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Workflow Steps from Apps (Deprecated)

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Steps from Apps for legacy workflows are now deprecated. Use new custom steps.

Workflow Steps from apps allow your app to create and process custom workflow steps that users can add using Workflow Builder.

A workflow step is made up of three distinct user events:

  • Adding or editing the step in a Workflow
  • Saving or updating the step's configuration
  • The end user's execution of the step

All three events must be handled for a workflow step to function. Read more about workflow steps from apps in the API documentation.

Slack App Configuration​

To enable Workflow Steps, visit the Slack App configuration page, choose the app you're working on, and go to Features > Workflow Steps on the left pane. There are three things to do on the page.

  • Turn on the feature (Turn on workflow steps)
  • Click the Add Step button and set the name and Callback ID

Also, your app requires the Interactivity. Go to Interactive Components and set the Request URL to receive events from Slack.

Creating workflow steps​

To create a workflow step, Bolt provides the WorkflowStep class.

When instantiating a new WorkflowStep, pass in the step's callback_id and a configuration object.

The configuration object contains three properties: edit, save, and execute. Each of these properties must be a single listener object. All listeners have access to a step object that contains information about the workflow step event.

After instantiating a WorkflowStep, you can pass it into app.step(). Behind the scenes, your app will listen and respond to the workflow step’s events using the callbacks provided in the configuration object.

import com.slack.api.bolt.App;
import com.slack.api.bolt.middleware.builtin.WorkflowStep;

// Initiate the Bolt app as you normally would
App app = new App();

WorkflowStep step = WorkflowStep.builder()
  .callbackId("copy_review")
  .edit((req, ctx) -> { return ctx.ack(); })
  .save((req, ctx) -> { return ctx.ack(); })
  .execute((req, ctx) -> { return ctx.ack(); })
  .build();

app.step(step);

Adding or editing workflow steps​

When a builder adds (or later edits) your step in their workflow, your app will receive a workflow_step_edit event. The edit callback in your WorkflowStep configuration will be run when this event is received.

Whether a builder is adding or editing a step, you need to send them a workflow step configuration modal. This modal is where step-specific settings are chosen, and it has more restrictions than typical modals—most notably, it cannot include title, submit, or close properties. By default, the configuration modal's callback_id will be the same as the workflow step.

Within the edit callback, the configure() utility can be used to easily open your step's configuration modal by passing in an object with your view's blocks. To disable saving the configuration before certain conditions are met, pass in submit_disabled with a value of true.

To learn more about opening configuration modals, read the documentation.

import static com.slack.api.model.block.Blocks.*;
import static com.slack.api.model.block.composition.BlockCompositions.plainText;
import static com.slack.api.model.block.element.BlockElements.plainTextInput;

WorkflowStep step = WorkflowStep.builder()
  .callbackId("copy_review")
  .edit((req, ctx) -> {
    ctx.configure(asBlocks(
      section(s -> s.blockId("intro-section").text(plainText("text"))),
      input(i -> i
        .blockId("task_name_input")
        .element(plainTextInput(pti -> pti.actionId("task_name")))
        .label(plainText("Task name"))
      ),
      input(i -> i
        .blockId("task_description_input")
        .element(plainTextInput(pti -> pti.actionId("task_description")))
        .label(plainText("Task description"))
      ),
      input(i -> i
        .blockId("task_author_input")
        .element(plainTextInput(pti -> pti.actionId("task_author")))
        .label(plainText("Task author"))
      )
    ));
    return ctx.ack();
  })
  .save((req, ctx) -> { return ctx.ack(); })
  .execute((req, ctx) -> { return ctx.ack(); })
  .build();

app.step(step);

Saving step configurations​

After the configuration modal is opened, your app will listen for the view_submission request. The save callback in your WorkflowStep configuration will be run when this request is received.

Within the save callback, the update() method can be used to save the builder's step configuration by passing in the following arguments:

  • inputs is an object representing the data your app expects to receive from the user upon workflow step execution.
  • outputs is an array of objects containing data that your app will provide upon the workflow step's completion. Outputs can then be used in subsequent steps of the workflow.
  • stepName overrides the default Step name
  • stepImageUrl overrides the default Step image

To learn more about how to structure these parameters, read the documentation.

import java.util.*;
import com.slack.api.model.workflow.*;
import static com.slack.api.model.workflow.WorkflowSteps.*;

static String extract(Map<String, Map<String, ViewState.Value>> stateValues, String blockId, String actionId) {
  return stateValues.get(blockId).get(actionId).getValue();
}

WorkflowStep step = WorkflowStep.builder()
  .callbackId("copy_review")
  .edit((req, ctx) -> { return ctx.ack(); })
  .save((req, ctx) -> {
    Map<String, Map<String, ViewState.Value>> stateValues = req.getPayload().getView().getState().getValues();
    Map<String, WorkflowStepInput> inputs = new HashMap<>();
    inputs.put("taskName", stepInput(i -> i.value(extract(stateValues, "task_name_input", "task_name"))));
    inputs.put("taskDescription", stepInput(i -> i.value(extract(stateValues, "task_description_input", "task_description"))));
    inputs.put("taskAuthorEmail", stepInput(i -> i.value(extract(stateValues, "task_author_input", "task_author"))));
    List<WorkflowStepOutput> outputs = asStepOutputs(
      stepOutput(o -> o.name("taskName").type("text").label("Task Name")),
      stepOutput(o -> o.name("taskDescription").type("text").label("Task Description")),
      stepOutput(o -> o.name("taskAuthorEmail").type("text").label("Task Author Email"))
    );
    ctx.update(inputs, outputs);
    return ctx.ack();
  })
  .execute((req, ctx) -> { return ctx.ack(); })
  .build();

app.step(step);

Executing workflow steps​

When your workflow step is executed by an end user, your app will receive a workflow_step_execute event. The execute callback in your WorkflowStep configuration will be run when this event is received.

Using the inputs from the save callback, this is where you can make third-party API calls, save information to a database, update the user's Home tab, or decide the outputs that will be available to subsequent workflow steps by mapping values to the outputs object.

Within the execute callback, your app must either call complete() to indicate that the step's execution was successful, or fail() to indicate that the step's execution failed.

import java.util.*;
import com.slack.api.model.workflow.*;

WorkflowStep step = WorkflowStep.builder()
  .callbackId("copy_review")
  .edit((req, ctx) -> { return ctx.ack(); })
  .save((req, ctx) -> { return ctx.ack(); })
  .execute((req, ctx) -> {
    WorkflowStepExecution wfStep = req.getPayload().getEvent().getWorkflowStep();
    Map<String, Object> outputs = new HashMap<>();
    outputs.put("taskName", wfStep.getInputs().get("taskName").getValue());
    outputs.put("taskDescription", wfStep.getInputs().get("taskDescription").getValue());
    outputs.put("taskAuthorEmail", wfStep.getInputs().get("taskAuthorEmail").getValue());
    try {
      ctx.complete(outputs);
    } catch (Exception e) {
      Map<String, Object> error = new HashMap<>();
      error.put("message", "Something wrong!");
      ctx.fail(error);
    }
    return ctx.ack();
  })
  .build();

app.step(step);