Build Automated Workflows with Live Slack Data in Workato

Workato is a cloud-based automation platform that helps businesses integrate applications and automate workflows. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Slack data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to connect to Slack and build workflows with live Slack data in Workato.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure SQL Server, cloud-to-cloud interface for Slack, allowing you to easily build visualizations from live Slack data in Workato. As you build automations, Workato generates SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Slack, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Slack data.

Configure Slack Connectivity for Workato

Connectivity to Slack from Workato is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with Slack data from Workato, we start by creating and configuring a Slack connection.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "Slack" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Slack. Slack uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, you will need to create an app to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL connection properties. See the Getting Started section of the help documentation for an authentication guide.
4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Slack Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add a Personal Access Token

If you are connecting from a service, application, platform, or framework that does not support OAuth authentication, you can create a Personal Access Token (PAT) to use for authentication. Best practices would dictate that you create a separate PAT for each service, to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
2. On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give your PAT a name and click Create.
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Slack data from Workato.

Automate Slack Data Workflows in Workato

To establish a connection from Workato to the CData Connect Cloud Virtual SQL Server API, follow these steps.

1. Log into Workato.
2. In the navigation bar, click Projects.
3. In your new (or existing) project, click Create > Connection.
4. In the search bar, enter "SQL Server" and open the Connect to SQL Server screen.
5. In Connect to SQL Server, enter the connection name and the following connecting settings:
   • Location: enter the name of the project.
   • Connection type: select Cloud.
   • Host: enter tds.cdata.com
   • Port: enter 14333
   • Username: enter your CData Connect Cloud username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect Cloud interface. For example, [email protected].
   • Password: enter the PAT you previously generated page.
   • Database: enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect Cloud data source you want to connect to (for example, Slack1).
6. Click Connect to see the Connection established message.
7. Next, set up your recipe. In your project, click Create > Recipe.
8. In Set up your recipe, enter the name and location of your recipe.
9. Select Run on a schedule.
10. Select the action to occur on the schedule.
11. Select a table from your Connect Cloud connection and any applicable filters.
12. Click Save to save the recipe.
13. Click Test Jobs to test you recipe.

Real-Time Access to Slack Data from Cloud Applications

At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live Slack data from Workato for workflows and automations. For more information on gaining live access to data from more than 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources from cloud applications like Workato, refer to our Connect Cloud page.