Configure custom slack alerts

Set up custom slack alerts

1. Follow the Database Access with Python instructions.
2. In the U19-pipeline-python repository, open the u19_pipeline/alert_system/custom_alerts directory.
3. Create a new Python file with a meaningful name for the alert (e.g. subject_bias.py).
4. Copy the skeleton code from u19_pipeline/alert_system/alert_code_skeleton.py.
   • All Slack alert code has two parts: a Slack channel configuration and a main function, described in the next sections.

main function guide

• This function should return a pandas DataFrame in which each row is a Slack alert message to send to the configured channels.
• You can use DataJoint to get data for the alert (e.g. custom_alerts/rig_bias.py) or simply call OS scripts (e.g. custom_alerts/braininit_storage.py).
• All columns of the DataFrame are included in the alert (don't add too many!).
• DataFrame example with a Slack notification message:

Example Dataframe for notification

Example Notification from previous DataFrame

• You can find example alerts in the u19_pipeline/alert_system/custom_alerts directory.

Slack channel dictionary configuration

• The Slack channel configuration is a dictionary that links the corresponding Slack channels and conversations with a specific alert.
• The dictionary has two keys, each taking a list of channels:
  • slack_notification_channel: general channels to send notifications to; any webhook_name (see the next section).
  • slack_users_channel: users to send private direct messages to; any user_id with a configured slack_webhook (see the next section).

Check available notification channels:

MATLAB

1. Execute fetch(lab.SlackWebhooks,'*').

Python

1. Execute:
   • lab = dj.create_virtual_module('lab', 'u19_lab')
   • lab.SlackWebhooks.fetch(as_dict=True)

Check available user channels:

MATLAB

1. Execute:

fetch(lab.User & "slack_webhook <> ''",'slack_webhook')

Python

1. Execute:

   lab = dj.create_virtual_module('lab', 'u19_lab')
   (lab.User & "slack_webhook <> ''").fetch('KEY', 'slack_webhook', as_dict=True)

Create and register new webhooks for alerts:

1. Create a new Slack channel if needed (for notification channels).
2. Follow the instructions to create webhooks from the Slack documentation.
3. Copy the webhook URL from the Slack API web page.

Add notification channels:

MATLAB

new_slack_webhook = struct
new_slack_webhook.webhook_name = (notification channel name)
new_slack_webhook.webhook_url  = (webhook url from slack API)
insert(lab.SlackWebhooks,new_slack_webhook)

Python

lab = dj.create_virtual_module('lab', 'u19_lab')
new_slack_webhook = dict()
new_slack_webhook['webhook_name'] = (notification channel name)
new_slack_webhook['webhook_url']  = (webhook url from slack API)
lab.SlackWebhooks.insert1(new_slack_webhook)

Update a user's notification webhook:

MATLAB

user = struct
user.user_id = (NETID of user)
update(lab.User & user,'slack_webhook', (webhook url from slack API))

Python

lab = dj.create_virtual_module('lab', 'u19_lab')
user = dict()
user['user_id'] = (NETID of user)
user['slack_webhook'] = (webhook url from slack API)
lab.User.update1(user)