UMatter Bot

UMatter - A bot for instant appreciation via Mattermost

Project Summary:

This project aims to make mattermost more rewarding by appreciating peers in Mattermost channels right when and where great work is happening.

Hackathon Proposal:

This is a submission to Mattermost Hackathon.

Hackathon Proposal can be found here - Proposal

Note: One change in the proposal - Negative points are not implemented. After some thinking, awarding negative points is a bad way of communication. Hence, this feature was not implemented.

Features:

(Click on the feature for more info)

• Give Appreciation - Quickly give appreciation to the user right there in the channel itself.
• Create a Company Value - Create a company value as an emoji and tag to the appreciation posts
• Top Peers - Users can see top performing teammates in their respective channels wrt to a date range
• Self Statistics - See the statistics about yourself
• Channel Statistics - See the statistics in a public/private channel

Development:

Setting up the environment

This is the manual way of setting up the environment and the app

• Programming Language: Python 3.7

• Database: MySQL 8.0

• Create a database by name - "umatter"

• Run the script in db/init.sql

• Mattermost Version: v5.20

• Virtual Environment

  • Create an anaconda environment.
  • Activate the conda environment.
  • Run the command pip install requirements.txt

• Create a Bot Account in Mattermost with system admin access. Copy the Token and assign it to the corresponding config class MM_BOT_TOKEN. Follow the image below.

• Similarly if you are running the app in local, register a slash command with the url http://127.0.0.1:5000/v1/index/. Follow the image below.

• Configuration Variables

  • Flask Settings

  | Variable Name | Possible Values | Purpose | | --: | :-- | :-- | |APP_NAME| u-matter rest service| Name of the application| |APP_PORT| 5000 | port where the flask app runs| |APP_HOST| localhost | host url for the flask app| |DEBUG| True/False| To print the debug logs|

  • Mysql Settings

  | Variable Name | Possible Values | Purpose | | --: | :-- | :-- | |MYSQL_HOST| localhost| MySql host url| |MYSQL_USER| root | MySql user name| |MYSQL_PASSWORD| root | MySql User Password| |MYSQL_DB | umatter | MySql Database to Use| |MYSQL_PORT | 3306 | MySql Port|

  • Mattermost settings

  | Variable Name | Possible Values | Purpose | | --: | :-- | :-- | |DAILY_POINT_LIMIT| 10 | Max points given by an user per day| |PER_TRANSACTION_POINT_LIMIT| 5 |Max points given by an user for every appreciation| |WEEKLY_THRESHOLD| 40 |Weekly threshold for reward. Anyone crossing this value for 7 days are considered for reward| |MM_SCHEME|http/https|To use SSL encryption for MM connectivity or not| |MM_URL|localhost| Mattermost host| |MM_PORT|8065| Mattermost port| |MM_BOT_TOKEN|wegffdasdfgrearfdgb| Token once you create a bot account on MM| |MM_SLASH_TOKEN|sefgrrwefgrq3wreg| Token once you register a slash command in Mattermost|

  • Log File Path
    • LOG_FILE_PATH = "event_logs.log"

• All of the above configuration variables are in the config.py. You need to set the values accordingly.

• default configuration is set to production. In order to change it, set the environment variable FLASK_CONFIG to development or testing

• In Order to run the application manually, python run.py

• If everything works fine, you should see the logs printing as Serving on http://0.0.0.0:5000

Docker

This is the dockerized way of setting up the environment and the app.

• Here, set the mattermost url, port, bot token, slash command token.
• Run the command docker-compose up
• If everything works fine, you should be able to access the slash command in your mattermost UI.

Troubleshooting Common Problems:

1. Not able to access mattermost API - Set the Bot Token correctly
2. Not able to connect to database - Check if the mysql settings in the config are correct

Enhancements Needed:

• Automate the creation of the bot account
• Increase the statistics of channel
• Better format messages

Pending Tasks:

1. Unit testing
2. behavioral testing
3. Integration testing
4. Coverage

A big thanks to Christian Vaelor for his mattermost driver.