# Slack Source

[Slack](https://slack.com/intl/en-in/) is a popular business communication platform that lets you organize all your business-related chats by specific topics, groups, or direct messaging.

This guide will help you set up Slack as a source in RudderStack.

## Get started

1. Go to your [RudderStack dashboard](https://app.rudderstack.com/) and click **Add Source**. From the list of **Event Streams** sources, select **Slack**.
2. Assign a name to your source and click **Continue**.
3. Your Slack source is now configured. Go to the **Settings** tab of the source and note the **Webhook URL**:

{{< image src="images/event-stream-sources/source-webhook-url.webp" alt="Slack webhook URL" >}}

4. In your Slack app, click your workspace and select **Tools and Settings** > **Manage Apps** to open the Slack app directory.

{{< info >}}
You must have an admin role in your Slack workspace to see these options.
{{< /info >}}

{{< image src="images/event-stream-sources/slack-tools.webp" alt="Add webhook source in Slack" >}}

5. Click **Build** from the top right navigation bar.
6. Select an existing app or [create a new one](https://api.slack.com/quickstart#creating) by clicking **Create New App**.

{{< image src="images/event-stream-sources/slack-src-1.webp" alt="Add webhook name and URL" >}}

7. Click **Event Subscriptions** from the left navigation bar.
8. Turn on the **Enable events** setting and enter the webhook URL in the **Request URL** field obtained in Step 3.

{{< image src="images/event-stream-sources/slack-src-2.webp" alt="Add webhook name and URL" >}}

9. In **Subscribe to bot events** section, [add the events you want to track](https://api.slack.com/quickstart#listening) and click **Save Changes**.

{{< image src="images/event-stream-sources/slack-src-3.webp" alt="Add webhook name and URL" >}}

{{< info >}}
For more information on steps 4-9, see [Subscribing to event types](https://api.slack.com/apis/events-api#subscribing).
{{< /info >}}

## Event transformation

RudderStack supports ingesting all the [Slack events](https://api.slack.com/events) related to user's activities. It converts:

- Slack's `team_join` and `user_change` events as [`identify`]({{< ref "event-spec/standard-events/identify.md" >}}) events, and
- Rest of the Slack events as [`track`]({{< ref "event-spec/standard-events/track.md" >}}) events.

{{< info >}}
The [`url_verification`](https://api.slack.com/events/url_verification) event verifies the webhook URL. It has a different object structure than the rest of the events and is triggered only once during the first time webhook setup.
{{< /info >}}

RudderStack maps the following Slack properties from the event payload to the RudderStack fields:

| Slack Property  | RudderStack Property |
| :------------ | :--------- |
| `event.type` | `event` |
| `event.ts` | `originalTimestamp` |
| `event.user` <br/> `event.user.id` | `context.externalId` |
| `event.profile.first_name` | `context.traits.firstName` |
| `event.profile.last_name` | `context.traits.lastName` |
| `event.user.profile.real_name` | `context.traits.name` |
| `event.user.profile.email` | `context.traits.email` |
| `event.user.tz` | `timezone` |
| `event.user.profile.image_original` | `context.traits.avatar` |
| `event.user.profile.title` | `context.traits.title` |

## How RudderStack creates the event payload

This section details how RudderStack receives the data from Slack source and creates the resulting payload.

### Identify event

A sample input payload received from Slack webhook (`team_join` event):

```json
{
  "event": {
    "type": "team_join",
    "user": {
      "id": "W012CDE"',
      "name": "johnd",
      "real_name": "John Doe",
    },
  "type": "event_callback",
  "event_id": "<event_id>",
  "event_time": "1709441309",
  "token": "<token>",
  "team_id": "T0GFJL5J7",
  "context_team_id": "T0GFJL5J7",
  "context_enterprise_id": "null",
  "api_app_id": "<api_app_id>",
  "authorizations": [{
    "enterprise_id": "null",
    "team_id": "T0GFJL5J7",
    "user_id": "U04G7H550",
    "is_bot": true,
    "is_enterprise_install": false,
  }, ],
  "is_ext_shared_channel": false,
  "event_context": "eJldCI65436EUEpMSFhgfhg76joiQzAxRTRQTEIxMzUifQ"
}
```

The corresponding RudderStack-transformed (`identify`) event payload is shown below:

```json
{
  "context": {
    "library": {
      "name": "unknown",
      "version": "unknown",
    },
    "integration": {
      "name": "SLACK",
    },
    "externalId": [{
      "type": "slackUserId",
      "id": "W012CDE",
    }, ],
  },
  "integrations": {
    "SLACK": false,
  },
  "type": "identify",
  "event": "Team Join",
  "anonymousId": "2bc5ae2825a712d3d154cbdacb86ac16c278",
  "originalTimestamp": "2024-03-03T04:48:29.000Z",
  "sentAt": "2024-03-03T04:48:29.000Z",
  "properties": {
    "type": "team_join",
    "user": {
      "id": "W012CDE",
      "name": "johnd",
      "real_name": "John Doe",
    },
  },
}
```

### Track event

A sample input payload received from Slack webhook (`message` event):

```json
{
  "event": {
    "user": "U04G7H550",
    "type": "message",
    "ts": "1709441309.308399",
    "client_msg_id": "834r664e-ec75-445d-t5c6-b873a07y9c81",
    "text": "What is the pricing of product X",
    "team": "T0GFJL5J7",
    "thread_ts": "1709407304.839329",
    "parent_user_id": "U06P6LQTPV",
    "blocks": [{
      "type": "rich_text",
      "block_id": "xGKJl",
      "elements": [{
        "type": "rich_text_section",
        "elements": {
            "type": "text",
            "text": "What is the pricing of product X",
          },
          {
            "type": "channel",
            "channel_id": "C03CDQTPI65",
          },
          {
            "type": "text",
            "text": "to do this",
          },
        ],
      }, ],
    }, ],
    "channel": "C03CDQTPI65",
    "event_ts": "1709441309.308399",
    "channel_type": "channel",
  }, {
  "type": "event_callback",
  "event_id": "<event_id>",
  "event_time": "1709441309",
  "token": "<token>",
  "team_id": "T0GFJL5J7",
  "context_team_id": "T01gqtPIL5J7",
  "context_enterprise_id": "null",
  "api_app_id": "<api_app_id>",
  "authorizations": [{
    "enterprise_id": "null",
    "team_id": "T0GFJL5J7",
    "user_id": "W012CDE",
    "is_bot": true,
    "is_enterprise_install": false,
  }, ],
  "is_ext_shared_channel": false,
  "event_context": "4-wd6joiQfdgTRQTpIzdfifQ"
},
```

The corresponding RudderStack-transformed (`track`) event payload is shown below:

```json
{
  "context": {
    "library": {
      "name": "unknown",
      "version": "unknown",
    },
    "integration": {
      "name": "SLACK",
    },
    "externalId": [{
      "type": "slackUserId",
      "id": "U04G7H550",
    }, ],
  },
  "integrations": {
    "SLACK": false,
  },
  "type": "track",
  "event": "Message",
  "anonymousId": "7509c04f547b05afb6838aa742f4910263d6",
  "originalTimestamp": "2024-03-03T04:48:29.308Z",
  "sentAt": "2024-03-03T04:48:29.000Z",
  "properties": {
    "user": "U04G7H550",
    "type": "message",
    "ts": "1709441309.308399",
    "client_msg_id": "834r664e-ec75-445d-t5c6-b873a07y9c81",
    "text": "What is the pricing of product X",
    "team": "T0GFJL5J7",
    "thread_ts": "1709407304.839329",
    "parent_user_id": "U06P6LQTPV",
    "blocks": [{
      "type": "rich_text",
      "block_id": "xGKJl",
      "elements": [{
        "type": "rich_text_section",
        "elements": [{
            "type": "text",
            "text": "What is the pricing of product X",
          },
          {
            "type": "channel",
            "channel_id": "C03CDQTPI65",
          },
          {
            "type": "text",
            "text": "to do this",
          },
        ],
      }, ],
    }, ],
    "channel": "C03CDQTPI65",
    "event_ts": "1709441309.308399",
    "channel_type": "channel",
  },
}
```