Will Workflows Steps from Apps created by this SDK stop working after deprecation?

[BSouzaDock]

According to Slack, the traditional way of creating workflows will be discontinued, and from what I understand, the old wokflows steps should be migrated to the new way of creating custom functions: https://api.slack.com/legacy/workflows/steps https://api.slack.com/changelog/2023-08-workflow-steps-from-apps-step-back

It turns out that I've been using the bolt api for over 2 years to create app steps in the organization I work for, and I have a lot of flows created this way.

My question is the following: will these flows stop working? Is there any proposal for this SDK to create application steps in the new format? I'm a little confused about these changes.

Thanks.

[srajiang]

Hi @BSouzaDock 👋 Thanks for writing in with this question.
It means a lot to us that you choose to build with the Slack platform, so thanks for that too.

Here's what to expect with your workflows built with traditional Workflow Steps from Apps:

will these flows stop working

Yes, as the changelog post you linked has mentioned, "Existing workflows containing Steps from Apps will no longer be in an executable state by users". That means that as of September 12th, you can expect the workflows built this way to cease functioning.

I figure that's not the news you wanted to hear, given how many flows you have currently working with this feature.

Is there any proposal for this SDK to create application steps in the new format?

We do have plans within the bolt-python project to support adding custom functions (which will also appear as steps in Workflow Builder and can be added to workflows) to your existing app. Full transparency, these custom functions will not work the way that your traditional steps do. For instance, they do not require specific event subscription, they not require their own standalone scopes.

There will be more detail coming out about support for these within the year.

From your message, you're way ahead and already thinking about migration and what steps would be needed there. Unfortunately, we don't yet have a concrete details to share on migration.

However, I'd personally love to know more about how you're using the traditional Workflow Steps from Apps today and how those steps are used in workflows. If your project is open source, I'd be curious to take a look as well. Generally, we want to better understand how folks are using the features today. It'd certainly help inform how we approach guiding folks onto the newer features.

Also, for those seeing this issue feel free to chime in on the thread to let us know your use cases today.

[BSouzaDock]

Thanks for the answer @srajiang ,

I currently have 2 apps in the company, the first already has 10 workflow steps, and the second with 5. That's why this topic worries me, as several sectors use these flows for day-to-day tasks, such as: MFA Reset , report generation, support team actions such as user account creation, etc.

From what I talked to Slack support, the customized functions will be executed from within the Slack server, that is, these actions where I connect to our internal systems would no longer be possible. They even suggested putting me in a pilot project of custom functions operating on the client side, but as it is something beta, I still have no guarantee when it will be ready.

My fear is that September 12th will come and these steps will stop working, which will cause a huge impact. So I would like to know what your suggestions are.

I thought about migrating these steps to commands, allowing them to be executed only in a specific channel where the current workflows are located. I would like to understand with you what the best suggestion would be in this case.

[srajiang]

From what I talked to Slack support, the customized functions will be executed from within the Slack server, that is, these actions where I connect to our internal systems would no longer be possible.

I can give a bit more detail on this. We will be enabling adding custom functions to bolt-python, so you can continue to host the steps your own infra as you do today. With the caveat I mentioned above, that the functions will work differently / be set up differently than your steps from apps today.

They even suggested putting me in a pilot project of custom functions operating on the client side, but as it is something beta, I still have no guarantee when it will be ready.

Completely understandable.

My fear is that September 12th will come and these steps will stop working, which will cause a huge impact. So I would like to know what your suggestions are.

I hear you completely and I agree that in the absence of a migration doc, the impact seems major. This affects workflows I've personally built in the old way too! Let me take this strong feedback internally and make sure others are aware as well. I hope to have more to share on this issue in coming days.

[BSouzaDock]

I'm happy with our conversation. I await new feedback ;)