOOK_TYPE: INCOMING_WEBHOOK

2. And then I check the outputs of this previous step:

      - name: Run tests
        run: |-
          echo "Slack message outputs"
          echo "Ts --> " ${{ steps.slack_notif.outputs.ts }}
          echo "thread_ts --> " ${{ steps.slack_notif.outputs.thread_ts }}
          echo "time --> ${{ steps.slack_notif.outputs.time }}"
        id: run_tests

This is the result:

As you can see, there is no thread_ts nor ts which could help me send a threaded message.

Checking the code of the action itself, I see thread_ts or ts are only outputed in this scenario:

 if (webResponse && webResponse.ok) {
      core.setOutput('ts', webResponse.ts);
      // return the thread_ts if it exists, if not return the ts
      const thread_ts = webResponse.thread_ts ? webResponse.thread_ts : webResponse.ts;
      core.setOutput('thread_ts', thread_ts);
    }

And webResponse is only used IF bot_token is being used, never when using INCOMING_WEBHOOK / SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL

if (typeof botToken !== 'undefined' && botToken.length > 0) {
      const message = core.getInput('slack-message') || '';
      const channelIds = core.getInput('channel-id') || '';
      const web = new WebClient(botToken);

      if (channelIds.length <= 0) {
        console.log('Channel ID is required to run this action. An empty one has been provided');
        throw new Error('Channel ID is required to run this action. An empty one has been provided');
      }

      if (message.length > 0 || payload) {
        const ts = core.getInput('update-ts');
        await Promise.all(channelIds.split(',').map(async (channelId) => {
          if (ts) {
          // update message
            webResponse = await web.chat.update({ ts, channel: channelId.trim(), text: message, ...(payload || {}) });
          } else {
          // post message
            webResponse = await web.chat.postMessage({ channel: channelId.trim(), text: message, ...(payload || {}) });
          }
        }));
      } else {
        console.log('Missing slack-message or payload! Did not send a message via chat.postMessage with botToken', { channel: channelIds, text: message, ...(payload) });
        throw new Error('Missing message content, please input a valid payload or message to send. No Message has been send.');
      }
    }

[seratch]

@robgutsopedra Using thread-ts does not work along with incoming webhooks. It works only with bot token + chat.postMessage API call. Here is an example demonstrating how to use it:

slack-github-action/.github/workflows/main.yml

Lines 21 to 46 in 4466b60

	- name: Post message to Slack via botToken
	id: slackToken
	uses: ./
	with:
	channel-id: ${{ secrets.SLACK_CHANNEL_ID }}
	slack-message: 'CI Post from slack-send GitHub Action! Succeeded!!'
	# payload: "{\"key\":\"value\",\"foo\":\"bar\"}"
	env:
	SLACK_BOT_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SLACK_BOT_TOKEN }}
	# Use the output from the `slackToken` step
	- name: Check Action output is not empty
	run: test -n "${{ steps.slackToken.outputs.time }}"
	- name: Post Threaded Response
	id: slackThreadResponse
	uses: ./
	with:
	channel-id: ${{ secrets.SLACK_CHANNEL_ID }}
	payload: |
	{
	"text": "This message should be posted as a response in thread",
	"thread_ts": "${{ steps.slackToken.outputs.thread_ts }}"
	}
	env:
	SLACK_BOT_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.SLACK_BOT_TOKEN }}

Also, this feature request is resolved in v1.19. Let me close this issue now.

[digi0pz]

Hey @seratch,
Is there any reason thread_ts doesn't work along with Incoming Webhooks?

[seratch]

When you use Incoming Webhooks alone, there is no way to learn a specific message's ts (this operation requires channels:history, etc.). Therefore, to me, not supporting thread_ts for Incoming Webhooks is a reasonable API design to align with its minimal permission model. If you need to post a message, please use a combination of regular web APIs (meaning chat.postMessage + conversations.history).