Don't leave Slack to annotate relevant stuff in your Context dashboards
As you probably already know, with Context we're redefining the tedious and tiresome process of logging everything that affects the KPIs we’re responsible for. We want to help digital professionals who are dealing with data on a daily basis. Professionals who, just like us, are accountable for a set of product and marketing KPIs to help run their business.
With Context API you can integrate in minutes and automatically send relevant business events to your Context dashboards. With our API and some coding skills, you have full control over what you send to Context.
However, if you don't have the needed coding skills, you will also be able to do it with just a few clicks, taking advantage of tools such as IFTTT and Zapier.
Other examples that may be interesting for you
Here you have a couple of previous examples:
- Track your competitors' Twitter activity with Context API and IFTTT
- Connect Context and Mailchimp with Zapier
In this example, we're going to see how to add annotations in your Context dashboards without leaving Slack.
Context meets Slack, thanks to our API & Zapier
We want you to do less repetitive and useless tasks, eliminating the need for adding manual annotations forever.
And we'd love you to do that while you still use your favorite tools.
That's why we think that integrating Context and Slack could be very useful. Keep reading if you are interested :)
So, let's see how can we add annotations in Context reports from Slack without writing or coding.
First things first: what is Zapier?
Zapier is a very easy to use automation service that allows you to move info between your web apps automatically
Basically, it's a platform that helps you connect most of the apps you use every day, automating many tasks without development skills.
A few examples of what you could do with Zapier:
- Save new Typeform entries to a Google Spreadsheet
- Create Trello cards from new Google Sheets rows
- POST new MailChimp campaigns to a webhook URL
- POST new messages in a Slack channel to a webhook URL
Let's see the last example in details: If a new message is added in a Slack channel, send an event to my Context dashboard.
1. Create your Context account
We're still in private beta mode. So, if you didn't make it up to this stage, feel free to request free early access for our public beta. Coming soon...
2. Create your Zapier account
Go to Zapier and create your account. It's free.
3. Create a new Zap
Click on the big and red "Make a Zap" button in the navigation menu:
4. Choose a trigger app
Time to select the trigger for our action. In our example, we will use Slack as the service that will trigger our desired action. So let's filter by "Slack" and select the service.
5. Go for "New Message Posted to Channel" option
We have many options to choose from within Slack. We're interested in the "New Message Posted to Channel" option.
6. Connect your account and test that everything works fine
Time to connect your Zapier and Slack accounts so everything runs smoothly:
7. Choose your channel
Specify the "Channel" you want to monitor. When a new message is posted in the selected channel, a new annotation will be added in your Context reports.
You can also specify if you want to also trigger for Bot Messages or not. In our example, we only want to track real user's messages.
8. Pick a sample message to set up the Zap
This step will be useful for the next configuration requirements:
9. Time to create the action step
Choose the only option available at this moment:
10. Filter by "Webhooks"
11. Select "Post" option
Copy the URL from Context:
Paste the URL in Zapier:
Choose "json" as "Payload type"
On the data section, do as follows:
- title: it's the annotation title you will see in your Context reports. This field is mandatory. We'll use the name of the user that reported the bug.
- category: it's an attribute you can use to categorize your annotations in a way that fits your needs. This field is mandatory. We'll use "Slack bugs" to categorize all these messages.
- description: you can use this field to add additional details about the annotation. This field is mandatory. We'll use the message that the reporter uses to describe the bug.
- publishDate: This field is mandatory. We'll capture the date that the message was posted in the selected Slack channel.
- url: if you want to match your annotation with a given URL for further details, you can add it here. This field is optional. We'll capture the permalink of the message to be able to access message details from Context.
The rest of the fields will remain as they are. We can continue.
12. Ready to test Post to Webhooks by Zapier
13. Name your Zap and turn it on
14. You're done!
And that's it. Next time you post a new message in your selected Slack channel...
... you will see an annotation in your context reports:
