Slack Blockkit Builder is a simple utility for developing code blocks for Slack's Block Kit. It provides Pythonic-style blocks to allow for dynamic generation of block kits where copy-and-paste just won't do it.
Visit the documentation for more examples and method/class docs.
Installation is as easy as:
pip install slack_blockkitIt is currently tested on Python3+, but can be used for Python 2.7.
Slack's Block Kit comes with 4 different block categories:
- Block elements - The standard element of a block.
- Composition objects - Composition objects can be used inside of block elements and certain message payload fields. They are simply common JSON object patterns that you'll encounter frequently when building blocks or composing messages.
- Interactive components - Interactive components are a subset of Block Kit elements that add interactivity to various app surfaces.
- View payloads - Views are app-customized visual areas within modals and Home tabs.
Warning
Some interactive components are not implemented in version 0.0.4
You can access the different components by importing them from their respective package. For example, Block elements
can be accessed by importing from slack_blockkit.block_element import .... A common block element is the TextObject:
from slack_blockkit.block_element import TextObject
text_object = TextObject(btype="mrkdwn", text="This is a text block")Blocks are inserted into a list as dicts. Each component comes with a render() method which will return a dict:
text_object.render() # {"type": "mrkdwn", "text": "This is a text block"}Note
btype in synonymous with Slack's type. type is reserved in Python.
Message payloads to Slack take a list of dictionaries. The slack_blockkit.utils module has a get_blocks
method that takes Block objects and returns the formatted list:
from slack_blockkit.utils import get_blocks
from slack_blockkit.text_object import TextObject
from slack_blockkit.layout_block import DividerBlock, ImageBlock
blocks = get_blocks(
TextObject(btype="mrkdwn", text="Welcome to CodeDevils!"),
DividerBlock(),
ImageBlock(image_url="https://codedevils.org/static/img/logo", alt_text="Logo")
)Which makes blocks:
{
"type": "mrkdwn",
"text": "Welcome to CodeDevils!"
},
{
"type": "divider"
},
{
"type": "image",
"image_url": "https://codedevils.org/static/img/logo",
"alt_text": "Logo"
}Alternatively you can use the test_blocks_online if you want to test your blocks before
publishing them. The utility takes the blocks you input as arguments and creates a link that
takes you to Slack's block kit builder. An example is:
from slack_blockkit.layout_block import SectionBlock
from slack_blockkit.composition_object import PlainTextObject
from slack_blockkit.utils import test_blocks_online
section1 = SectionBlock(text=PlainTextObject(text="Section 1"))
section2 = SectionBlock(text=PlainTextObject(text="Section 2"))
test_blocks_online(section1, section2)This will print out to the console:
Copy and paste the following url into your browser:
https://app.slack.com/block-kit-builder/#{"blocks": [{"block_id": "96dc84a2-d517-4a75-ab83-193770df62cc", "text": {"text": "Section 1", "emoji": false, "type": "plain_text"}, "type": "section"}, {"block_id": "182c3fc6-3d7b-464e-8fb9-0fb832e8cd02", "text": {"text": "Section 2", "emoji": false, "type": "plain_text"}, "type": "section"}]}Copy and pasting this into your browser will open up Slack's block kit builder with the blocks you created.
Common composite blocks are implemented for you in slack_blockkit.utils and include:
get_task_block- Returns a task block, which is comprised of a paragraph of text followed by an information link at the bottom.get_text_block_with_image- Returns a text block with an image to the right of it.get_text_block_with_accessory- Returns a text block with an accessory.get_information_block- Returns an information block, which is a section with an info icon followed by linked text.get_checkmark- Not a block, but rather an emoji string for a checkmark. PassTruefor a checked mark andFalsefor unchecked.