Creating a Slack application

In Slack, create an application so that you can connect to Slack from within Cognos® Analytics.

1. Go to https://api.slack.com/apps
2. Sign into the slack account for your company.
3. Click Create New App.
4. In the Create a Slack App dialog, enter a name for your application, for example, type Cognos Analytics, and select Development Slack Workspace.
5. Select the workspace that you signed in to.
6. Click Create App.

   The Slack application is created

7. On the Slack API page, click the Basic information tab and scroll down to the App Credentials section.
8. Make a note of both the Client ID and the Client Secret values. You will need them when configuring Slack in Cognos Analytics.
   Tip: Click the Show button in each field to see the values.
9. In the Features section, click OAuth & Permissions.
10. In the Redirect URLs section, add the following Redirect URL:

    https://ca_servername:port/bi/v1/collaboration/auth/slack

    where ca_servername:port is the fully qualified name and port number of your Cognos Analytics server.

    Tip: You must specify https at the start of the URL, as Slack does not permit the http protocol. You can configure multiple redirect URLs. This allows you to use the same Slack application in multiple Cognos Analytics environments, for example, Dev, Test, and Prod.
11. Click Add.
12. Click Save URLs.
13. If you don't have administration access to your Slack workspace, follow these steps:
    1. Go to the Scopes section and, in the Select Permission Scopes field, select Access your workspace’s profile information users:read.
    2. Click Save changes.
    3. Scroll up to the OAuth Tokens & Redirect URLs section and click on Request approval.

       After your request is approved by the Slack admin, you receive a message from slackbot indicating that your request was approved. The Install app to workspace button appears in the OAuth & Permissions section of your app.

    4. Click Install app to workspace.
14. Confirm that your Slack workspace is working.
    1. If not done already, install Slack on your computer.
    2. Sign into your Slack app using the email account and password that you used to create the Slack app.
    3. Test your Slack workspace.
       Tip: For information about setting up and using Slack, see the documentation available at www.slack.com.