A very basic set of instructions for creating custom slash command intergrations in Hipchat using node.js.
After getting the files (You only need the app.js and package.json files), Open up a command window in the directory location of the copied files and type the following:
npm install
This will install all the required node modules needed to get this basic app running.
Once you have the dependencies installed locally, use the npm start command to run the app. Using Postman or your favourite REST client, you can POST a request to the local Endpoint.
Request:
POST localhost:3000/hipchatbot
Body:
{
"item":{
"message":{
"from":{
"name":"Joe User"
},
"message":"Test Sentence"
}
}
}
Response:
{
"message": "Joe User entered the following text: Test Sentence"
}
I've deployed the app to my Heroku platform so you can use this link as the entry point when practicing with your own Hipchat instances: https://node-hipchatbot.herokuapp.com/hipchatbot - By clicking this link, you will only be sending a GET request from your browser, this link needs to be added to a Hipchat intergration like in the image above.
The custom command intergrations in Hipchat take everything that has been typed and returns this in the message (" entered the following text: /hipchatbot Test Sentence") which obviously isn't very helpful, you will need add some code to split/strip out that "/hipchatbot" part.
This integration can be deployed using Heroku. The Procfile in this repository is all that you will need to start the server.
Here is a guide for deploying a node app to Heroku: https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/deploying-nodejs
Once this bot is deployed using either Heroku, AWS or any other platform, you can link it up to Hipchat and start using it to do...well, anything you tell it to do.
These custom slash command bots can be added to Hipchat by following the details contained in this Hipchat blog post.
https://blog.hipchat.com/2015/02/11/build-your-own-integration-with-hipchat/
Any problems, drop me a message on Twitter @dannydainton