norrisbot

The NorrisBot is a Slack bot that kicks asses, roundhouse-kicks to be precise... It's super-powered with Chuck Norris jockes and it aims to make your Slack channel even more "slacker" and enjoyable.

NorrisBot is loaded with guns and jokes about Chuck Norris and it will tell a random joke every time that someone says “Chuck Norris” in the chatroom.

Installation

As simple as installing any other global node package. Be sure to have npm and node (>= 0.10 version, or io.js >= 1.0) installed and launch:

$ npm install -g norrisbot

Running the NorrisBot

To run the NorrisBot you must have an API token to authenticate the bot on your slack channel. Once you get it (instructions on the next paragraph) you just have to run:

BOT_API_KEY=somesecretkey norrisbot

Getting the API token for your Slack channel

To allow the NorrisBot to connect your Slack channel you must provide him an API key. To retrieve it you need to add a new Bot in your Slack organization by visiting the following url: https://yourorganization.slack.com/services/new/bot, where yourorganization must be substituted with the name of your organization (e.g. https://loige.slack.com/services/new/bot). Ensure you are logged to your Slack organization in your browser and you have the admin rights to add a new bot.

You will find your API key under the field API Token, copy it in a safe place and get ready to use it.

Configuration

The NorrisBot is configurable through environment variables. There are several variable available:

Environment variable	Description
`BOT_API_KEY`	this variable is mandatory and must be used to specify the API token needed by the bot to connect to your Slack organization
`BOT_DB_PATH`	optional variable that allows you to use a different database or to move the default one to a different path
`BOT_NAME`	the name of your bot, it’s optional and it will default to norrisbot

Launching the bot from source

If you downloaded the source code of the bot you can run it using NPM with:

$ npm start

Don't forget to set your BOT_API_KEY environment variable bedore doing so. Alternatively you can also create a file called token.js in the root folder and put your token there (you can use the token.js.example file as a reference).

Bugs and improvements

If you find a bug or have an idea about how to improve the NorrisBot you can open an issue or submit a pull request, it will definitely make you a better person! :P

The Making of

The NorrisBot has been developed in collaboration with Scotch.io. A very detailed article has been published to explain every single line of code. It also explains you how to deploy the bot on a free Heroku instance, so you should give it a shot!

Enjoy your reading!

mthayer/norrisbot