LinkSnitch

Store the URLs shared in Slack in an Airtable base.

How to install it

The installation process requires you to:

1. Create a glitch project (although you can use any server or platform you want).
2. Create a bot in Slack and copy the tokens/credentials.
3. Create a base in Airtable and copy the tokens/credentials.
4. Invite the bot to the Slack channels you want to monitor.

Creating a Glitch project

In this step you'll create a Glitch project that will host a server to handle the communications between your Slack bot and your Airtable base.

1. Fork this repo.
2. Go to your glitch.com dashboard.
3. Create a new "hello-express" project.
4. Open the project options and click on "Advanced options".
5. Grant access to your GitHub account.
6. Click on "Import from GitHub".
7. In the prompt window write the path to the repo in GitHub: username/link-snitch.
8. Using the glitch browser to copy the contents of the env.sample file and use it to replace the contents of the secret .env file.

Creating a bot in Slack

In this step you'll create and set up a bot that will look for links in the messages of the Slack channels you invite it in.

1. Go to api.slack.com.
2. Click on Create New App.
3. Add a name for the bot and pick your Slack.
4. In the Add features and functionality section click on Bots. Add a bot to allow users to exchange messages with your app.
5. Click on Add a bot user.
6. Configure your bot details and create it.
7. Go to Basic Information.
8. Copy the Verification Token → SLACK_VERIFICATION_TOKEN.
9. and click Install App to Workspace.
10. Click on OAuth & Permissions and copy the Bot User OAuth Access Token → SLACK_BOT_TOKEN.
11. Go to Event Subscriptions and enable the events.
12. In Request URL paste the URL of your Glitch project: https://name-of-the-project.glitch.me.
13. Scroll down to Subscribe to Bot Events and click on Add Bot User Event.
14. Look for the message.channels event and select it.

Creating a base in Airtable

In this step you'll create and set up an Airtable base to collect all the links

1. Go to Airtable and create a new base using Import a spreadsheet
2. Pick the option to create the table using a CSV file and use the aritable.csv file in this repo
3. Rename the base and copy that name → AIRTABLE_BASE_NAME
4. Go to your account and copy the API key → AIRTABLE_API_KEY

Inviting the bot to the Slack channels

Once you've finished the set up of the bot, open any channel and invite the bot using the following command:

/invite @name-of-your-bot

To test that everything is working fine, write a link in the channel and see if it was inserted in Airtable.