While not everyone you work with is a New Relic user, most of your teammates are probably on Slack. You can discuss New Relic data with everyone and keep all insights synced between Slack and New Relic discussions.
Unlike many Slack integrations that just share an update to Slack in one-direction, conversation threads on New Relic are synced in both directions with threads on Slack. When you share a question, observation, or request for assistance from New Relic to Slack, your teammates on Slack—whether they are New Relic users themselves or not—can reply to the post on Slack and these replies will be brought back into the thread on New Relic. Likewise, replies added to the thread on New Relic will be added to the thread on Slack. This back and forth sync lets you include more people in the conversation, capture the discussion along with the context in New Relic, use data to inform decisions, and build institutional knowledge, all at the same time.
Installation
The New Relic discussions Slack app is not yet in the Slack App Directory. Depending on your Slack workspace's App Management Settings, you may need the assistance of your Slack administrator for installation.
Once set, your Slack workspace admin may need to turn off “Only allow apps from the Slack App Directory”, and turn on “Allow members to request approval for apps.” Then you can proceed with the authentication instructions below. Following those instructions will generate a request for an admin to approve the application. Once approved, you can install the Slack app, and any settings temporarily changed can be restored.
Authentication
To use the New Relic Discussions Slack application you'll need your New Relic admin (or teammate with the Applied Intelligence Destination Create capability) to be the first to authenticate with Slack. This can be initiated by clicking on the “Sync to Slack” icon which will send you to slack.com to login to the workspace you'd like to use.
Once a workspace is configured, any member of your New Relic organization will be able to authenticate to that workspace and share new discussion threads to Slack. It's important to note that before new users can sync with Slack, a New Relic account admin needs to complete the sync first.
If your organization has more than one account, then Slack credentials are tied to each specific account. If you are trying to sync Slack with a different account, then Slack will require you to authenticate again. This feature was created for security purposes as some multi-org accounts require this extra layer of protection. We're working on solutions and options to make it more convenient.
Syncing to Slack
After authenticating with a Slack workspace, when starting a new discussion thread (or adding a comment to a thread that hasn't previously been sync'd to Slack) simply check the “Sync to” checkbox and select the Slack channel you like to post the comment to.
After submitting a comment, the thread will have a “Synced to Slack” status indicator at the top letting all teammates know that any comments added to the thread on New Relic will also be added to the thread on Slack.
Each new thread or discussion can be synced to a different Slack channel. This includes starting new discussions on different pages or starting additional discussions on pages that have previously synced discussions.
After a discussion is synced to Slack, you won't be able to turn off the sync. This is to ensure that New Relic and Slack are continuously aligned. This eliminates confusion, fragmented conversations, and lost information. If the sync from New Relic to Slack is turned off, it would allow some teammates to continue the discussion on New Relic and others to continue on Slack. You can, however, start a new discussion on the same page and elect not to sync that new discussion if you wanted to discuss something just on New Relic but not Slack.
Replying from Slack
The first comment in a thread synced to Slack will be added to the channel selected on New Relic. The Slack post will include an “Open in New Relic” button providing quick navigation to the page and discussion on one.newrelic.com.
The post will also include a message indicating the thread is synced to New Relic and that replies added to the thread on Slack will appear on New Relic as well. Please note that this means that replies will be visible by everyone in your New Relic organization on newrelic.com regardless of the Slack channel's member list.