Turn a site research request into a crawl
When a research brief has its seed URLs, start a site crawl from Slack and collect structured information across the site.
Trigger
Channel Message Received
Triggered when a message is posted in a Slack channel (public, private, or multi-party IM). Does NOT match direct messages.
Action
Start Crawl Job
Tool to spider a site for links and process them with the extract api into a single collection. use when you have seed urls and want to collect structured data across a site. requires a plus plan for crawl api access.
Why this helps
Site-wide research can stall between agreeing on a source and actually gathering its pages.
- Start crawl research from the channel where the brief is discussed.
- Collect structured content across a site from seed URLs.
- Reduce the handoff between planning research and beginning it.
Setup
Build it in a few focused steps.
- 1Connect Slack and Diffbot to Notis once.
- 2Create an automation in the portal or ask Notis to create one conversationally.
- 3Write one instruction to start a crawl when a Slack request includes seed URLs and a defined research goal.
- 4Choose the Slack channel-message trigger and a channel for run reports.
- 5Test with one small, relevant site and seed URL.
Questions about this workflow
Can every Diffbot account run a crawl?
The crawl API requires a Diffbot plan that includes crawl access.
What should the Slack request contain?
Include seed URLs and a clear goal so Notis can understand when to start the crawl.
When this happens · Trigger
Do this · Action
Supported Triggers and Actions
Notis builds workflows that link Slack to Diffbot. A trigger fires from one place; an action lands in another.
Slack triggers
Diffbot actions
Recurring trigger
Notis starts this workflow on a schedule, such as daily, weekly, or during business hours.
Diffbot Search
Tool to search data extracted by crawl or bulk jobs using dql queries. use after data extraction jobs complete to retrieve search results.
Webhook trigger
Notis starts this workflow when an external tool or custom backend sends an HTTP request.
Get Diffbot Account Details
Tool to retrieve account details, including plan information and usage statistics. use after authenticating to verify subscription and daily quota status.
New Channel Created Trigger
Triggered when a new channel is created in Slack.
Diffbot Analyze
Tool to automatically determine a page's content type and route it to the appropriate extraction api. use when you have only a url and need diffbot to choose the right extractor.
Channel Message Received
Triggered when a message is posted in a Slack channel (public, private, or multi-party IM). Does NOT match direct messages.
Get Article Data
Tool to extract information from articles, including authors, publication dates, and images. use when you need structured metadata from a web article url.
Direct Message Received
Triggered when a new direct message (DM) is sent to a user in Slack. Catches all DMs across all DM channels.
Get Discussion Thread
Tool to extract threads of content from forums, comment sections, and review pages. use when you need structured discussion data from web pages after identifying the discussion url.
Message Reaction Added
Triggered when a reaction is added to a message in Slack. Supports optional filtering by channel and emoji name.
Diffbot Get Event
Tool to extract event details from web pages. use when you need structured event data such as venue, date, and description.
Message Reaction Removed
Triggered when a reaction is removed from a message in Slack. Supports optional filtering by channel and emoji name.
Diffbot Get Image
Tool to extract detailed information about images, including dimensions and recognition data. use after confirming the image url is publicly accessible.
Reaction Added Trigger
DEPRECATED: use `SLACK_MESSAGE_REACTION_ADDED` instead. Triggered when a reaction is added to a message in Slack.
Diffbot Get Product
Tool to extract product information such as specifications, prices, availability, and reviews. use when you need structured product data including specs, pricing, and reviews.
Connect any two apps with Notis in the middle.
Slack and Diffbot, or any other combination from 1,000+ integrations.
When this happens · Trigger
Do this · Action
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