plotlyImageToSlack downloads the image of a Plotly chart and messages it to you via Slack. plotlyImageToSlack is intended to be run as an AWS Lambda function.

Note: at the time of creation Plotly image previews did not load in Slack.

• boto3: We assume that you are familiar with using AWS's boto3 Python client, and that you have followed AWS's instructions to configure your AWS credentials.

• Plotly: You will need a Plotly account and API token. If you are not already a Plotly user you can test this function with graphs from their public feed

• Slack: You will need a Slack channel where you would like to post your Plotly images, and a token that has permissions to post to this channel. We suggest using the token from a bot user.

Run pip install -r requirements.txt to install development requirements. Once you've followed the steps in the previous section, run the following code to create or fetch an IAM role, and create a Lambda function:

python create_lambda_function.py \
  --plotly-api-token <YOUR PLOTLY API TOKEN> \
  --plotly-username <YOUR PLOTLY USERNAME> \
  --slack-channel <'#channel' or '@username' on SLACK> \
  --slack-token <SLACK BOT TOKEN>

You can test your function by running:

from aws_clients import LambdaClient

lambda_client = LambdaClient()
lambda_client.invoke("https://plot.ly/~matlab_user_guide/436")

If the function was configured correctly, you should receive a slack message with a Plotly image.

You can debug, change environment variables, and test via the AWS Console. test_event.json is a test event that you can copy-paste into the AWS Lambda console.

You'll find util functions for the lambda and iam boto clients in aws_clients.py, and a script for re-packaging the Lambda function and its dependencies in zip_for_lambda.sh.

To learn more about packaging and deploying functions to Lambda, read my blog post AWS Lambda Functions Made Easy.