Shouldn't "say()" automatically handle threads?

Description

A user triggers activity within a thread, but the bot, using say() responds to the main conversation. At worst, say() should accept parameters that would allow me to chose whether response should be in a thread or the main conversation. At best, say() should automatically respond in the thread, while still providing parameters to control automatic respond-in-thread and also-post-to-channel.

What type of issue is this? (place an x in one of the [ ])

• bug
• enhancement (feature request)
• question
• documentation related
• testing related
• discussion

Requirements (place an x in each of the [ ])

• I’ve read and understood the Contributing guidelines and have done my best effort to follow them.
• I’ve read and agree to the Code of Conduct.
• I’ve searched for any related issues and avoided creating a duplicate issue.

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Bug Report

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Reproducible in:

package version: v2.1.1

node version: v12

OS version(s): Alpine Linux (docker container)

Steps to reproduce:

1. Write a handler such as this:

// respond to ping message
app.message(directMention(), /PING$/i, ({ message, say }) => {
  console.debug(JSON.stringify(message));
  say('PONG');
});

1. Have someone say this in a thread: @botname PING
2. See bot respond outside of the thread PONG

Expected result:

If a user is @ mentioning the bot within a thread, I would expect the provided “say()” function to respond within that thread

Actual result:

Bot responded to thread in main conversation

[stevengill]

Hey @iancward

I chatted with the team and it seems this is already possible with say. You need to provide the thread_ts argument when calling it.

// respond to ping message in thread
app.message(directMention(), /PING$/i, ({ message, say }) => {
  console.debug(JSON.stringify(message));
  say({ text: 'PONG', thread_ts: message.ts });
});

You can find out more about thread_ts at https://api.slack.com/methods/chat.postMessage#arg_thread_ts

Let me know if this works for you.

We aren’t going to change the default behaviour of say to respond to threads first. If you are interested in a more reusable solution for responding to threads, I can suggest a middleware based solution. Let me know.

[stevengill]

Hey @iancward

Thanks for reporting this! I think you are correct that say doesn’t currently support this. It is worth looking into adding this support I think. We will get back to you after some investigation and discussion with the other maintainers.