Package: slack-backup
The project aim is to collect conversations from Slack using its API and
optionally user account information, and provides convenient way to represent
as a log.RequirementsThis project is written in Python 3, 3.4 to be precise (currently it works with
version 3.6), although it may work on earlier version of Python3. Sorry no
support for Python2.Other than that, required packages are as follows:slackclient 1.0.2SQLAlchemy 1.0.10InstallationYou can install it usingpip installslack-backupcommand. Recommended way
is to create virtualenv, like so:user@localhost $virtualenv-ppython3myenvRunning virtualenv with interpreter /usr/bin/python3
Using base prefix '/usr'
New python executable in foobar/bin/python3
Also creating executable in foobar/bin/python
Installing setuptools, pip, wheel...done.user@localhost $.myenv/bin/activate(myenv)user@localhost $pipinstallslack-backupYou can also get this repository and install from it, like:user@localhost ~ $virtualenv-ppython3myenvRunning virtualenv with interpreter /usr/bin/python3
Using base prefix '/usr'
New python executable in foobar/bin/python3
Also creating executable in foobar/bin/python
Installing setuptools, pip, wheel...done.user@localhost $.myenv/bin/activate(myenv)user@localhost ~ $cdmyenv(myenv)user@localhost ~/myenv $gitclonehttps://github.com/gryf/slack-backup(myenv)user@localhost ~/myenv $cdslack-backup(myenv)user@localhost ~/myenv/slack-backup $pipinstall.UsageThere is a commandline tool calledslack-backup, which typical use would get
to gather the data and generate logs. Using example from above, here is a
typical session:(myenv)user@localhost ~/myenv/slack-backup $mkdir~/mylogs&&cd~/mylogs(myenv)user@localhost ~/mylogs $slack-backupfetch\--tokenxxxx-1111111111-222222222222-333333333333-r4nd0ms7uff\--usersome@email.address.org--passwordsecret--teammyteam\-qq-dmydatabase.sqlitewhere:--tokenis generated onSlack side tokenfor interaction with the API.
It’s required.--useris your slack account username…--password…and password. Those two are needed if you care about files
posted on the channels, which are hosted on Slack servers. They can be
skipped, if you don’t care about such files. Avatars still be downloaded
though. External resources will not be downloaded - they have URL anyway.--teamteam name. It is the part of the URL for your slack team; in other
words in URL likehttp://foobar.slack.comfoobaris the team name.-q(or--quiet) will suppress any messages from program. In contrary
there can be used--verboseto increase verbosity. Using this option
several times (up to three, above the number will have no effect) will amplify
effectiveness of either be quite or be verbose behaviour.-dor--databaseis the file path for database (which for now at least
is an sqlite database file). It can be omitted - in-memory db would be
created, but you’ll (obviously) lost all the records. Besides the db file,
assets directory might be created for downloadable items.You can also specify directory, where pure response JSONs from Slack API will
be stored by using-r/--raw-diror by providing it in config file infetchsection asraw_dir(note the underscore in config file contrary
to the swith, which have hyphen betweenrawanddir). This might be useful for
debugging purposes.There is one more switch to take into consideration --f/--url-file-to-attachmentwhich influence the way how external file
share would be treated. First of all, what isexternalfile share from slack
point of view, one could ask. Slack have some sort of integration with Google
services, like Google Drive, which provide slack users to create or “upload”
files from Google Drive. “Upload”, since no uploading actually takes place,
and only URL is provided for such “uploads”. By defaultslack-backupwill
create a file which is prefixedmanual_download_which will contain URL and
destination path to the file, where user should manual download file to.
Example file contents:http://foo.bar.com/some/file --> assets/files/83340cbe-fee2-4d2e-bdb1-cace9c82e6d4
http://foo.bar.com/some/other/file --> assets/files/8a4c873c-1864-4f1b-b515-bbef119f33a3
http://docs/google.com/some/gdoc/file --> assets/files/ec8752bc-0bf8-4743-a8bd-9756107ab386By setting--url-file-to-attachmentflag (or making an optionurl_file_to_attachmentset totruein config file) such “uploads” would
be internally converted into Slack “attachment”, which internally is an object
to store external links, so there is no need for user interaction.During DB creation, all available messages are stored in the database. On the
next run,fetchwould only take those records, which are older from
currently oldest in DB. So that it will only fetch a subset of the overall of
the messages. As for the channels and users - complete information will be
downloaded every timefetchcommand would be used.Next, to generate a log files:(myenv)user@localhost ~/mylogs $slack-backupgenerate\-v-dmydatabase.sqlite--formattext-ologswhere:--formatis the desired format of the logs. For now onlytextformat
of the logs is supported (IRC style format). Formatnonewill produce
nothing.-oor--outputis the destination directory, where logs and possible
assets will land.The rest of the options (-dand-v) have same meaning as infetchcommand.See help for theslack-backupcommand for complete list of options.ConfigurationFor convenience, you can place all of needed options into configuration file
(aka .ini), which all options (with their defaults) will look like:[common]channels=database=quiet=0verbose=0[generate]output=format=texttheme=plain[fetch]url_file_to_attachment=falseuser=password=team=token=raw_dir=Note, that you don’t have to put every option. To illustratefetchexample
from above, here is a corresponding config file:[common]database=mydatabase.sqlitequiet=2[fetch]user=some@email.address.orgpassword=secretteam=myteamtoken=xxxx-1111111111-222222222222-333333333333-r4nd0ms7uffNote, that only[common]and[fetch]sections are provided, so it is
enough to invokeslack-backupcommand as:(myenv)user@localhost ~/mylogs $slack-backupfetchThere are couple of places, where configuration file would be searched for, in
particular order:file provided via argument-ior--configslack-backup.iniin current directory$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/slack-backup.ini, where$XDG_CONFIG_HOMEusually
defaults to$HOME/.configDetailsDuring first run, database with provided name is generated. For ease of use
sqlite database is used, although it is easy to switch the engine, since there
is an ORM (SQLAlchemy) used.Slack users, channels and messages are mapped to SQLAlchemy models, as well as
other information, like:user profileschannel topicchannel purposemessage reactionsmessage attachmentsand filesChannels and users are always synchronized in every run, so every modification
to the user or channels are overwriting old data. During first run, all messages
are retrieved for all/selected channels. Every other run will only fetch those
messages, which are older then newest message in the database - so that we don’t
loose any old messages, which might be automatically removed from Slack servers.
The drawback of this behaviour is that all past messages which was altered in
the meantime will not be updated.LicenseThis work is licensed on 3-clause BSD license. See LICENSE file for details.