Contains several scripts and other resources for Slack.

NOTE: This repository has been ARCHIVED - Slack now uses OAuth instead of token-based authentication, so the authentication methods in this repository are no longer supported.

Quick jump:

• Slack archive tool: slackarchive.py
  • Installation steps
  • Slack API token
  • How to run
    • Arguments
  • Making excerpts
    • Inputs
  • Expansion ideas

slackarchive.py is a Python2-based archiving tool for Slack that archives all public channel content.

History-stitching is a feature of this script. Stitching is performed by taking multiple possibly-overlapping history dumps from Slack and organizing them into one continuous history file. This process includes any prior continuous history file as a starting point.

This script is also able to make time-bounded excerpts of specific channels in human-readable text form (without reactji).

1. Clone the repository locally
2. Generate a Slack API token for Slack you want to archive, if it doesn't already exist (below)

A token is necessary to be able to use the Slack API.

Generate a Slack token at: https://api.slack.com/web

Without a command-line argument, a token.txt file with a Slack API token string is expected to be located in the root save folder at

DEFAULT_PATH/DEFAULT_SAVE_FOLDER/TOKEN_FILENAME

Default path is: $USER/SavedHistory/slacktoken.txt or ~/SavedHistory/slacktoken.txt

Run the script with any options as below

python slackarchive.py <arguments>

• -t <token>, --token <token>
  • Specify a (text) user token, overrides any saved token in root path
• -hist, --history-only
  • Perform history-stitching only, no message retrieval. This can be done offline as it only uses local files.
• -arch, --archive-only
  • Perform message retrieval/archiving only, skip history stitching.
• -r <path>, --root-path <path>
  • Specifies root path for non-specified token and save folder. Default is user home directory; $USER/ or ~ depending on operating system.
• -d <foldername>, --dest-name <foldername>
  • Specifies a name for the save folder at the root path. Default is SavedHistory.

Currently, this is not available from the command line, only by importing the script and running it inside a shell.

from slackarchive import makeExcerpt
makeExcerpt(channel, dest, token, tstart=0, tstop=-1, outfile=EXCERPT_FILENAME)

Creates a readable excerpt of a history file from the given start time to the stop time. Does not include reactji. The output generated looks like a chat transcript for easy reading.

Required:

• channel: the channel name or ID to excerpt from
• dest: destination directory (generally the top-level SavedHistory folder)
• token: Slack token string

Optional:

• tstart: time to start excerpt (default: 0 = the beginning of time)
• tstop: time to stop excerpt (default: -1 = present)
• outfile: optional filename (default: EXCERPT_FILENAME = "_excerpt.txt")

NOTE: If outfile is used, put it in another dest folder or future history stitching will object to invalid formatting

• Better JSON parsing and output formatting
• Additional command-line arguments for more customizable saving structures without editing code
• Safer input handling and perform proper unicode translation
• Improve message request response fault detection and add error handling to the different types of requests
• When loading directories, parse for specific exception type that occurs when attempting to os.makedirs(<path>) a path that exists so we don't ignore unexpected exceptions
• Add @mention name lookup when parsing text into user names inside messages
• When excerpting, make history stitching ignore invalid files
• Command-line support for making an excerpt