Written by: Alon Hillel-Tuch

This Python script scans a Slack workspace to count the number of reactions for a specific emoticon and tallies the top users who used that emoticon. It utilizes the Slack API to fetch messages and reactions from channels the bot is a member of. Support command line interfacing, progress bar, CSV output, SQL storage, and more.

Features

• Scans all channels for specific emoticon reaction.
• Counts the number of times each user received the specified emoticon as a reaction to their post(s).
• Allows you to collect select data and store locally, can be beneficial for Slack accounts with limited history retention
• Outputs the top users with the most reactions for the specified emoticon.
• Provides basic error messages if the bot is not a member of certain channels and that channel is restrictive, including channel names and IDs. Use this to invite or not.
• Stores data locally in a sanitized SQL database, doesn't need encryption for confidentiality purposes (integrity and non-repudiation not considered)
• Command line argument support
• Supporting passing Slack token as an argument
• tqdm progress bar

Prerequisites

• Python 3.x
• slack_sdk library (pip install slack_sdk)
• tqdm (for progress bar)
• A Slack app with a bot token and necessary permissions (channels:history, groups:history, im:history, mpim:history, reactions:read, users:read).

Setup

• Create a Slack app and obtain a bot token with the required scopes.
• (NO LONGER NEEDED) Invite the bot to the channels you want it to scan.
• Replace 'your-slack-bot-token' in the script with your actual bot token OR pass the token via command line
• Feel free to tweak the rate-limiter for your specific Slack configuration. Set to not trigger the basic (free) Slack workspace params.

Usage

1. Run the script:

python SlackCounter.py

If the SQL database does not exist locally yet, it will be created at this point.

If passing the token:

python SlackCounter.py -t MY-TOKEN-TO-SLACK

2. Enter the emoticon name (without colons, e.g., +1, rocket, heart) when prompted.
3. The script will output the top users (received the most of the specified emoticon), along with a tally of the number of reactions received.

Command Line

The script supports command line arguments:

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -v, --verbose         Enable verbose output
  -csv [CSV_FILE], --csv [CSV_FILE]
                        Output user list to a CSV file
  -count COUNT_SIZE, --count COUNT_SIZE
                        Set size of output list
  -r RATE_LIMIT, --rate RATE_LIMIT
                        Set rate limit of calls per second
  -e EMOTICON_STR, --reaction EMOTICON_STR, --emoticon EMOTICON_STR
                        Pass reaction emoticon
  -p PULL_CHOICE, --pull PULL_CHOICE
                        Pull from Slack & DB (1) or just from DB (2)
  -o OUTPUT_STR, --output OUTPUT_STR
                        Set as 'desc' to change order
  -t TOKEN_STR, -token TOKEN_STR, -T TOKEN_STR, --token TOKEN_STR
                        Pass Slack Token

-csv [CSV_FILE]

You can call 'verbose mode' to get a more detailed output of work done. Only required for diagnosing or curious parties. You can pass a filename or leave blank, in which case it defualts to 'SlackCounter.csv'.

python SlackCounter.py -V output.csv

-count COUNT_SIZE

Allows you to define the size of the list you are pulling, for example '-count 5' would output a list of size 5

python SlackCounter.py -count 5

-r RATE_LIMIT

Example, 10 second wait per request rate limit

python SlackCounter.py -r 10

-e [EMOTICON_STR]

Allows you to pass the reation emoticon name instead of via interface

python SlackCounter.py -e nyu

-p PULL_CHOICE

Allows to to pass your selection of pulling from Slack and the DB (1) or just from the DB (2) instead of via interface

python SlackCounter.py -p 1

-o OUTPUT_CHOICE

Allows you to set the output in ascending versus descending order. Options "asc" or "ascend":

python SlackCounter.py -o ascend

-t TOKEN

Pass the token instead of storing in script:

python SlackCounter.py -t MY-TOKEN-TO-SLACK

All arguments can be combined. For example verbose mode enabled, custom csv, 5 second rate limit, list size of 20, pull option 1, emoticon 'nyu', output ascending, and passing the token:

python SlackCounter.py -v -r 5 -csv output.csv -e nyu -p 1 -o asc -t MY-TOKEN-TO-SLACK

Features in Development

• a method that will test what the rate limit is for the specific slack workspace and store that for future use
• disable any print to screen, so it just silently updates sql db
• Full silent mode, no progress bar even
• hashivault support
• pass Google Docs pickle so it can just store outputs in a google doc on your drive (allowing this to run as a job in background)