hubot-rocketchat

Hubot adapter for Rocket.Chat!

NOTE

If you want to integrate Rocket.Chat with GitHub or GitLab. Make sure you visit the Rocket.Chat.Ops project before starting. We already have many scripts that add webhook events and access GitHub/GitLab APIs. You can easily extend these scripts for your custom application.

Getting your bot connected to Rocket.Chat

Here is a sample run:

We have a couple of ways for you to get up and started with the Rocket.Chat adapter.

Docker

You can quickly spin up a docker image with:

docker run -it -e ROCKETCHAT_URL=<your rocketchat instance>:<port> \
	-e ROCKETCHAT_ROOM=GENERAL \
	-e ROCKETCHAT_USER=bot \
	-e ROCKETCHAT_PASSWORD=bot \
	-e BOT_NAME=bot \
	-e EXTERNAL_SCRIPTS=hubot-pugme,hubot-help \
	rocketchat/hubot-rocketchat

Custom Scripts

If you want to include your own custom scripts you can by doing:

docker run -it -e ROCKETCHAT_URL=<your rocketchat instance>:<port> \
	-e ROCKETCHAT_ROOM=GENERAL \
	-e ROCKETCHAT_USER=bot \
	-e ROCKETCHAT_PASSWORD=bot \
	-e BOT_NAME=bot \
	-e EXTERNAL_SCRIPTS=hubot-pugme,hubot-help \
	-v $PWD/scripts:/home/hubot/scripts \
	rocketchat/hubot-rocketchat

Add adapter to hubot

New install

You can specify the adapter during setup.

First you need to install hubot

npm install -g yo generator-hubot

Then you need to start the setup of the bot

% mkdir myhubot
% cd myhubot
% yo hubot

It'll ask you a few questions. One will ask which adapter. Put: rocketchat

Also be sure to remember the name you specify. This is what the bot will respond to in Rocket.Chat.

You will need to tell the adapter where your install is and what login information to use.

export ROCKETCHAT_ROOM=GENERAL
export ROCKETCHAT_USER=bot
export ROCKETCHAT_PASSWORD=bot

Then start with: bin/hubot -a rocketchat

More Info Here

Existing install

If you already have hubot setup you can add the adapter.

By doing: npm install hubot-rocketchat

You will need to tell the adapter where your install is and what login information to use.

export ROCKETCHAT_ROOM=GENERAL
export ROCKETCHAT_USER=bot
export ROCKETCHAT_PASSWORD=bot

Then starting your bot specifying the adapter: bin/hubot -a rocketchat

Configuration Options

Here are all of the options you can specify to configure the bot.

On Docker you use: -e VAR=Value

Regular hubot via: export VAR=Value or add to pm2 etc

Environment Variable | Description :---- | :---- ROCKETCHAT_URL | the IP and port where Rocket.Chat is running ROCKETCHAT_USER | the bot user's name ROCKETCHAT_PASSWORD | the bot user's password ROCKETCHAT_ROOM | the channel/channels names the bot should listen to message from. This can be comma separated list. LISTEN_ON_ALL_PUBLIC | if 'true' then bot will listen and respond to messages from all public channels, as well as respond to direct messages. Default to 'false'. ROCKETCHAT_ROOM should be set to nothing (with ROCKETCHAT_ROOM= ) when using LISTEN_ON_ALL_PUBLIC. RESPOND_TO_DM | if 'true' then bot will listen and respond to direct messages. When setting the option to 'true', be sure to also set ROCKETCHAT_ROOM. This option needs not be set if you are including LISTEN_ON_ALL_PUBLIC. Default is 'false'. BOT_NAME | ** Name of the bot. This is what it responds to EXTERNAL_SCRIPTS | ** These are the npm modules it will add to hubot. DEV | ** This enables development mode.

** - Docker image only.

Verify your bot is working

Try:

rocketbot ping

And:

rocketbot help

The example bot under scripts directory respeonds to:

rocketbot report status

Developers

We like to make development as easy on ourselves as possible. So passing the love on to you!

Adapter Development

We'd love to have your help improving this adapter. PR's very welcome :smile:

Docker

First clone the source and then move into the directory.

git clone [email protected]:RocketChat/hubot-rocketchat.git
cd hubot-rocketchat

Now we start the docker container.

docker run -it -e ROCKETCHAT_URL=<your rocketchat instance>:<port> \
	-e ROCKETCHAT_ROOM=GENERAL \
	-e ROCKETCHAT_USER=bot \
	-e ROCKETCHAT_PASSWORD=bot \
	-e BOT_NAME=bot \
	-e EXTERNAL_SCRIPTS=hubot-pugme,hubot-help \
	-e DEV=true \
	-v $PWD:/home/hubot/node_modules/hubot-rocketchat rocketchat/hubot-rocketchat

Standard

Installed in hubot you'd hop over into node_modules.

Delete the hubot-rocketchat folder.

Then clone the git repo.

git clone [email protected]:RocketChat/hubot-rocketchat.git
cd hubot-rocketchat
npm install

Additional details

Look under the scripts directory, you will find a very basic bot there.

Just add your own script in the directory to have it loaded. If you are new to hubot script writing, find out more here.

If you find a bug or compatibility problem, please open an issue.

If you have any enhancements or feature requests, create an issue. If you like what you see, please star the repo.

Finally, if you have created a bot that other users may find useful, please contribute it.

Some important notes

• The first time you run the docker container, the image needs to be pulled from the public docker registry and it will take some time. Subsequent runs are super fast.
• If you are not running Linux (i.e. if you are on a Mac or PC), you cannot use $PWD to mount the volumes. Instead, read this note here (the 2nd note on the page: If you are using Boot2Docker...) to determine the absolute path where you must place the git-cloned directory.

CONTRIBUTORS WANTED

While it is functional, the current adapter is very basic. We need all the help we can get to add capabilities.

Become part of the project, just pick an issue and file a PR.

The adapter code is under the src directory. To test modified adapter code, exit (ctrl-c) the container and run it again.

FAQ

Q: I am not trying to stage a denial of service attack, why would I ever want to write a bot?

A: There are many positive and productive use cases for bots. Imagine a customer service support chat. As soon as a customer enters the support channel, a bot immediately identifies the customer and then:

• fetches recent sales information from the sales dept server
• fetches personal information from the customer data base
• fetches latest notes made by her/his salesperson from the CRM system
• scans the customer's facebook and twitter posts
• obtains details of the last support ticket for this customer

Putting it altogether and then private message the service rep with the information.

Another use-case is a load test bot, imagine a bot that accepts the command:

rocketbot loadtest europe 25, asia 50, usa 100, canada 10

This command specifies a distribution of test bot instances, to be created across globally located data centers.

Once received, the bot:

• parses the distribution
• concurrently ssh to remote Kubernetes controllers and spawns the specified number of test bot instances to start the load test

Q: The architecture of hubot-rocketchat looks interesting, can you tell me more about it?

A: Sure, it is based on hubot-meteorchat. hubot-meteorchat is the hubot integration project for Meteor based chats and real-time messaging systems. Its driver based architecture simplifies creation and cusotmization of adapter for new systems. For example, the hubot-rocketchat integration is just hubot-meteorchat + rocketchat driver.

Learn more about hubot-meteorchat and other available drivers at this link.