Alex Cooper

<p><strong>Updates to Slack</strong> is a <em>WordPress plugin</em> that informs of Core, Plugin and Theme updates, that are required on your WordPress installation, to one or more Slack channels. It does so on a daily, weekly or monthly schedule at a time of your choosing.</p>
<h4>Special Features</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Multiple Slack Channels:</strong> Allows you to send notifications to one or more Slack channels, using <a href="https://api.slack.com/block-kit" rel="nofollow ugc">Slack’s Block Kit</a></li>
<li><strong>Scheduled Updates:</strong> Alerts are triggered at a time you set, on either daily, weekly or monthly intervals</li>
<li><strong>Test Option:</strong> Check that your alerts are being sent without waiting on the schedule</li>
<li><strong>Ignore Plugins and Themes:</strong> Choose which individual plugins and themes you don’t want to know about, when an update is available</li>
<li><strong>Content Permissions:</strong> Gives you control over which users (by role) have access to post content.</li>
<li><strong>Secure:</strong> <a href="https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/help/articles/115005265063-Incoming-webhooks-for-Slack" rel="nofollow ugc">Slack webhooks</a> are sent from your WordPress site, on a secure URL to your Slack channel(s)</li>
<li><strong>Reporting:</strong>  See when a notification was last triggered and what the result was</li>
</ul>
<h4>Support</h4>
<p>If you require support from me, the plugin author, you are welcome to contact me directly and place a request.</p>
<h4>Feedback</h4>
<p>If there is further functionality that would bring additional value to this plugin, please let me know.</p>
<h3>Copyright and License</h3>
<p>This project is licensed under the GNU GPL, version 2 or later. 2020 – 2023 © <a href="https://www.alexpcooper.co.uk" rel="nofollow ugc">Alex Cooper</a>.</p>


Updates to Slack

Updates to Slack is a WordPress plugin that informs of Core, Plugin and Theme updates, that are required on your WordPress installation, to one or mor …

Rachel Cherry

<h4>What is Slack?</h4>
<p><a href="https://slack.com/is" rel="nofollow ugc">Slack</a> is a team collaboration tool that offers chat rooms organized by topic, as well as private groups and direct messaging. It’s a great way to be productive with your team without clogging up your inbox.</p>
<h4>What is A Slackbot?</h4>
<p><a href="https://slack.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/202026038-Slackbot-your-assistant-notepad-programmable-bot" rel="nofollow ugc">Slackbot</a> is Slack’s built-in robot, which helps us send messages to you and your team inside your Slack account.</p>
<h4>Why Rock The Slackbot?</h4>
<p>Because it can help you manage your websites, and stay on top of changes, by sending notifications (following numerous WordPress events) to your Slackbot who will pass them along to a channel or direct message in your Slack account.</p>
<p><strong>Rock the Slackbot is multisite-friendly.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Rock the Slackbot sends customizable notifications</strong> for the following events:</p>
<ul>
<li>When a post is published</li>
<li>When a post is unpublished</li>
<li>When a post is updated</li>
<li>When a post is deleted</li>
<li>When a post is trashed</li>
<li>When a comment is added</li>
<li>When a comment is approved</li>
<li>When a comment is unapproved</li>
<li>When a comment is marked as spam</li>
<li>When a comment is trashed</li>
<li>When a 404 error is thrown</li>
<li>When a menu item is deleted</li>
<li>When media is added</li>
<li>When media is edited</li>
<li>When media is deleted</li>
<li>When a user is added</li>
<li>When a user is deleted</li>
<li>When a user’s role is changed</li>
<li>When a plugin, theme, or core update is available</li>
<li>When a plugin, theme, or core is updated</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>I’m working to add the following events:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>When menu item is added</li>
<li>When plugins or themes are uploaded</li>
<li>When plugins or themes are activated</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Each event can be customized to allow you to send different event notifications to different Slack channels</strong>, e.g. you can send core, theme and plugin updates to your “wp-development” channel while all of your post changes go to your “wp-content” channel.</p>
<p>Please use <a href="https://github.com/bamadesigner/rock-the-slackbot/issues" rel="nofollow ugc">the Issues section of this plugin’s GitHub repo</a> to suggest features, like other notification events.</p>
<p><strong>A Slack account is required to use this plugin</strong> and is free to use for as long as you want and with an unlimited number of people. <a href="https://slack.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Visit the Slack website</a> to learn more and sign up.</p>
<h3>Send A Simple Slack Message</h3>
<p>You can use the following send_webhook_message() function to send a simple message to your Slack account.</p>
<p><strong>The function accepts the following parameters:</strong></p>
<ol>
<li>$webhook_id_or_url – provide the webhook URL or the ID of one stored in settings</li>
<li>$message – the message you want to send</li>
<li>
<p>$channel – OPTIONAL – the channel you want to send message to. Prefix with # for a specific channel or @ for a specific user. Will use default channel if nothing is passed.</p>
<p>// Use this function to send a simple message to Slack<br />
rock_the_slackbot()->send_webhook_message( ‘564d3c1cdf52d’, ‘this is a test’, ‘#testchannel’ );</p>
<h3>Filters</h3>
<p>Rock The Slackbot has filters setup to allow you to tweak each WordPress notification before it’s sent. You can setup a filter for all notifications or drill down by event or specific webhook.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>Each notification filter passes three arguments:</strong></p>
<ol>
<li>$notification – an array containing the notification information: webhook URL (the URL for your Slack account) and the payload (all of the information being sent to Slack) for the notification</li>
<li>$notification_event – the slug of the notification event
<ul>
<li>Will be false if you send a custom Slack notification that doesn’t involve a WordPress event</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>$event_args – an array containing notification event specific information
<ul>
<li>Will be false if you send a custom Slack notification that doesn’t involve a WordPress event</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>See <em>Notification Events</em> below to learn which information is passed to the filters for each notification event.</strong></p>
<h4>Filter all WordPress notifications</h4>
<pre><code>add_filter( 'rock_the_slackbot_notification', 'filter_rock_the_slackbot_notification', 10, 3 );
function filter_rock_the_slackbot_notification( $notification, $notification_event, $event_args ) {

    // Change the pieces

    // Return the notification
    return $notification;
}
</code></pre>
<h4>Filter WordPress notifications by webhook ID</h4>
<pre><code>// You can find the ID for each of your webhooks on their edit screen in the admin
add_filter( 'rock_the_slackbot_notification_(webhook_id)', 'filter_rock_the_slackbot_notification_webhook', 10, 3 );
function filter_rock_the_slackbot_notification_webhook( $notification, $notification_event, $event_args ) {

  // Change the pieces

  // Return the notification
  return $notification;
}
</code></pre>
<h4>Filter WordPress notifications by event slug</h4>
<pre><code>// The event slugs are listed below
add_filter( 'rock_the_slackbot_notification_(notification_event)', 'filter_rock_the_slackbot_notification_event', 10, 3 );
function filter_rock_the_slackbot_notification_event( $notification, $notification_event, $event_args ) {

  // Change the pieces

  // Return the notification
  return $notification;
}
</code></pre>
<h4>Filter all outgoing webhook payloads that are sent to Slack</h4>
<p>Whether it’s a WordPress notification or a simple Slack message, all messages to Slack are sent as a payload in an outgoing webhook. This filter allows you to change any payload sent to Slack in an outgoing webhook.</p>
<pre><code>add_filter( 'rock_the_slackbot_outgoing_webhook_payload', 'filter_rock_the_slackbot_outgoing_webhook_payload', 10, 2 );
function filter_rock_the_slackbot_outgoing_webhook_payload( $payload, $webhook_url ) {

    // Change the payload

    // Return the payload
    return $notification;
}<h3>Notification Events</h3>
</code></pre>
<p>Including event specific information passed to filters for each notification event.</p>
<h4>Content</h4>
<ul>
<li>post_published
<ul>
<li><strong>Passed To Filters</strong>
<ul>
<li>post – the WP_Post object data of the post that was published</li>
<li>old_post_status – the status of the post before it was published</li>
<li>new_post_status – the current status of the published post</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>post_unpublished
<ul>
<li><strong>Passed To Filters</strong>
<ul>
<li>post – the WP_Post object data of the post that was unpublished</li>
<li>old_post_status – the status of the post before it was unpublished</li>
<li>new_post_status – the current status of the unpublished post</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>post_updated
<ul>
<li><strong>Passed To Filters</strong>
<ul>
<li>post_id – the post ID of the post you updated</li>
<li>post_before – the WP_Post object data of the post before it was updated</li>
<li>post_after – the WP_Post object data of the post after it was updated</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>post_deleted
<ul>
<li><strong>Passed To Filters</strong>
<ul>
<li>post – the WP_Post object data of the post that was deleted</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>post_trashed
<ul>
<li><strong>Passed To Filters</strong>
<ul>
<li>post – the WP_Post object data of the post that was trashed</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>is_404
<ul>
<li><strong>Passed To Filters</strong>
<ul>
<li>url – the URL that threw the 404 error</li>
<li>referer – the HTTP referer (may not always be defined)</li>
<li>ip_address – the IP address of the user who visited the URL (may not always be defined)</li>
<li>user_agent – the user agent of the user who visited the URL (may not always be defined)</li>
<li>wp_query – the WordPress query variables</li>
<li>mysql_request – the MySQL query request</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h4>Menus</h4>
<ul>
<li>menu_item_deleted
<ul>
<li><strong>Passed To Filters</strong>
<ul>
<li>menu – the WP_Post object data of the menu that held the menu item</li>
<li>menu_item_id – the post ID of the menu item that was deleted</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h4>Media</h4>
<ul>
<li>add_attachment
<ul>
<li><strong>Passed To Filters</strong>
<ul>
<li>attachment_post – the WP_Post object data for the attachment you added</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>edit_attachment
<ul>
<li><strong>Passed To Filters</strong>
<ul>
<li>attachment_post – the WP_Post object data for the attachment you edited</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>delete_attachment
<ul>
<li><strong>Passed To Filters</strong>
<ul>
<li>attachment_post – the WP_Post object data for the attachment you deleted</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h4>Users</h4>
<ul>
<li>user_added
<ul>
<li><strong>Passed To Filters</strong>
<ul>
<li>user – the WP_User data for the user you added</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>user_deleted
<ul>
<li><strong>Passed To Filters</strong>
<ul>
<li>user – the WP_User data for the user you deleted</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>set_user_role
<ul>
<li><strong>Passed To Filters</strong>
<ul>
<li>user – the WP_User data for the user whose role was changed</li>
<li>current_user_roles – the current user roles for the user whose role was changed</li>
<li>old_user_roles – the old user roles for the user whose role was changed</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h4>Updates</h4>
<ul>
<li>core_update_available
<ul>
<li><strong>Passed To Filters</strong>
<ul>
<li>current_version – the current version number of WordPress core</li>
<li>new_version – the version number for the WordPress core update</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>core_updated
<ul>
<li><strong>Passed To Filters</strong>
<ul>
<li>current_version – the current version number of WordPress core after the update</li>
<li>old_version – the old version number for WordPress core before the update</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>plugin_update_available
<ul>
<li><strong>Passed To Filters</strong>
<ul>
<li>plugins – includes an array of the plugins who have updates available</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>plugin_updated
<ul>
<li><strong>Passed To Filters</strong>
<ul>
<li>plugin – includes an array of the plugin(s) that were updated</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>theme_update_available
<ul>
<li><strong>Passed To Filters</strong>
<ul>
<li>themes – includes an array of the themes who have updates available</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>theme_updated
<ul>
<li><strong>Passed To Filters</strong>
<ul>
<li>theme – includes an array of the theme(s) that were updated</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Filter Examples</h3>
<p>You can use a filter to change the Slack notification to go to a different Slack channel according to post information, like the post category:</p>
<pre><code>add_filter( 'rock_the_slackbot_notification', 'filter_rock_the_slackbot_notification', 10, 3 );
function filter_rock_the_slackbot_notification( $notification, $notification_event, $event_args ) {

   // Only run filter for specific events
   switch ( $notification_event ) {

       // This way you can set which events you want to use
       case 'post_published':
       case 'post_unpublished':
       case 'post_updated':
       case 'post_deleted':
       case 'post_trashed':

           // Get category names
           $categories = wp_get_post_categories( $event_args[ 'post_id' ], array( 'fields' => 'names' ) );

           // Replace 'CategoryName' with the category you're looking for
           if ( in_array( 'CategoryName', $categories ) ) {

               // Change the channel in the payload
               // Make sure you prefix the channel name with #
               $notification[ 'payload' ][ 'channel' ] = '#newchannel';

           }
           break;
   }

   // Return the notification
   return $notification;
}
</code></pre>


Rock The Slackbot

Thanks again. Trying to get the boss to buy you a few cups of coffee :)



Great UI...and it works!

Perfect integration for what I needed, and with the ability to ping certain updates to specific slack channels, it can be spammy or not.
My only wish would be to customize the post message content, but even then, I like what this is :)



Rock the Cat Box!

The plugin works really well, and what is more important for me as a developer - the code is really well handled, formatted and commented. I wish all the plugins in the Repo were done this way!



... and it's beautiful on the inside :)

My company's web presence is made up of 4 subsites, each with their own blogs.  Rock The Slackbot made it easy for me to automatically announce our new posts to a dedicated slack channel, so that the entire team is kept up-to-date on company news.  In addition, it notifies the technical team (in another channel) when a new version of WordPress core is available, and when there are plugins to be updated.

The plugin's configuration is easy to understand, and it just works.

So useful!

It just works

Rock The Slackbot helps you stay on top of changes by sending notifications straight to you and your team inside your Slack account.

Updates to Slack vs Rock The Slackbot