Upload Documents from Slack

Everlaw supports ingestion of Slack data either directly via a cloud connection or from an exported zip file on your local machine.  This article describes:

• The step-by-step process to connect your Slack organization to Everlaw to upload via the cloud

  Tip

  We recommend using Everlaw's cloud connector for Slack to upload data from Slack, when possible. This connection allows you to filter your data by custodian, date range, and channel so that you can upload relevant direct messages, public channels, and private channels.

• The required format to upload this data locally

Requirements 

Using the cloud connection to upload data directly into Everlaw from your Slack organization requires that you have:

• Database Upload permissions on Everlaw 
• Enterprise Grid Org Owner permissions on the Slack workspace. As part of the upload, you give consent on behalf of your organization for Everlaw to access your data.

If you do not have Slack Enterprise Grid Org Owner permissions for the Slack organization, you can upload Slack data from your local machine.  

To upload from your local machine, you must have:

• Database Upload permissions on Everlaw
• Access to a Slack export. This can be an export that you download yourself, if you have the appropriate permissions on Slack, or one that someone has shared with you. 

Data security and privacy

As part of making the connection to Slack and selecting the files, you will first grant Everlaw permission to view all of your organization’s messages (including all private channels and direct messages), as well as your organization’s files. You need to accept this permission request every time you upload data from Slack.

To learn more about how Everlaw handles third party data, please consult our privacy policy. 

Upload data through a direct connection to Slack

Forming the connection to Slack and doing the upload occurs entirely within Everlaw. In the upload wizard, you select the custodians (chat participants) and date range for the chats you want to upload. Then, the wizard guides you to select from the workspace(s), public channels, and private channels that your selected custodians belonged to during your selected time period. Once you've made these selections, you upload the data through the native upload process.

To start an upload:

1. Go to Data Transfer > Uploads. This takes you to the uploads page.
2. Select Native Upload.  Then select Start upload. 
3. Under Collect from cloud application, select Slack.
   
   This opens a dialog box. 
4. Enter your workspace’s Slack URL. Then select Continue.
   
   
5. If you're not already signed in, you are prompted to sign in to your Slack account. This takes you to a dialog requesting permission.
6. If you are signed into multiple workspaces or organizations, select the one you want to upload from.
   
7. Select Allow to accept the permissions request. By accepting this request, you give Everlaw permission to view all of your organization’s messages (including all private channels and direct messages), as well as your organization’s files. You will need to accept this permissions request every time you upload data from Slack.
   Once you have connected your Slack workspace and Everlaw, the dialog box closes and an upload wizard guides you through the rest of the upload. 
8. The Custodians step lists all the Slack users in your organization. Check the box next to each custodian whose data you would like to import, or select all custodians by checking the box at the top of the table.  You can filter this list by custodian name or email. When you are done selecting custodians, select Next. 
   • When you select a user as a custodian, you upload all their direct messages and relevant channel messages. If you have retention settings enabled on Slack, message edits and deletions are also included. 
     
     
9. In the Time range step, select the time range of Slack data you'd like to upload. Enter the beginning date in From and the end date in To.
   If you do not specify a range, all conversations associated with your selected custodians and channels (which you configure in a later step) will be uploaded.
   The workspaces and channels listed in the next 3 steps are  based on the custodians and date range you have selected.
   Then select Next.
   
10. In the Workspaces step, select the box next to the workspace(s) you would like to upload from. Then, select Next.
    
    
11. In the Public channels step, select the box next to the channels you would like to import. To select all channels, select the box at the top of the table.
    Under Status, you can see if the channel is currently active or archived.
    Deleted channels are permanently removed by Slack after 24 hours and will not be listed. 
    Then, select Next.
    
12. In the Private channels step, select the box next to the private channels you would like to upload. To select all channels, select the box at the top of the table. Then, select Next.
    Under Status, you can see if the channel is currently active or archived. 
    Deleted channels are permanently removed by Slack after 24 hours and will not be listed. 
    
    
13. The Summary page displays your selected custodians, date range, workspaces, public channels, and private channels. If you are happy with your selections, select Continue.  Otherwise, select Previous to edit your choices.
    
    
14. You are taken to Everlaw’s native data upload wizard. Here, you can name your upload, specify deduplications settings, and choose which projects to upload the data to. For more information about these upload settings, read this section of the Native Data Uploads article.
    On the Custodians step of the native upload wizard you can edit the names of any of your custodians to how you would like them displayed in Everlaw.

Upload Slack data from your local machine

If you cannot upload Slack data via the cloud connection, you can also upload exports from your local machine. To export data from Slack, follow Slack's instructions. When the export is uploaded to Everlaw, you can review these documents as chats.

Required format

To process Slack files correctly, the Slack export needs to be in the same format as it was originally exported from Slack. The exported zip file must include:  

• Users.json
• Channels.json
• Message files: [DATE].json
• Each conversation (e.g. a channel, multi-party message, direct message, etc) needs to be a collection of message files in its own folder, and each conversation folder needs to be referred to by an object in the channels.json file.

  

The Slack export cannot be unzipped or altered when you upload it. 

Upload

Slack exports are uploaded using the same process as all other native uploads. To get started:

1. Go to Data Transfer  > Uploads. This takes you to the uploads page.
2. Select Native, then select Start upload.  
3. From here, follow the Native Uploads workflow.

Review Slack data

Everlaw uses information from the Slack upload to construct documents. Here is information about how these files are constructed for review:

• • Each document includes a header displaying  the Slack channel name, purpose, timezone, and chat contributors.

  • Each document includes all the chats from that channel from a 24 hour period.

  • Threaded messages are denoted by a box encapsulating messages in the thread.

  • Deleted messages are noted with (Deleted)

    Note

    Not all deleted messages have a record in the document.

  • Images are displayed inline 
    

  • File attachments are grouped with the chat document. Results tables grouped by attachment will organize the attachments as children of the chat.
    
    
  • When reviewing the documents, file attachments are denoted where they appear with information about the file name, Slack URL, size, and file type. To see attachments, use the file path explorer in the context panel.
  • Everlaw extracts metadata from Slack conversations. The Chat Contributors metadata field is automatically populated with the names of all participants who contributed to that chat during that conversation. Everlaw also populates the Start Date and End Date metadata fields with the date and time of the first and last message of the conversation, respectively.