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There are a few ways you can add information to a datastore. You can:
There's an important distinction between these methods! The put
and bulkPut
methods replace entire existing items, while the update
method will only update the provided attributes for items. Be careful to not accidentally lose information when using the put
and bulkPut
methods.
Slack CLI commands
You can also add items to a datastore with the datastore put
, datastore bulk-put
, and datastore update
Slack CLI commands. The datastore bulk-put
command even supports importing data from a JSON Lines file.
put
and bulkPut
There are two methods for creating and replacing items in datastores:
apps.datastore.put
method is best for single items.apps.datastore.bulkPut
method is best for multiple items.They work quite similarly.
put
method const putResp = await client.apps.datastore.put<
typeof DraftDatastore.definition
>({
datastore: DraftDatastore.name,
item: {
id: draftId,
created_by: inputs.created_by,
message: inputs.message,
channels: inputs.channels,
channel: inputs.channel,
icon: inputs.icon,
username: inputs.username,
status: DraftStatus.Draft,
},
});
bulkPut
method const putResp = await client.apps.datastore.bulkPut<
typeof DraftDatastore.definition
>({
datastore: DraftDatastore.name,
items: [
{
id: draftId,
created_by: inputs.created_by,
message: inputs.message,
channels: inputs.channels,
channel: inputs.channel,
icon: inputs.icon,
username: inputs.username,
status: DraftStatus.Draft,
},
{
id: draftId2,
created_by: inputs.created_by,
message: inputs.message,
channels: inputs.channels,
channel: inputs.channel,
icon: inputs.icon,
username: inputs.username,
status: DraftStatus.Draft,
},
]
});
That's the general format for each method - but let's look a full example to help connect the dots.
In this example, we create a custom function that creates and sends an announcement draft to a channel. Values for each of the datastore's attributes are passed in to create that announcement draft.
First is the custom function definition:
// /functions/create_draft/definition.ts
import { DefineFunction, Schema } from "deno-slack-sdk/mod.ts";
export const CREATE_DRAFT_FUNCTION_CALLBACK_ID = "create_draft";
/**
* This is a custom function manifest definition which
* creates and sends an announcement draft to a channel.
*
* More on defining functions here:
* https://api.slack.com/automation/functions/custom
*/
export const CreateDraftFunctionDefinition = DefineFunction({
callback_id: CREATE_DRAFT_FUNCTION_CALLBACK_ID,
title: "Create a draft announcement",
description:
"Creates and sends an announcement draft to channel for review before sending",
source_file: "functions/create_draft/handler.ts",
input_parameters: {
properties: {
created_by: {
type: Schema.slack.types.user_id,
description: "The user that created the announcement draft",
},
message: {
type: Schema.types.string,
description: "The text content of the announcement",
},
channel: {
type: Schema.slack.types.channel_id,
description: "The channel where the announcement will be drafted",
},
channels: {
type: Schema.types.array,
items: {
type: Schema.slack.types.channel_id,
},
description: "The channels where the announcement will be posted",
},
icon: {
type: Schema.types.string,
description: "Optional custom bot icon to use display in announcements",
},
username: {
type: Schema.types.string,
description: "Optional custom bot emoji avatar to use in announcements",
},
},
required: [
"created_by",
"message",
"channel",
"channels",
],
},
output_parameters: {
properties: {
draft_id: {
type: Schema.types.string,
description: "Datastore identifier for the draft",
},
message: {
type: Schema.types.string,
description: "The content of the announcement",
},
message_ts: {
type: Schema.types.string,
description: "The timestamp of the draft message in the Slack channel",
},
},
required: ["draft_id", "message", "message_ts"],
},
});
Next we have the handler function for CreateDraftFunction
. With it, we create a new datastore record using the put
method:
// /functions/create_draft/handler.ts
import { SlackFunction } from "deno-slack-sdk/mod.ts";
import { CreateDraftFunctionDefinition } from "./definition.ts";
import { buildDraftBlocks } from "./blocks.ts";
import {
confirmAnnouncementForSend,
openDraftEditView,
prepareSendAnnouncement,
saveDraftEditSubmission,
} from "./interactivity_handler.ts";
import { ChatPostMessageParams, DraftStatus } from "./types.ts";
import DraftDatastore from "../../datastores/drafts.ts";
/**
* This is the handling code for the CreateDraftFunction. It will:
* 1. Create a new datastore record with the draft
* 2. Build a Block Kit message with the draft and send it to input channel
* 3. Update the draft record with the successful sent drafts timestamp
* 4. Pause function completion until user interaction
*/
export default SlackFunction(
CreateDraftFunctionDefinition,
async ({ inputs, client }) => {
const draftId = crypto.randomUUID();
// 1. Create a new datastore record with the draft
const putResp = await client.apps.datastore.put<
typeof DraftDatastore.definition
>({
datastore: DraftDatastore.name,
item: {
id: draftId,
created_by: inputs.created_by,
message: inputs.message,
channels: inputs.channels,
channel: inputs.channel,
icon: inputs.icon,
username: inputs.username,
status: DraftStatus.Draft,
},
});
if (!putResp.ok) {
const draftSaveErrorMsg =
`Error saving draft announcement. Contact the app maintainers with the following information - (Error detail: ${putResp.error})`;
console.log(draftSaveErrorMsg);
return { error: draftSaveErrorMsg };
}
...
If the call was successful, the payload's ok
property will be true
, and the item
or items
property will return a copy of the data you just inserted:
{
"ok": true,
"datastore": "drafts",
"item": {
"id": "906dba92-44f5-4680-ada9-065149e4e930",
"created_by": "U045A5X302V",
"message": "This is a test message",
"channels": ["C039ARY976C"],
"channel": "C038M39A2TV",
"icon": "",
"username": "Slackbot",
"status": "draft",
}
}
If the call was not successful, the payload's ok
property will be false
, and you will have a error code
and message
property available:
{
"ok": false,
"error": "datastore_error",
"errors": [
{
"code": "some_error_code",
"message": "A description of the error",
"pointer": "/datastore/drafts"
}
]
}
Datastore bulk API methods may partially fail.
The partial_failure
error message indicates that some items were successfully processed while others need to be retried. This is likely due to rate limits. Call the method again with only those failed items.
You'll find a failed_items
array within the API response. The array contains all the items that failed, in the same format they were passed in. Copy the failed_items
array and use it in your request.
If you're adding new data via the put
or bulkPut
method, provide each item with a new primary key value in the id
property. If you're updating an existing items, provide the id
of each item you wish to replace. Note that a put
or bulkPut
request replaces each entire specified object, if it exists.
"This datastore size is just right"
The total allowable size of an item (all fields in a record) must be less than 400 KB.
update
Updating only some of an item's attributes is done with the apps.datastore.update
API method. Let's see how that works by passing in values for only some of the datastore's attributes:
// /functions/create_draft_interactivity_handler.ts
...
export const saveDraftEditSubmission: ViewSubmissionHandler<
typeof CreateDraftFunction.definition
> = async (
{ inputs, view, client },
) => {
// Get the datastore draft ID from the modal's private metadata
const { id, thread_ts } = JSON.parse(view.private_metadata || "");
const message = view.state.values.message_block.message_input.value;
// Update the saved message
const updateResp = await client.apps.datastore.update({
datastore: DraftDatastore.name,
item: {
id: id,
message: message, // This call will update only the message of the draft announcement
},
});
if (!updateResp.ok) {
const updateDraftMessageErrorMsg =
`Error updating draft ${id} message. Contact the app maintainers with the following - (Error detail: ${putResp.error})`;
console.log(updateDraftMessageErrorMsg);
return;
}
...
If the call was successful, the payload's ok
property will be true
, and the item
property will return a copy of the updated data:
{
"ok": true,
"datastore": "drafts",
"item": {
"id": "906dba92-44f5-4680-ada9-065149e4e930",
"created_by": "U045A5X302V",
"message": "This is a message that will be sent",
"channels": ["C039ARY976C"],
"channel": "C038M39A2TV",
"icon": "",
"username": "Slackbot",
"status": "draft",
}
}
If the call was not successful, the payload's ok
property will be false
, and you will have a error code
and message
property available:
{
"ok": false,
"error": "datastore_error",
"errors": [
{
"code": "some_error_code",
"message": "A description of the error",
"pointer": "/datastore/drafts"
}
]
}
If an item with the provided id
doesn't exist in the datastore, update
will insert the item using the provided attributes.