What is it?

The Slack Integrations widget provides a portal into your slack channels which you can view and contribute to through your digital workplace.

Features and functionality

The Slack integration widgets provide many of the features available in the Slack web interface:

View

You can see what is posted in your Slack channels through the integration. The feed shows posts and updates automatically when new entries are made from either the widget or other Slack interfaces. Scrolling through previous messages will automatically load additional messages if they exist.

Post messages

You can add new messages that include #hashtags, @mentions, and emojis. For more information about formatting your messages, see Slack's article about formatting your messages.

Upload files

You can upload files from your computer into slack. These follow the same restrictions as normal file restrictions in Slack. When uploading a file you can include a title and comment that will be published at the same time as the file upload.

Change Channel

You can select which of your existing Slack channels to display in the feed. Use the search option to quickly locate channels in addition to scrolling through the channel list.

Threaded Replies

You can create a reply thread by clicking the speech bubble icon located on a message. Messages with existing threads will contain a View Thread link that can be clicked to view the existing threaded replies.

Limitations

Slack limits the number of API calls that can be made per second from a single source. Including multiple slack widgets on a single page, or having multiple tabs open containing slack widgets may exceed this limit and cause the widgets to stop working. For more information, see Slack's rate limits.

How to add a Slack widget

Step 1: Add a widget

Add an Integrations widget to your page.

Step 2: Select Slack

Edit the widget and select the Slack option from the list.

Step 3: Configure advanced options (optional)

Selecting Advanced Options will expand a list of additional features.

• Channel Name - You can set which channel you would like to be displayed by default through the widget.
• Team ID - You can enter a team ID which will be used when connecting to Slack. If left blank, users will be prompted for the ID when connecting through the widget for the first time.
• Enable Channel Change - You can enable and disable the ability to show different channels than the one defined in Channel Name through the widget.
• Number of previous messages to show - Sets the number of recent messages that will be shown from the channel history.

Approving the Igloo App

The Igloo App is not listed in the Slack App Directory. Depending on the Slack Team's permissions, the Team Owner may need to approve the Igloo App before it can connect to the Slack Team. Signing into the Slack Integration before it has been approved results in the following message:
To approve the Igloo App, the Team Owner or a member who has permission to add Apps, must sign into Slack using the Integration. When signing in they will receive the following Authorization request:

Click Authorize to approve the app.

Refer to Slack's article, Manage apps for your workspace, if you encounter issues with authorizing the app.