I'm trying to find a way to have an application post a text snippet to our support channel through the Slack API. Using the files.upload method, I can create a text snippet and share it with the channel, but the post appears to come from me (because the token used to authenticate the request is mine).
I'm looking for a way to do this, but make it appear with a custom user name and icon, like you can with the chat.postMessage method's username and icon_url parameters. Is there a way to achieve this?
There are two ways.
Way 1. - If you only want to upload in a channel and don't need to listen to any conversation, then you can use incoming-webhooks. And then override the username and icon. Read "Customizing your username and icon" in Here.
Way 2 - You can create a bot user and let the bot user type post this message for you. I guess right now you are using test tokens generated by Slack so you are getting your name only. But if you use bot-user then you can use custom Name and icon_url for your bot.
I hope this answers your question.
Yes, as @Abhinav Rai suggested, you need have bot. Slack support just answered me the same question.
To upload files as a bot you'll need to create an associated 'bot user' and post the file using the bot's token: https://api.slack.com/bot-users — all files must be owned by a user account and the bot user will fill this requirement.
There is a way 3 which uses the username function from chat.postMessage function. Follow this -
import slack
import json
import os
def pureimg(data1):
data1 = '[{"text": "", "image_url": "'+data1+'"}]'
data1 = [json.loads(data1[1:-1])]
return data1
#This function will make the image url to correct format.
slacker = slack.WebClient(token='your-token-here')
payoff=os.path.join(os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__)), 'filename.png')
#It gives cross OS compatibility on filepath.
response=slacker.files_upload(channel='#theta',file=payoff)
payoff=response['file']['permalink']
#First We upload the local file to Slack and fetch permalink.
#If you do not have any local file just put the external image URL in the payoff.
response=slacker.chat_postMessage(channel='#channel_name', text="Sample Text", username='Bot name', attachments=pureimg(payoff), icon_emoji=':emoji:')
#Then, We post to Slack Channel as a bot!
