🚀 Salesforce-Slack Approval Integration

Overview

This proof of concept integrates Slack and Salesforce Gov Cloud to enable approval workflows directly from Slack. Users can approve or reject Salesforce Cases within Slack, and the status updates are reflected in Salesforce. The implementation bypasses Salesforce's built-in approval process and directly updates case records.

DO NOT DEPLOY THIS TO PRODUCTION. This app uses some shortcuts like environment variables for simplicity. Not great for real world use.

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🔄 Process Flow

1. Case Creation in Salesforce

   • A new case is created in Salesforce with a High priority.

2. Slack Notification

   • A Slack message is sent with Approve ✅ / Reject ❌ action buttons.

3. User Decision (Slack App)

   • Clicking Approve or Reject triggers a Slack Action Handler.

4. ApprovalResponse (Apex Class in Salesforce)

   • Based on the Slack decision:
     • If Approved → Update Status = In Progress
     • If Rejected → Update Status = New and Priority = Medium

5. Salesforce Case Updates Automatically

   • The Salesforce record reflects the updated status and priority.

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🏗️ Components & Implementation

1️⃣ Slack App (Python + Bolt Framework)

• Handles user actions from Slack (approve/reject clicks)
• Extracts Case ID & User Details
• Sends an API request to Salesforce via the ApprovalResponse endpoint

Key Code Snippets (Python)

@slack_app.action(re.compile(r"^(approve|reject)_action_(\w+)$"))
def handle_approval_action(ack, body, say, logger, context, action):
    ack()  # Acknowledge the action
    user_id = body["user"]["id"]
    action_id = action["action_id"]  # Example: "approve_action_500ep0000024aVHAAY"
    action_type, record_id = action_id.split("_action_")
    decision = "Approved" if action_type == "approve" else "Rejected"
    
    # Send approval decision to Salesforce
    send_approval_decision_to_salesforce(record_id, decision, user_email)

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2️⃣ ApprovalResponse (Apex Class in Salesforce)

• Exposes a REST API Endpoint (/services/apexrest/ApprovalResponse)
• Receives recordId, decision, and userEmail from Slack
• Directly updates the Case record (bypasses standard approval process)

Key Code Snippets (Apex)

Check out the .apex snippets in the code repsitory.

• SlackApprovalNotifier sets up the Flow Action.
• ApprovalResponse is the end point for Slack to send the approval payload

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⚙️ Environment Setup

🔹 Salesforce Setup

1. Enable Apex REST API Access
2. Deploy the ApprovalResponse Apex class
3. Deploy the SlackApprovalNotifier Apex class
4. Generate Salesforce OAuth Credentials (Client ID & Secret)
5. Create Slack App OAuth Token & Permissions

Environment Variables

Make sure to Set these values.

SLACK_APP_TOKEN=
SLACK_BOT_TOKEN=
SALESFORCE_API_URL=YOUR_ORG_URL/services/apexrest/ApprovalResponse
SALESFORCE_ACCESS_TOKEN=

🔹 Slack App Setup

1. Install Python & Virtual Environment
2. Install dependencies (slack_bolt, requests, etc.)
3. Configure .env file with API credentials
4. Run the Slack App

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🎯 Expected Behavior

✅ User clicks Approve in Slack → Case moves to "In Progress" in Salesforce ✅ User clicks Reject in Slack → Case moves to "New", priority changes to "Medium" ✅ No Salesforce Approval Process is used; all updates are direct

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🔍 Testing & Debugging

• Slack Logs → Monitor handle_approval_action() for button click events.
• Salesforce Logs → Check Apex Debug Logs for API processing issues.
• Curl Test for API →

curl -X POST https://your-salesforce-instance/services/apexrest/ApprovalResponse \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"recordId": "YOUR_RECORD_ID", "decision": "Approved", "userEmail": "[email protected]"}'

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