Support for rich messages

[tpobozy]

Hi,
are there any plans to support blocks parameter? Which allows creating rich messages, see example below

POST https://hooks.slack.com/services/T00000000/B00000000/XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Content-type: application/json
{
    "text": "....",
    "blocks": [
    	{
    		"type": "section",
    		"text": {
    			"type": "mrkdwn",
    			"text": "Danny Torrence left the following review for your property:"
    		}
    	},
    	{
    		"type": "section",
    		"block_id": "section567",
    		"text": {
    			"type": "mrkdwn",
    			"text": "<https://example.com|Overlook Hotel> \n :star: \n Doors had too many axe holes, guest in room 237 was far too rowdy, whole place felt stuck in the 1920s."
    		},
    		"accessory": {
    			"type": "image",
    			"image_url": "https://is5-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Purple3/v4/d3/72/5c/d3725c8f-c642-5d69-1904-aa36e4297885/source/256x256bb.jpg",
    			"alt_text": "Haunted hotel image"
    		}
    	},
    	{
    		"type": "section",
    		"block_id": "section789",
    		"fields": [
    			{
    				"type": "mrkdwn",
    				"text": "*Average Rating*\n1.0"
    			}
    		]
    	}
    ]
}

[freekmurze]

No, we want to keep this package very simple. If you need blocks, use another package 👍

[Nielsvanpach]

For rich messages you can use https://github.com/slack-php/slack-php-block-kit

[bilfeldt]

@freekmurze I completely understand the point of keeping this package simple, as anyone wanting more exciting stuff can always just use plane on-demand notifications 👍

But just wanted to share my thoughts anyway, so please just disregard if this is not up your alley 😎 If instead of directly making an HTTP request, it would send a new SystemNotification using the notification system, then it would be easy to implement a hook where basically call anything onto the \Illuminate\Notifications\Messages\SlackMessage - without adding more complexity, in my opinion, 🤔

My motivation is that for all of the system notifications we have, then we have an array of keys and values that represent some data, like the user that signed up, the job that completed, etc..

Example if the package used its own Notification:

SlackAlert::to('marketing')
    ->message("New sale: {$subscription->name}!", function (SlackMessage $message) {
        // here the developer can do WHATEVER they want - an example could be adding attachment:
        $message->attachment(function ($attachment) use ($url) {
            $attachment->title('Invoice 1322', $url)
                ->fields([
                    'Title' => 'Server Expenses',
                    'Amount' => '$1,234',
                    'Via' => 'American Express',
                    'Was Overdue' => ':-1:',
                ]);
            });
    });

an alternative approach could be to use a more opinionated approach where the user does not have the same flexibility (access to the underlying Notification), but instead can pass an array of stuff:

SlackAlert::to('marketing')->message("New sale: {$subscription->name}!", [
    // these will be added as fields
    'Title' => 'Server Expenses',
    'Amount' => '$1,234',
    'Via' => 'American Express',
    'Was Overdue' => ':-1:',
]);

// Or when sending an error:
SlackAlert::to('marketing')->error("Transaction failed: {$subscription->name}!", [
    // ...
]);

// Or a success
SlackAlert::to('marketing')->success("Transaction failed: {$subscription->name}!", [
    // ...
]);

but again, if this is really the implementation then maybe a simple static method on a custom SystemNotification is all that is needed.

[freekmurze]

I do like this idea of using a notification under the hood so we can optionally use all the features of SlackMessage.
If you want to work on this, I'd certainly consider merging a PR that adds this in.

[bilfeldt]

Having thought a bit more about this, then I think the following syntax would be really cool:

SlackAlert::to('marketing')
    ->fields([ // just a neat way of doing stuff you would otherwise do in touch()
        // key => value
    ])
    ->attachment(function ($attachment) { ... })  // just a neat way of doing stuff you would otherwise do in touch()
    ->touch(function (SlackMessage $message) { ... }) // will allow the developer to do bacially anything
    ->message('string') // Alternatives being: success('string') | error('string')

Will think about a possible implementation of the above 🤔

[jsainton-godaddy]

Any further movement on this - would love something like this.

[bilfeldt]

Any further movement on this - would love something like this.

I am simply using Laravel Notifications right as they are, so not relying on this package. Hence I have no plans to PR any of the modification described I am afraid.

It is a bit unclear to me why one would use this package instead of plane notification 🤷‍♂️ but maybe I am missing something.