opsdroid with Jacob Tomlinson

00:00:00
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00:45:40

August 26th, 2017

45 mins 40 secs

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About this Episode

Summary

Server administration is an activity that often happens in an isolated context in a terminal. ChatOps is a way of bringing that work into a shared environment and unlocking more collaboration. This week Jacob Tomlinson talks about the work he has done on opsdroid, a new bot framework targeted at tying together the various services and environments that modern production systems rely on.

Preface

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  • Your host as usual is Tobias Macey and today I’m interviewing Jacob Tomlinson about opsdroid

Interview

  • Introductions
  • How did you get introduced to Python?
  • What is opsdroid and what was the problem that you were trying to solve when you started the project?
  • What led you to choose Python as the language for implementing opsdroid?
  • What did you find lacking in the multitude of other chat bots that necessitated starting a new project? (e.g. Hubot, Errbot, Lita)
  • One of the main features that you list in the documentation is the ease of installation. Why is that such an important aspect of the project and how is that implemented?
  • What has been the most interesting and the most challenging aspect of implementing opsdroid?
  • On the opsdroid organisation on GitHub there are many repositories for plugin modules. Do you see this being a management issue in the long term?
  • How is opsdroid architected and what were the system requirements that led to the current system design?
  • How do you manage authorization and authentication for performing commands against your production infrastructure in a group chat environment?
    • What are some of the other security implications that users should be aware of when deploying a bot for interfacing with their deployment environment?


  • How does a chat-oriented bot framework differ from those that are being created for voice-oriented interaction?

  • What do you have planned for the future of opsdroid?

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The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA