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.