What is it?  If you are part of IT Services, you can get a special email address to send notifications from any service that will show up in your channel of choice. Each integration has its own email address and customizable name and icon. Notifications configured for alerts in CCSQ QualityNet Slack Channels can only have hostnames and Internal (non-resolvable) IPs. Below are samples of how the Email app provides value:

• NetIM Alerts can be configured to send up/down alerts to include hostname to send to a defined Slack Channel(s).
• Team Distribution lists/mail boxes within Outlook can send email to a Slack Channel.
• BuildDevOps reporting tools (Splunk, Nagios) can be configured to send alerts to a defined Slack. Channel(s). Alerts frequently contain the hostname and Internal IP of the instance that triggered the alert. This notifies BuildDevOps teams there is an issue with a DevOps instance.

Who is it for?  IT Services

Why use it?  Users or teams can send alerts and notifications to a CCSQ QualityNet Slack channel.

How?  Please contact the #help-slack channel or create a ticket in the QNASK Jira project.

What is it?  The Giphy app lets you search a library of animated GIFs and share them in CCSQ QualityNet Slack. Once Giphy is installed to your workspace, any member can post GIFs in conversations from the shortcuts menu (lightning bolt icon to left of the message field.) 

Who is it for?  Any Slack user

How?  In the message field, click on the lightning bolt icon. It opens a pop-up box for shortcuts.  Enter in the word Giphy, then select “find and share a gif with Giphy”.   Fill in the type of gif you’d like to search for and click Search.  A GIF will load into your message box. Don’t like the selection? Then search for another by clicking Shuffle. Once you find the animated GIF you like, click Share.   

Alternatively: 

1. Type in the message box:  \giphy
2. Click enter
3. Click Send  
4. Now fill in the word or phrase you’d like to search for in the pop-up box. Once you find the gif you like, Click Share.   

What is it?  GitHub Enterprise app expands GitHub by posting notifications of commits and pull requests to a channel in CCSQ QualityNet Slack.

Who is it for?  Developers, QA engineers, project managers, release engineers, operations and managers

Why use it?  You can now be instantly notified through a Slack channel whenever there is a commit or pull request made in your GHE organization. Notifications can be configured in both the repository and at the organization level.

How?  Please contact the #help-slack channel or create a ticket in the QNASK Jira project.

What is it? Jenkins Cl app expands Jenkins by posting build start, success, and failure notifications to a channel in CCSQ QualityNet Slack.

Who is it for? Developers, QA engineers, project managers, release engineers, operations and
managers

Why use it? You can now be instantly notified through a CCSQ QualityNet Slack channel of your Jenkins build results.

How? Please contact the #help-slack channel or create a ticket in the QNASK Jira project and provide the CCSQ QualityNet Slack channel(s) where you would like to receive notifications and please also include the name of your Jenkins Master.

What is it?  New Relic is a tool that monitors applications and servers in the CCSQ cloud. The New Relic integration with CCSQ QualityNet Slack allows it to securely send notification alerts (containing sensitive information) to a specific Slack channel. Sensitive information will consist of one host and private IP only.

Who is it for?  Developers, QA engineers, operations, and managers

Why use it?  You can now be instantly notified through a CCSQ QualityNet Slack channel of alerts sent by New Relic.

How?  Open a ServiceNow ticket, assign to HIDS OPS APM team, and provide the Slack channel(s) where you would like to receive notifications. Include the name of your New Relic account. Alternatively, New Relic notifications can be requested during your migration to New Relic.

Best Practices
Instead of using a public or team channel, organizations should have a dedicated private CCSQ QualityNet Slack channel to access New Relic alerts.

What is it?  The QualityNet Confluence integration with Slack allows Confluence to securely send notifications about project updates to a specific Slack channel with a direct link to the update. The integration connects Confluence spaces to your Slack channels so the whole team has one conversation and is kept up-to-date.  

Who is it for?  Anyone who has access to CCSQ QualityNet Slack that would like real time updates from QualityNet Confluence.

Why use it?  Relevant information at your fingertips! Give your team members constant, accurate, and up-to-date Confluence information about work being done on team projects. Let team members know when you’ve created a new page, blog post, calendar entry, or page update.  Select from 4 notification alerts – page creation, page update, blog post, and calendar entry. 

How?  Contact the #help-slack channel or create a ticket in the QNASK Jira project to get Confluence integrated with the Slack channel of your choice. 

Best Practices

• Limit the number of integrations you request for one channel so that only relevant and significant notifications are received.
• Search for anything on Confluence from Slack by typing the command: 
   /confluence_server search topic

What is it?  The Jira server integration with Slack allows Jira to securely send notifications about project/task updates to a specific Slack channel. The integration helps connect Jira Server projects to your Slack channels so the whole team has one conversation.

Who is it for?  Anyone who has access to CCSQ QualityNet Slack that needs to view alerts from QualityNet Jira.

Why use it?  Relevant information at your fingertips! Give your team members constant, accurate, and up-to-date Jira information about work being done on team projects. Let team members know when you’ve created an issue and its work progression.

How?  Contact your QualityNet Jira project admin to configure CCSQ QualityNet Slack notifications for your respective projects. If you are unaware of who the project admin is for the project you want to receive notifications about, you can request help by reaching out through the #help-slackchannelor creating a ticket in the QNASK Jira project.

Best Practices
Limit what you request so that only relevant and significant notifications are received.

QualityNet Jira Integration with QualityNet Slack HCQIS CHAT Presentation

What is it?  The RSS integration allows you to subscribe to an RSS or Atom feed URL and receive updates in CCSQ QualityNet Slack. Feeds will be fetched periodically, and new items will be posted to the specified channel.

Who is it for?  Users of SaaS products/services

Why use it?  Get notified immediately about any outage/service degradation of the product/service you are using.

How?  Please contact the #help-slack channel or create a ticket in the QNASK Jira project.

Best Practices

With RSS you can find out immediately if there are any system issues rather than having to check status updates.

What is it?  Zoom is an Audio/Video conferencing tool to make phone calls with video, audio and instant screen sharing. The CMS Zoom integration with Slack allows it to start meetings from any Slack channel, private group, or direct message using the slash command (/zoom). Note: Users with non-CMS Zoom accounts will not be able to start meetings. Who is it for? 

Who is it for?  Any CCSQ QualityNet Slack member that has a CMS Zoom account can use it to start or schedule a Zoom meeting. Any Slack member can join meetings even if they do not have a CMS Zoom account.

Why use it?  Convenience! You can now instantly start and schedule Zoom meetings from any CCSQ QualityNet Slack channel, private group, or direct message using the /zoom slash command.

How?  First time users, please remember to authorize Zoom during initial use by providing authorization for Slack to your CMS Zoom. When starting a Zoom call in a channel, use @member_username to notify the members whom you would like to invite.

If you are in the QualityNet Slack workspace but would like to meet with someone from any CMS Slack workspace, you now have the opportunity to be connected!  

Go to #help-slack and make a request for creation of a special channel that allows you to invite CMS Slack users to join you there.  If approved, the channel will be available on QualityNet Slack for users from each of the workspaces to meet in real time.  When you make your request include with whom you want to connect, their email, and the reason for your connection.  You can request more than one new channel.

The new connected channels give you the ability to:
•    Connect with users from CMS Slack workspaces through specially created QualityNet channels
•    Collaborate with CMS Slack workspace users 
•    Send messages to CMS Slack workspace users 
•    Make announcements and use any other Slack channel functionality to communicate with CMS Slack workspace users

Note:  
Just like an old-fashioned switchboard, you can only be connected through individual channels on QualityNet Slack and not to the entire CMS Slack workspace of channels.  In other words, it is not possible to jump onto CMS Slack and join any channel.  You must have specific connected channels created on QualityNet Slack by our QualityNet Slack team in order to communicate.

So go ahead. You are now connected!

Huddles is a Slack feature that works both inside a Slack channel or direct message. It's a quick and easy way to meet live with anyone in QualityNet Slack!  If talking something out is faster than typing it out, you’ll want to start a huddle.

Slack Huddles is entirely audio.  The absence of video helps reduce the fatigue sometimes associated with always being on camera.  When a huddle is open, any member of the channel or direct message can come and go as they please.  Attendees can share their screen, and others can draw on it. There is also an option for live captioning.

Starting a Huddle

To start a huddle, click the headphones icon in the bottom left.  Anyone can join the huddle once it’s in session by also pressing this button. Here are the steps:

1. Open a channel or DM.
2. Click the headphones toggle in the bottom left corner of your sidebar.
3. Once the huddle has started, you can click the   microphone icon to mute yourself, the screen icon to share your screen, or the add people icon to invite specific people to the huddle.
4. To turn on live captioning, click the name of the person actively talking in the bottom left corner of your screen. Click the three dots icon, then select Turn on captions.
5. To leave a huddle, click the headphones toggle at the bottom left corner of your sidebar. 

Differences between Slack telephone calls and Huddles

• Huddles can have 50 people while calls can only have 14.
• People can leave huddles at any time, including the host.
• Anyone in the channel or direct message where the huddle was started can join the huddle at any time.
• Calls include video while huddles do not.

Ways to use Huddles

 Some great ways to use Huddles include:

• Open office hours – One or more persons can drop in anytime during those hours.
• Brainstorm sessions – These are great after you’ve left a meeting with a list of action items for your team. A quick huddle is a casual way to get everyone up to speed while the takeaways and goals are still fresh.  Slack Huddles support screen sharing, so you can pull up a spreadsheet or document to log ideas or a calendar to discuss timelines.
• War room – After a new launch, a Huddle is a great way to have an open “room” to address feedback that rolls in.
• Social get-togethers – Huddles are a great way to gather for hangouts like lunch and happy hours without the stress of video.  

QualityNet Slack is more efficient and fun to use than ever before with audio and video clips.  A new built-in feature located in your message composition box now lets you record clips up to 3 minutes long!

Anyone in a channel or direct message (DM) can easily make a recording and share ideas, updates, or just say hello.  Recipients can reply in a thread with a clip of their own.  The feature is available on both desktop and mobile and allows you to share your screen while recording.

**Important Note!

Remember!  Slack is neither a System of Record nor approved for sensitive information.  Enjoy using Clips, but DO NOT share any Personally Identifiable Information (PII) or Protected Health Information (PHI) in CCSQ QualityNet Slack

Recording a Video Clip

Follow these steps to record a clip:

1. From a channel or (DM), click the camera icon in the message field.

2. You can either record yourself speaking or a screen you’d like to share.  Select with a click.  You can also start sharing once you’re recording, and stop sharing at any time.

3. Click Record. 

4. When you’re finished, click Stop.

       5. You will now have the option to re-record, by selecting Retry. You will also have the option to download your recording.

        6. When complete, click Next and add a message if you’d like.

        7. Click the paper plane icon to send your clip.

Recording an Audio Clip

1.  From a channel or DM, click the microphone icon in the message field. Slack will start recording automatically.

       2. When you’re finished, click the blue check mark button to stop recording.

       3. Add a message if you’d like, then click the paper plane icon to send your clip.

Play a Clip

1.  Press the play button on a clip. For any clip, select 1X to adjust the playback speed.
2. For video clips, click the closed caption icon to turn captions on or off.

        3. All clips are automatically transcribed. To read a transcript, click the three lines icon on any clip. 

Delete a Clip

1.  Hover over a clip and click the three dots icon.
2. Click Delete clip.
3. Click Yes, delete this clip.

Other commands available with the three dots icon include download, share, copy, open video in new window or thread, and copy video link.

Use Threads to Keep Organized

What is a thread?

Threads help you create organized discussions around specific messages. They let you discuss a topic in more detail, keeping conversations intact and uninterrupted without adding clutter to a channel or direct message (DM) conversation.  Threads appear in the as “mini sidebar” conversations in a channel on the right-hand side.

How?

Start a thread from any message whether in a channel or DM. 

1.     Hover over the message to which you'd like to reply.

2.     Click the Reply in thread conversation bubble icon.

3.     Type your reply and send your message.

You’ll be notified of new replies to a thread if you started a thread, replied to a thread, or were mentioned in the original message or any thread replies.

For a thread you haven’t engaged with, you can choose to follow it to stay in the loop.

1.     Hover over the thread.

2.     Click the three dots icon.

3.     Select Get notified about new replies to receive notifications for all new thread replies, or Turn off notifications for replies to stop receiving notifications.

See all conversations you’re following:

Select Threads at the top of your left sidebar.  Threads with unread replies will appear at the top of the list.

Bonus Tip!

When others would benefit from seeing your thread reply, you can send your reply back to the channel or DM’s main view. Simply check the also send to #channelname box below your message before sending it.

Split View  - Watch 2 Conversations at One Time

Threads are not the only feature in QualityNet Slack that let you open a conversation in the right sidebar.  The split view feature lets you see information side-by-side from all different parts of Slack.  That means you can open and view two conversations or channels without having to move back and forth between them.  Here’s how:

1. From your desktop, right-click on a conversation name and choose Open in split view.   

Alternatively, press Cmd (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows/Linux) and click the name of a conversation or channel in your left sidebar

       2. The conversation or channel will automatically appear on the right sidebar.

       3. Click and drag the separator bar in the middle to adjust conversations to your preferred width.

      4. To close split view, click the close icon in the top right.

What you can open in split view:

• Channels and direct messages (DMs)
• A new message from the compose button
• Items at the top of your sidebar like Mentions & reactions, Saved items, All unreads, and more
• Suggested search terms when you type in the search field
• Pinned messages
• Thread replies