# Slack

Select Star provides a powerful application for Slack for a number of uses:

* Users can quickly find and share links to data assets with other people in the organization
* The `@Select Star` bot can be added to public and private channels to answer data questions based on the information in Select Star.

Using the Select Star App for Slack, you can leverage the power of Select Star's search to quickly send a starting point for others to explore, receive Select Star notifications, or browse through search results.

## Video Tutorial

{% embed url="<https://www.loom.com/share/f381c5b5bf2d4e52b519d9c9bf7897fb?hideEmbedTopBar=true>" %}

## Installation

### Prerequisites

You will need admin access to your organization's Slack.

### Instructions

Visit <https://slack.selectstar.com/> and click **Add to Slack.** You'll be redirected Slack in the browser and asked to grant permissions.

Click **Allow**. You'll be guided through a few simple integration steps by Slack. Then you'll be all set up to start using the app!

<figure><img src="https://3470314135-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-MgAiVthA_yg9UXKuhyY%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-2a9761f4f247c0918a63a95d0321525c21a4ed5a%2FScreenshot%202024-08-20%20at%2014.10.14.png?alt=media" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

### Re-Installation

If you need to re-install the Select Star App for Slack (such as if you are upgrading to leverage the new AI based capabilities), you can re-install from the following link: <https://slack.production.selectstar.com/slack/install>.

## Connect a User Account

In order to leverage the Select Star App features such as AI powered chat, notifications, and search, your user account must be connected.\
\
Head to Slack and find Select Star in the list of Apps.

<figure><img src="https://3470314135-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-MgAiVthA_yg9UXKuhyY%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-9b908b6c455b29b6698ddf49999031a1cf492360%2FScreenshot%202024-08-20%20at%2013.37.42.png?alt=media" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

Under the Home tab you will see a button to **Connect an account**. This will link your Slack account with your Select Star user account so that you can receive notifications and search in Slack.

<figure><img src="https://3470314135-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-MgAiVthA_yg9UXKuhyY%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-fa078b29ca254a5190980eb4d82ef42eee5d5225%2FZrzut%20ekranu%202024-10-7%20o%2014.36.49.png?alt=media" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

Alternatively, clicking **Link User Account** under **User Settings** will take you through the same steps.

<figure><img src="https://3470314135-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-MgAiVthA_yg9UXKuhyY%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-9975419b0c026ed61fce1b579cb896ccc89739e5%2Fimage.png?alt=media" alt=""><figcaption><p>User settings to link the user's Slack account to their Select Star account</p></figcaption></figure>

At least one user must connect their account to use the AI powered chat features.

## Adding Select Star to a Slack Channel

To use Ask AI Chatbot and schema change notifications in Slack, you first need to add Select Star to the channel where you want to use these features.

1\. Open Slack and navigate to the channel where you want to receive notifications.

2\. Type /invite **@Select Star** in the message input and press Enter.

3\. Select Star will be added to the channel, and notifications will be enabled.

## Ask AI - Answer Data Questions

{% hint style="info" %}
AI powered chat in Slack needs to be separately enabled for your account. If you'd like to enable this feature, please reach out to <support@getselectstar.com>.
{% endhint %}

Select Star's Slack bot can help detect and identify data questions that can be answered by information you have in Select Star. Relevant questions include:

* Learning more about your data
* Finding the right content
* Generating queries

[Read more on the AI chatbot](https://docs.selectstar.com/features/ask-ai-chatbot#ai-chatbot).

#### How to use the AI chatbot in Slack

* The Select Star bot `@Select Star` must be added to the channel (public or private)
* The bot will identify questions that it can help answer, and will automatically ask to answer
* Users can also mention `@Select Star` directly in a message or thread to get a response

{% hint style="info" %}
**Important note**: once setup, any user can use the Select Star AI chatbot to answer questions. They do not need a Select Star account, and will be able to access all data that is connected and searchable within Select Star.
{% endhint %}

## Slack Notifications

### User Notifications

When a users add the Select Star App to their Slack instance, they will start receiving notifications when changes are made in Select Star. These are the same notifications they would see in the Select Star application.

You'll receive a notification for:

* Metadata changes
  * You are added as an [Owner](https://docs.selectstar.com/data-management/data-ownership) to a data asset.
  * Someone [comments](https://docs.selectstar.com/features/discussion) on a data asset you own.
  * Someone modifies the description or tags on a data asset you own
* Schema changes
  * There is a schema change in an object that you own.
* Mentions
  * Someone replies to a comment you posted, or mentions you in a comment.

Users can configure their notification settings on the [User Settings](https://docs.selectstar.com/user-management/account-and-user-settings#user-settings) page.

### Team Notifications

Similar to user notifications, admins can configure team notifications to send to a Slack channel. See [Team Notifications](https://docs.selectstar.com/features/teams#team-notifications).

1\. Go to Admin > Teams > Edit in Select Star.

2\. You’ll see a list of Slack channels where Select Star has been added.

3\. Select the channels or email addresswhere you want to receive notifications.

4\. Save your settings.

<figure><img src="https://3470314135-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-MgAiVthA_yg9UXKuhyY%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-6cf88b1098dcd77a5de3c581197524a07ec1ce12%2FScreenshot%202025-03-17%20at%202.15.20%E2%80%AFPM.png?alt=media" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

### Organization Notifications

Admins can configure organization wide notifications for schema changes. Admins can select a Slack channel to receive notifications for schema changes for:

* Assets with business or technical owners, OR
* All assets

<figure><img src="https://3470314135-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-MgAiVthA_yg9UXKuhyY%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-eacf38bafa6015049ca799a308def0faeccd0133%2Fimage.png?alt=media" alt=""><figcaption><p>Configure organization Slack schema changes</p></figcaption></figure>

## Slack Commands

Currently, the app has two commands.

* [**Help Command**](#help-command): Learn the usage of the Select Star App for Slack.
* [**Search Command**](#search-command): Search and post results from Select Star in Slack. You can also specify the type of search results you'd like to see.

### Help Command

You can type `/selectstar-help` into Slack at any time to see information on how to use the app.

<figure><img src="https://3470314135-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-MgAiVthA_yg9UXKuhyY%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-97a5e37adf606eb8bbba3d55494758a4ef6d2e4f%2FScreenshot%202024-08-20%20at%2013.28.34.png?alt=media" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

### Search Command

[Search](https://docs.selectstar.com/features/search) Select Star using the command `/selectstar <search query>` or `/s* <search query>`. Both commands work the same way; one is simply shorter than the other.

For example, if you search `/selectstar customers` in Select Star, you may see something like this:

<figure><img src="https://3470314135-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-MgAiVthA_yg9UXKuhyY%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-96a9ca229cfea64f56d6f5767964ee226281e56c%2FScreenshot%202024-08-20%20at%2013.34.32.png?alt=media" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

You'll see the results in the same order you would in Select Star, where the most relevant and popular items show first.

If the first result isn't what you're looking for, you can click the `Next` and `Previous` buttons to browse through the results, or choose to `See all results in Select Star` to open the [search results page](https://docs.selectstar.com/features/search#search-results-page) in your browser.

Search results from the Select Star App for Slack will be visible only to you, unless you choose to click the `Post` button, which will share the results to everyone in the channel.

<figure><img src="https://3470314135-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-MgAiVthA_yg9UXKuhyY%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-28dc113c746c12756e9fbd793b4b0fc81333bdb9%2FScreenshot%202024-08-20%20at%2013.35.08.png?alt=media" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

#### Searching by Type

If you are looking for a specific kind of data, such as a database table or Tableau view, you can specify the type in the command.

Based on the same example above, if you wanted to find database tables with "Customer" in the name, you would search `/selectstar customer type:columns`, with no space between `type:` and `columns`.

<figure><img src="https://3470314135-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-MgAiVthA_yg9UXKuhyY%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-d784dfac6dfb8679ed1499e8b66dc470e1713366%2FScreenshot%202024-08-20%20at%2013.36.51.png?alt=media" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

The list of data types you can filter by:

* **Database**: table, column, user, schema, database
* **Looker**: looker\_explore, looker\_explore\_field, looker\_dashboard
* **Mode**: mode\_space, mode\_report
* **Tableau**: tableau\_view, tableau\_field, tableau\_data\_source
* **Power** BI: power\_bi\_folder, power\_bi\_dashboard. power\_bi\_report
* **Sigma**: sigma\_dashboards, sigma\_folders
* **Thoughtspot**: thoughtspot\_liveboards, thoughtspot\_answers, thoughtspot\_tables, thoughtspot\_views, thoughtspot\_worksheets, thoughtspot\_columns
* **QuickSight**: quicksight\_dashboards, quicksight\_reports, quicksight\_bidashboardelements, quicksight\_bidatasets, quicksight\_bicolumns

### Slack Settings

Under **Admin > Apps > Slack** you can see which channels the Select Star Slackbot has been added to and configure unfurl settings for Select Star URLs.

<figure><img src="https://3470314135-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-MgAiVthA_yg9UXKuhyY%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-8551afd2c53c339bc195b1af4ed5ec0f905ce2f1%2Fimage.png?alt=media" alt=""><figcaption><p>Slack integration settings page</p></figcaption></figure>

## Removing Slackbot from a Channel

To remove the Select Star slackbot from a specific channel use the `/remove` command in the channel you want the bot to leave.