Slack Integration Library in Venus

[JGolde]

Hi Will, Just checking back in on this to see if you have anything to test out?

[ofer]

Would love to get more feedback on those two:

Elevate Your Workflow with Our New Slack API Tools

Hello everyone, Following a few discussions, I’m excited to release two new versions of our Slack interface, along with details about a third option. The Slack API is a haven for software engineers, offering a slick interface that greatly facilitates integration. For a deeper insight into its synergies with Python, check out this informative article: Python and Slack: A Natural Match. Slack is widely adopted in large corporations, where it serves not only as a repository for corporate know-how …

Introducing the Robotnetwork Project: slack integration using HSLHttp and a python based relay server

Robotnetwork This is my third repository release aimed at facilitating Slack instant messaging integration with VENUS, this time using a relay server. Why a Relay Server? The direct approach initially seemed straightforward but encountered challenges within the VENUS HTTP library (see here). Implementing a relay server allowed me to overcome these hurdles. Additionally, the relay server improves our security framework by centralizing the management of sensitive communications. For example: 1. s…

In this thread or privately

best,
Ofer Rahat, Ph.D.
Data Scientist
leofer@gmail.com

[WillTurman]

Hey Justin,

I took a few months off to reset and am getting back into bringing this to a production quality integration. It’s close - I’m working on some of the less fun parts of development like writing a help file, putting together an installer, and testing on multiple common versions of Venus.

I’d be happy to give you a demo if you have half an hour one of these days.

Cheers,

Will

[sm513]

Hi Will, have you released this library? I am interested

[yhs.allen]

Just wanted to let everyone here know that even without a dedicated Slack library on Venus, if your end goal is to send messages to certain channels on Slack and notify users when a protocol is complete or when a pause point has been reached, etc then all you need is the HSLHttp library to send POST requests to Slack.

Instructions below:

1. Create an API Application in Slack (Slack API: Applications | Slack). Below I created a bot for my organization named Hamilton STAR
   

2. Navigate to ‘Incoming Webhooks’
   

   

3. Click on “Add New Webhook to Workspace” and create webhook URLs for the channels you want to send Slack notifications to. This is the URL that you will be using in your HTTP POST request (the robot will ‘post’ to this channel through this webhook URL).
   

4. Initialize HSLHttp in Venus and assign a string to your webhook
   

5. Create your message and call the HttpPOST function below.
   

   
   
   
   

How do you create the content text?
Through Slack’s block kit builder!
Link here: Slack

[WillTurman]

@sm513 - short answer: No, I haven’t released it yet, but plan to next month.

Long answer:
The code for the library is effectively complete - including file uploads (for trace files, work lists, etc.), Slack notifications by an executable using Hamilton’s default (archaic) error notification mechanism, configurable channel / user / group message destinations, customizable bot image + name per method, and configurable Slack block templates for method milestones (Start, Complete, Progress, Errors).

I’m targeting to launch this for Venus in January 2025 as the initial product of a small start-up that bridges the gap between liquid handlers and modern software applications with tested and testable tools that just work and don’t require the implementation, maintenance, and troubleshooting of raw HTTP requests in Venus, although as @yhs.allen demonstrated above, that’s an option.

[Brad]

Awesome to hear, @WillTurman! Exciting for the start-up!

[mnewsom]

You can also set up incoming webhooks for Teams if your organization doesn’t use slack.

It’s not too bad to set up if you just want to send start/stop/generic error messages.

[sm513]

This is very helpful thank you! I ended up building the key functions in Python with the webclient API and making a wrapper/UI in Venus. I’m sending procedural updates using the wrapper and my SysConfig calls the same program on error

[WillTurman]

Hi all,

I’ve released a Venus library to integrate your Hamilton robots with Slack.

I essentially built this out to include nearly everything I’d want in a Slack integration from a development, troubleshooting, operations, and fleet visibility perspective and would love to hear what your think.

Sending a basic message to Slack takes three commands:

Sending a formatted message takes three commands using the included sub-method template library:

Uploading files directly to channels or linking them and having them unfurled in threads is supported as well:

Threaded messages are supported to keep information organized:

An executable to post dynamic content to Slack about those tricky to handle hardware errors (i.e. liquid not found, tip pickup errors) via the Hamilton hardware error reporting mechanism is included out-of-the-box:

Sending messages to channels, users, or group-dms is supported, as is tagging users for high-priority notifications.

There are any number of ways and tools to use to hit Slack’s API to post a message, or integrate notifications from liquid handlers - I’m thinking about this as an integration that enables you to bring timely, relevant information from your automation into a workspace you’re already using using tools you’re familiar with.

Liquid and Data