New Slack endpoint & updated Flow Designer steps

We’re releasing a new Slack endpoint and updating our Slack Flow Designer steps to allow you to do more things in Slack – like create, post, and invite people to private channels. Over time we'll also add new steps to interact with pins and user groups in Slack, but you can start interacting with them in your custom steps right away.

Why is this important?

This update ensures the application we use to connect to Slack is fully certified, and it allows us to build on the set of permissions and scopes our old connector used, by taking advantage of Slack’s granular permissions model.

What are we changing?

We’re adding a new Slack endpoint type and releasing new versions of our Slack App steps in Flow Designer.

Slack endpoint updates

You’ll see the following two Slack endpoints in xMatters:

• Slack - Our new and improved endpoint uses the 'xMatters Connector' application in Slack to support Slack's granular permissions. We recommend updating custom scripts and steps to update to this endpoint to take advantage of new functionality.
• Slack (Legacy) - Our previous Slack endpoint using older permissions and with access to fewer scopes (uses the 'xMatters Slack Endpoint' application in Slack).

Slack step updates

New versions of our Slack steps will support the following functionality:

• Create Channel - Includes a new field to mark if the channel Is Private. The channel is created by the 'xMatters Connector' app and the authenticating user is automatically added to the channel.
• Post to Channel & Invite to Channel - Support for private channels (previously you could post only to public channels). You’ll need to make sure the app or user you’re authenticating as has access to the channel.

For a brief period of time you’ll see both the old and new versions of our Slack steps in the Flow Designer palette. The new ones will appear on top as the main version we recommend using when building flows. Any older versions of Slack steps on your canvas will be labeled as Deprecated.

How will this affect you?

Although your existing Flow Designer steps and scripts using the Slack (Legacy) endpoint will continue to work, we recommend upgrading as soon as possible to take advantage of new functionality we’ll be able to offer with the new steps and endpoint.

We do not currently have a timeline of when deprecated Slack steps will be withdrawn. If the Slack (Legacy) endpoint will stop working, we’ll reach out and let you know it’s time to upgrade to prevent issues with your automations.

How to upgrade your scripts and steps

To upgrade custom scripts, all you need to do is change the endpoint type (you’ll be able to continue to use the access token in code as you did before). 

To upgrade deprecated steps, double-click the step on the canvas and select the latest version in the step header, then select the new Slack endpoint. By default, upgraded Create Channel steps will create public channels – if you want to create private channels, change the Is Private input to ‘true’.

When will this happen?

Look for the new Slack endpoint and updated steps in your xMatters instance in early to mid-June.

Where can I get more information?

For more information about Slack’s granular permissions model, see their article, More precision, fewer restrictions.

For information on how to use our built-in Slack steps in your incident response and event management flows, see the online help for Flow Designer.

To stay informed about all the changes, enhancements, and new features as they’re developed and released, be sure to follow the Highlights & Release Overviews section of this website.