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API Client Installation

The first step to using the Slack API client is installing the slack-api-client module. This guide shows you how to set up using Maven, Gradle, and by building from source on your own.

Prerequisites​

Installing OpenJDK 8 or higher LTS version beforehand is required. As long as you are using a supported JDK version, this SDK should be working with any OpenJDK distributions.

Maven​

Let's start with how to installation with Maven. As slack-api-client is a library dependency, there is no requirement of Maven versions.

pom.xml​

Save pom.xml with the following XML definition in the root directory of your Java project. As you see, this is a commonplace Maven project. No specific settings would be needed to load the project on your favorite IDE.

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>com.example</groupId>
  <artifactId>awesome-slack-app</artifactId>
  <version>0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
  <packaging>jar</packaging>
  <properties>
    <maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>
    <maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
  </properties>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>com.slack.api</groupId>
      <artifactId>slack-api-client</artifactId>
      <version>1.44.2</version>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</project>

src/main/java/Example.java​

Create a new Java class named Example that has a main method to run. I know the following code is not actually useful. For now, place it just for verifying the build settings are valid.

import com.slack.api.Slack;
import com.slack.api.methods.response.api.ApiTestResponse;

public class Example {
  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    Slack slack = Slack.getInstance();
    ApiTestResponse response = slack.methods().apiTest(r -> r.foo("bar"));
    System.out.println(response);
  }
}

Run the Example.main(String[]) from your IDE or by running the following command.

mvn compile exec:java \
  -Dexec.cleanupDaemonThreads=false \
  -Dexec.mainClass="Example"

If you see the following stdout, your installation has succeeded!

ApiTestResponse(ok=true, args=ApiTestResponse.Args(foo=bar, error=null), warning=null, error=null, needed=null, provided=null)

In summary, the things you've done here are:

  • ✅ JDK 8 or higher installed (if not, run brew install openjdk@11 for macOS / visit OpenJDK website for others)
  • ✅ Maven installed (if not, run brew install maven for macOS / visit their website for others)
  • ✅ pom.xml having slack-api-client as a dependency
  • ✅ src/main/java/Example.java with the main method

Gradle​

Do you prefer using Gradle? Let's try installing the library with Gradle. The steps are quite similar to Maven, but there are some differences.

build.gradle​

Place build.gradle in the root directory of your Java project. We don't have any requirements for Gradle versions.

plugins {
  id("application")
}
repositories {
  mavenCentral()
}
dependencies {
  implementation("com.slack.api:slack-api-client:1.44.2")
}
application {
  mainClassName = "Example"
}

As with the Maven section, let's create a class named Example with the main method. Then, run it from your IDE or hit gradle run on your terminal. You'll see the same stdout.

In summary, the things you've done here are:

  • ✅ JDK 8 or higher installed (if not, run brew install openjdk@11 for macOS / visit OpenJDK website for others)
  • ✅ Gradle installed (if not, run brew install gradle for macOS / visit their website for others)
  • ✅ build.gradle having slack-api-client as a dependency
  • ✅ src/main/java/Example.java with the main method

Gradle for Kotlin​

In this guide, we sometimes use Kotlin code examples for simplicity. To try those examples, set up a Kotlin project with Gradle as below.

build.gradle​

The build settings are almost the same as above except for some Kotlin-specific parts.

plugins {
  id("org.jetbrains.kotlin.jvm") version "1.7.21" // use the latest Kotlin version
  id("application")
}
repositories {
  mavenCentral()
}
dependencies {
  implementation(platform("org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-bom"))
  implementation("org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-jdk8")
  implementation("com.slack.api:slack-api-client:1.44.2")

  // Add these dependencies if you want to use the Kotlin DSL for building rich messages
  implementation("com.slack.api:slack-api-model-kotlin-extension:1.44.2")
  implementation("com.slack.api:slack-api-client-kotlin-extension:1.44.2")
}
application {
  mainClassName = "ExampleKt" // add "Kt" suffix for main function source file
}

src/main/kotlin/Example.kt​

As you see, the code using slack-api-client in Kotlin is much more concise than Java. Run the following code from your IDE or by gradle run.

import com.slack.api.Slack

fun main() {
  val slack = Slack.getInstance()
  val response = slack.methods().apiTest { it.foo("bar") }
  println(response)
}
tip

A name of a source file in Kotlin needs to end with .kt, not .java.

In summary, the things you've done here are:

  • ✅ JDK 8 or higher installed (if not, run brew install openjdk@11 for macOS / visit OpenJDK website for others)
  • ✅ Gradle installed (if not, run brew install gradle for macOS / visit their website for others)
  • ✅ build.gradle having valid Kotlin language settings and slack-api-client as a dependency
  • ✅ src/main/kotlin/Example.kt with the main method

Build from Source​

You may want to build the latest revision on your own. In the case of building from source, go with the following steps.

git clone git@github.com:slackapi/java-slack-sdk.git
cd java-slack-sdk
mvn install -Dmaven.test.skip=true

Just by doing above, all the SDK modules will be available under $HOME/.m2/repository, so that now you can use them on the machine. If you use Gradle, make sure to add mavenLocal() to repositories in your build.gradle.

repositories {
  mavenLocal()
}