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Cover image for How to build a knowledge system with Slack and Notion
Kazuki Yonemoto
Kazuki Yonemoto

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How to build a knowledge system with Slack and Notion

Have you ever felt like managing information flows more efficiently if you usually use Slack?

I want to share tips to manage information by Slack and Notion in this article.

Knowledge system by Slack and Notion

You need to follow the below prerequisite before you start this tutorial.

  • Slack paid plan
  • Slack account
  • Notion account
  • Google account
  • Google sheets

We actually need Google sheets to post messages to Notion from Slack.

Settings of Notion

Create a table to stock information.

  • Question: title
  • Answer: rich_text
  • URL: url
  • Tags: multi_select

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Get a database's ID in Notion.
📖 Lean more Notion databases

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Use Copy link to view from the menu.

https://www.notion.so/{workspace_name}/{database_id}?v={view_id}
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⚠️ Save the ID to use it in development.

In your left sidebar, navigate to Settings & Members and then the Integrations tab.

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Click "Develop your own integrations".

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Click the + New integration button.

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Setup settings of integration.

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Copy the internal integration token.

⚠️ Save the token to use it in development.

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Invite the integration which you created from the share menu.

Settings of Google Sheets

Create a sheet to recieve messages from Slack and post them to Notion.

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Question Answer URL Tags
sample text sample text https://dev.to/ sample, tags

Open Apps Script from within Google Sheets.

📖 Lean more Extending Google Sheets

Get the script ID in Apps Script.

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⚠️ Save the ID to use it in development.

Settings of Slack

We'll make an automation task with Workflow Builder in Slack.
📖 Lean more Workflow Builder

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Create a new workflow.

Workflow steps

Follow this order and set up these settings.

  1. Emoji reaction
  2. Send a form
  3. Add a spreadsheet row
  4. Send a message

1. Emoji reaction

Choose "Emoji reaction" to start this workflow.
Feel free to select it.

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This workflow starts when someone adds the emoji reactions in the channel you've selected.

2. Send a form

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Select "Send a form" and add Questions like this below.

  1. Question: Long answer
  2. Answer: Long answer
  3. URL: Short answer
  4. Tags: Short answer

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Make Question and Answer to be required.

3. Add a spreadsheet row

We can use Google Sheets for Workflow Builder to save and manage messages.

📖 Lean more Google Sheets for Workflow Builder

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Choose "Add a spreadsheet row" from workflow options.

4. Send a message

Create a message to respond to users.

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Let's test the workflow in your slack channel.

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Of course, it's still not possible to post the message from Slack to Notion.

Deploy Google Apps Script

We need to deploy Apps Script to post the message via Google Sheets from Slack to Notion.

I prepared a template for this project, so you don't have to spend extra time to develop.

https://github.com/Kazuki-tam/gas-slack2notion

1. Clone template

Open the repository and click Use this template.

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Clone the repository and install dependencies.

Install Clasp at first if you haven't done it yet.

npm install -g @google/clasp
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yarn install
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📖 Learn More Clasp

2. Login google account

Authorize management of your Google account's Apps Script projects.

npx clasp login
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3. Create files

Create a .clasp.json at the root, and then add these settings.
Open App script from your spreadsheet and check out a script Id at the setting page.

{
  "scriptId": "<SCRIPT_ID>",
  "rootDir": "./dist"
}
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Create a .env at the root, and then add your token and database id.

NOTION_TOKEN=<YOUR_NOTION_TOKEN>
DATABASE_ID=<YOUR_DATABASE_ID>
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4. Upload a script project

Upload your script project's files from your local with this command.

yarn deploy
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To set up an installable trigger, click on the Trigger menu.
Click on it to add a trigger.

Set up these options like this.

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Test workflow

That's all you have to setup to create this project's workflow. Check if it works without problems.

Conclusion

It's really important to share your knowledge and experience in your team and company. I hope this tutorial will help you to enhance your knowledge system.

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