GroupMe bot post function including @mentions

botPost.php

<?php

/** 
 *  Post a message from a bot to a group
 *
 *  $groupId      (string) GroupId of the group to post the message
 *  $strMessage   (string) Text of the message to post (limit of 1000 characters)
 *  $strBotId     (string) ID of the bot which will post the message
 *  $mentionUsers (array)   [optional] array of userIds to mention (uses attachment)
 *                    Example array of userIds:
 *                      ["123456","654321","987654"]
 *
 *  @return           Status 201 (Created)
 *                  No return from this endpoint.
 *
 * This function, if used with @mentions, will a simmilar array to this:
 * 
 *  {
 *    "attachments": [
 *      {
 *        "loci": [
 *          [
 *            10,
 *            8
 *          ]
 *        ],
 *        "type": "mentions",
 *        "user_ids": [
 *          "12345678"
 *        ]
 *      }
 *    ],
 *    "botId": "16154809",
 *    "text": "Attention @person1!",
 *  }
 * 
 */
public function botPost($groupId, $strBotId, $strMessage, $mentionUsers = false) 
{
  if ((empty($mentionUsers) === false) && (is_array($mentionUsers) === true)) 
  {
    
    // Get current name of the user(s) to mention
    
    // Start by getting all current group members
    $r = $this->getGroup($groupId);
    
    // Build a quick lookup array of the current group members (for use later)
    foreach ($r['response']['members'] as $k => $v) 
    {
      $arrMembersOfGroup[$v['user_id']] = $v['nickname'];
    }
    $arrUsersToMention = array();
    $arrPostscriptNames = array();
    foreach ($mentionUsers as $k => $v) 
    {
      
      // Build flat array of @userName to make into string
      if (in_array($v, array_keys($arrMembersOfGroup))) 
      {
        if (strlen($k) > 3) 
        {
          
          // Use the array keys as the text for the mention, instead of their current group nickname
          $arrUsersToMention[] = "@" . $k;
        } 
        else
        {
          $arrUsersToMention[] = "@" . $arrMembersOfGroup[$v];
        }
        $arrUserIds[] = $v;
      } 
      else
      {
        
        // Not a member of the group, so add them to a postscript list
        if (strlen($k) > 3) 
        {
          $arrPostscriptNames[] = $k;
        }
      }
    }
    
    $strMentions = implode(" ", $arrUsersToMention);
    if (count($arrPostscriptNames) > 0) 
    {
      $strMentionsPostscript = ", and these people not in this group: " . implode(", ", $arrPostscriptNames);
    }
    $strMessage = $strMessage . " " . $strMentions . " " . $strMentionsPostscript;
    
    $arrLoci = array();
    foreach ($arrUsersToMention as $k => $v) 
    {
      
      // Build the $arrLoci attachment, getting string position and lengths for mention replacement
      $arrLoci[] = array(
        stripos($strMessage, $v) ,
        strlen($v)
      );
    }
    $arrPayload["attachments"][] = array(
      "loci" => $arrLoci,
      "type" => "mentions",
      "user_ids" => $arrUserIds
    );
  }
  $arrPayload["bot_id"] = $strBotId;
  $arrPayload["text"] = $strMessage;
  
  $postUrl = $this->baseUrl . "/bots/post?token={$this->token}";
  
  return $this->apiPost($postUrl, $arrPayload);
}

is there a way to modify this to mention all users in a group?, if so, can you please tell me how to do so?

Nope! There are a few people that have thought about that, and it's not really supported (something like @everyone). You could use this to get the group members and loop over them, using an @mention for everyone individually. It's a bit clunky, but that's really the only practical way right now.

thats what i mean, I'm just wondering if you could tell me how to modify the code to mention everyone individually...

Any idea if this still works? Attempting to send the below but the user mentioned isn't added :(

data: {
    bot_id: botName,
    text: " - you've been mentioned!",
    attachments: [
        {
        type: "mentions",
        user_ids: [1234],
        loci: [[0, 0]],
        },
    ],
}

Oh boy @rastalamm, I haven’t worked with this API in so long I wouldn’t be surprised if it had changed a bunch in the mean time. This was a really crappy API to work with if I remember correctly, and it’s possible they have a better way to structure the payload for a mention now.

Appreciate the quick response - feeling some of the pain you felt...

I’d try getting the index of messages in a group first to see if there’s some different way that mention attachments are done: https://dev.groupme.com/docs/v3#messages_index

Past that: best of luck 🤷🏻‍♂️