Slack

Sync your warehouse with Slack and push business metrics and user activity data to Slack in real-time

Overview

With the Slack destination, Hightouch can serve as a notifier for various data-related events or changes. This is a very flexible integration that you can use for many different use cases, such as:

• notifying your Customer Success teams when product usage for a key account suddenly drops
• notifying an Account Executive when product usage surpasses a certain threshold
• sending a daily summary of the number of sign-ups compared to the same day in the previous month
• sending a daily summary on the adoption of a core feature

Supported syncing

Slack error alerting

To learn more about setting up Slack as your error alerting tool, see the Alerting page.

Connect to Slack

Authenticating with OAuth

Use OAuth to connect Slack by navigating to Destinations > Create New > Slack. Click Connect and log in with your desired Slack account. Once you have selected your desired workspace, click Allow and you will see an Authorization successful screen in Hightouch. Finish your setup by clicking the continue button and naming your destination.

If you run into any issues during the authentication process, you can visit the Hightouch app page in the Slack App Directory. Then make sure that the correct Slack workspace is selected in the upper-right corner, and click Add to Slack. If it's already authorized, then you can only see the Open in Slack option. Once you've successfully authorized, retry the previous steps to create a Slack destination in your Hightouch workspace.

Adding the Hightouch bot to a channel

In order for Hightouch to message your channel, you need to ensure the Hightouch bot is added as an integration. Follow the steps below to add the bot to your channel.

Adding the Hightouch bot can be done by typing /invite @hightouch in the Slack composer. If that doesn't work you can also add the Hightouch bot by following these steps:

1. Go to your channel and click the dropdown button (∨) next to the channel name.

   

2. Click Integrations > Add an App.

   

3. Search for Hightouch and click Add next to the Hightouch app name.

   

4. The Hightouch bot should now appear in the channel settings.

   

Sync configuration

Once you've set up your Slack destination and have a model to pull data from, you can set up your sync configuration to begin syncing data. Go to the Syncs overview page and click the Add sync button to begin. Then, select the relevant model and the Slack destination you want to sync to.

Syncing messages

Hightouch supports sending messages based on rows that have been added, changed, or removed since the last sync run.

Channel selection

After adding the Hightouch bot to a Slack channel, you can select it from this dropdown menu or enter a channel ID manually. You can also enable the Use column toggle to select a model column instead of a Slack channel name. The model column selected in the dropdown menu must contain the correct Slack channel ID for every row in your model. This also allows you to dynamically set the target channel, by inserting different Slack channel IDs for different rows in your model.

Private channels

Private channels are hidden from the dropdown. To send to a private channel you can manually enter the channel ID.

Added, changed, and removed messages

Hightouch allows you to send different messages based on the row type:

• when a row is added to your query results, Hightouch will send the row added content.
• when a row is changed in your query results, Hightouch will send the row changed content.
• when a row is deleted from your query results, Hightouch will send the row deleted content.

This content can be templated and also supports the Slack Block Kit.

Syncing batch messages

The batch message sync mode is similar to the normal message mode, except it sends all rows in the query result rather than only added, changed, or removed rows. This sync mode is ideal if you want to write a template and have Hightouch push a message containing all rows to Slack, formatted as a single message.

This mode also allows you to specify how many rows are sent per message, which can range from 1 to 50. With 1 row per message, it behaves similar to the message sync mode since it creates multiple messages in Slack. Whereas 50 rows per message is similar to the table sync mode.

Channel selection

The batch message sync mode only supports sending your messages to a single channel, unlike the message mode.

Private channels

Private channels are hidden from the dropdown. To send to a private channel you can manually enter the channel ID.

Header, body, and footer content

For each message, Hightouch allows setting the header, body, and footer content. The header and footer are optional, whereas the message body is required. The body is repeated for every row in your model.

This content can be templated and also supports the Slack Block Kit.

Syncing tables

The table sync mode is similar to the batch message mode. It sends all of your query results as a table-formatted message to Slack. This mode is only recommended for small datasets.

Syncing CSV files

The CSV sync mode is similar to the batch message and table modes. It sends all of your query results as a CSV file attached to a Slack message.

Templating messages

Liquid templating is supported for the message and batch message sync modes. This allows you to include model columns as part of the message body to insert dynamic values in your Slack messages. Here is an example message making use of Liquid to include model columns in a message:

User with name {{ row['first name'] }} and email {{ email }} has signed up

Check out our Extended Liquid use cases section to learn how to format dates, strings or currency amounts.

Tagging Slack users (@...)

Hightouch supports tagging users by either their Slack User ID or by email:

• Tagging by User ID: tag by user ID by writing <@{{ userId }}> where userId is the column that contains the user's Slack ID. If the userId is a static value, you can write something like <@UL53466SY>.
• Tagging by Email: tag by email by writing <@{{ email | slack_user_lookup }}> where email is the column that contains the user's email used in Slack. If the email is a static value, you can write something like <@{{ "example@gmail.com" | slack_user_lookup }}>.

Inserting URLs

You can insert URLs by highlighting a section of your template and pasting the URL.

Otherwise, you can build URLs directly by following this format: <URL link|URL text>. For example, a URL that points to a Salesforce organization's page could look like this: <https://www.salesforce.com/organization/{{ org_id }}/view|Salesforce Organization>

We recommend using the second method when building dynamic URLs with liquid templating.

Unfurling links and blocking unfurl

By default, Slack automatically unfurls (displays a preview of) URL links in your messages. To prevent automatic unfurling, surround the URL with backticks (`), for example:

`https://www.hightouch.com/`

Formatting text for Slack app surfaces

Slack provides an extensive guide to formatting surfaces in Slack apps with instructions on how to:

• format text
• insert emojis
• mention users, groups, and channels
• format dates, quotes, and lists

Slack Block Kit

To enable the Slack Block Kit, select Slack Block Kit for the content type. Make sure to use Slack's Block Kit Builder to draft your message content.

Each message content must be an array of Slack blocks, here is an example of a valid configuration.

The Test Block Kit button under the message content allows you to view your templates as a Slack message (view an example).

Customizing bot appearance

Hightouch also allows you to customize how the Hightouch bot is displayed when sending messages to your Slack channel. You can find these fields in your sync configuration:

Keep in mind that users in the channel will be able to see the real bot name and image by clicking on it.

Tips and troubleshooting

Common errors

If you encounter an error or question not listed below and need assistance, don't hesitate to reach out. We're here to help.

Slack channel not appearing in sync configuration

If your Slack channel isn't appearing in the channel selection menu, make sure that you added the Hightouch bot to the channel. If this still doesn't work, try reauthorizing your Slack destination in Hightouch. As a next troubleshooting step, remove the Hightouch Slack App from your Slack workspace by visiting the Hightouch app page, opening the Configuration tab, and clicking Remove App.

Then set up a new Slack destination and add the Hightouch bot to your Slack channel once more.

Invalid_blocks

Using "plain_text" instead of "mrkdwn" in your Slack Block Kit syntax is the most common cause of this error. You can find examples of the correct syntax to use in the Slack Block Kit section of this page.

Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'length')

You may receive the Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'length') error when syncing batch messages. If you're using the Slack Block Kit as the content type, your sync might return this error instead: Parsing failed with error SyntaxError: Unexpected end of JSON input.

In either case, make sure to insert body content in the sync configuration. Header and footer content is optional.

ParseError: unexpected token

The full error message may look like, unexpected token at "name", line:1, col:13. You may receive this error because a column header that is being referenced in your message contains a space. For example:

First Name: {{ first name }}

To resolve this error you can try the following options:

• Rename your column so that the name does not contain spaces, for example, firstName or first_name. An example will look like:

First Name: {{ first_name }}

• If you cannot change the column's name then you can use this language of liquid templating. An example will look like:

First Name: {{ row['first name'] }}

Live debugger

Hightouch provides complete visibility into the API calls made during each of your sync runs. We recommend reading our article on debugging tips and tricks to learn more.

Sync alerts

Hightouch can alert you of sync issues via Slack, PagerDuty, SMS, or email. For details, please visit our article on alerting.