function to pull slack message history

slack_messages.py

# coding: utf-8
from slacker import Slacker
import pandas as pd

def pull_messages(slack_api_token, channel_name, from_time=None):
    """
    slack_api_token can be registered at https://api.slack.com/tokens.
    from_time assumes unix_timestamp, such as 1456709957.004145
        -- mysql can convert between unix and posix time easily
        with the function FROM_UNIXTIME so best to just keep that 
        form since it is how the slack api delivers the json payload
        
    example: 
    datalife = pull_messages(SLACK_API_TOKEN, 'datalife')
    """
    
    slack = Slacker(slack_api_token)
    slack_channels = slack.channels.list()
    channels = slack_channels.body['channels']
    channels = pd.DataFrame.from_dict(channels)
    channel_ = channels[channels['name'] == channel_name]['id']
    data = slack.channels.history(
        channel_.values[0], count=1000, oldest=from_time)
    msg = pd.DataFrame.from_dict(data.body['messages'])
    slack_users = slack.users.list()
    users = slack_users.body['members']
    users = pd.DataFrame.from_dict(users)
    users = users[['id', 'profile']]
    user_profile = pd.DataFrame(list(users['profile']))
    users = pd.concat([users, user_profile], axis=1)
    users = users[['id', 'email', 'real_name']]
    ch_history = pd.merge(
        msg, users, left_on='user', right_on='id', how='left')
    ch_history = ch_history[['ts', 'text', 'user', 'email', 'real_name']]
    return ch_history