prabhu43 / mattermost-spybot

Spybot for mattermost

mattermost-spy-bot

SpyBot notifies you when a specific user comes online after you have told the bot to spy on the user

Set environment variables

1. Create .env file using the template of file 'sample-env'
2. Fill all the environment variables mentioned in the file

Create Slash Command

Create a slash command and configure as follows:

Command Trigger Word: spy

Request URL: /spies

Request Method: POST

Response User: spt-bot (change as you wish)

Fill other details as you prefer!

Create incoming webhook using dedicated mattermost account for spy-bot

Create an incoming webhook and configure as follows:

Channel: any channel

Add the incoming webhook id in environment file(WEBHOOK_ID). SpyBot will use this incoming webhook to notify the user once the person comes online

Usage

1. Mention the mattermost server host(MATTERMOST_HOST) and port(MATTERMOST_PORT) in the environment file
2. Create a mattermost user for spy-bot and add that account credentials(SPY_ID, SPY_PASSWORD) in the environment file
3. Create 1 slash command and 1 incoming webhook as mentioned above. And assign incoming webhook id to WEBHOOK_ID env variable
4. Mention the polling interval time(POLL_INTERVAL_SECS). If it is not set, default polling interval is 1 minute. This indicates the frequency to check the user status.
5. Install npm dependencies: npm install
6. Start the app: npm start
7. To spy on your team mate: Type "/spy @<name>" or "/spy <name>" in the any channel. Once the victim comes online, Spybot will post the response in the direct channel to you

License

mattermost-spybot's Issues

Any plans to release / update

Would you like to collaborate and build this as a plugin?

Use slash command instead of outgoing webhook

The benefits of slash-commands:

• Slash commands work in all channels.
• They can have additional descriptions which makes it easier to use
• they are listed so someone could look up the possible commands and dont have to remember it.
• They can post an ephemeral message back to tell the user, that the action has successfully been placed.

Notify via private message

I think it's annoying to notify everyone in a channel just because one user wants a notification.

As suggested here (https://docs.mattermost.com/developer/webhooks-incoming.html) you should be able to use the incomming webhook but use @username as channel name to just send a private message as notification.