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slack-apislack

Replace URLs in custom integration

I have added the Twitter and Google Drive app to my Slack team. For an ERP system I am currently working on, I’d like to replace certain URLs similar to how Twitter / Google Drive do:

  • Google Drive:

    Your message containing the link will be changed into a share message point to the external reference file in Slack

    Google Drive integration for Slack

  • Twitter:

    Automatically expand pasted Twitter URLs, displaying the full tweet and attached media

The obvious way seems to be using an Outgoing Webhook with the first part of the URL (e.g. https://erp.acme.com) as "trigger word", but this doesn’t seem to be working with private groups and channels. Google Drive doesn’t seem to have this limitation. Which API offers enough flexibility?

Solution

  • An engineer from Slack replied and offered two solutions. Thanks Brad!

    Solution A

    Set the outgoing webhook trigger to <https://erp.acme.com – note the opening <, as that's how URLs are parsed on Slack's side. The outgoing webhooks currently only work in public channels.

    Solution B

    Provide meta tags to make use of Slack's "unfurling".

    You can read the link expanding documentation here, as well as this in-depth blog post about Slack unfurling.

    Infographic on Slack's "unfurling"