Description

When using rtmclient.typing(channel), the typing indicator is not immediately sent, and is instead sent after message is posted.

What type of issue is this? (place an x in one of the [ ])

• bug
• enhancement (feature request)
• question
• documentation related
• testing related
• discussion

Requirements (place an x in each of the [ ])

• I've read and understood the Contributing guidelines and have done my best effort to follow them.
• I've read and agree to the Code of Conduct.
• I've searched for any related issues and avoided creating a duplicate issue.

Bug Report

I'm trying to send a typing indicator while the user waits for my bot to respond, but doing so in v2 does not actually send a typing indicator until after my bot responds.

Using SlackClient v2, you can reproduce it using the code below: send the bot Hello, and after 2 seconds you receive the Hi @<user> message followed by the the typing indicator <bot> is typing.

#slackclient v2
import time
import slack

rtmclient = slack.RTMClient(token="xoxb-XXXX")

@slack.RTMClient.run_on(event='message')
def say_hello(**payload):
    data = payload['data']
    if 'text' in data and 'Hello' in data['text']:
        channel_id = data['channel']
        ts = data['ts']
        user = data['user']
        webclient = payload['web_client']

        # send a typing indicator
        rtmclient.typing(channel=channel_id)

        # simulate the bot taking a long action
        time.sleep(2)

        # send a message back using as_user=True
        webclient.chat_postMessage(
            channel=channel_id,
            text="Hi <@{}>!".format(user),
            ts=ts,
            as_user=True
        )

rtmclient.start()

This is weird behavior because my code is sending the typing indicator before sending the message, it's definitely confusing to the user :).

Using SlackClient v1 (v1.3.1 and python 2.7.15), doing the same thing works as expected: with the code below, send the bot Hello, you'll receive the typing indicator, receive the Hi @<user> after 2 seconds, and the indicator immediately disappears.

#slackclient v1
import time

from slackclient import SlackClient

client = SlackClient(token="xoxb-XXXX")


def say_hello(data):
    if 'text' in data and 'Hello' in data['text']:
        channel_id = data['channel']
        ts = data['ts']
        user = data['user']

        # send a typing indicator
        client.server.send_to_websocket({"id": 1, "type": "typing", "channel": channel_id})

        # simulate the bot taking a long action
        time.sleep(2)

        # send a message back using as_user=True
        client.api_call('chat.postMessage',
            channel=channel_id,
            text="Hi <@{}>!".format(user),
            ts=ts,
            as_user=True
            )


if client.rtm_connect():
    while client.server.connected is True:
        for data in client.rtm_read():
            if "type" in data and data["type"] == "message":
                say_hello(data)
else:
    print("Connection Failed")

Reproducible in:

slackclient version: 2.0.1

python version: 3.7.3

OS version(s): macOS 10.14.4

Steps to reproduce:

1. Run the first code snippet above (the one that starts with #slackclient v2
2. Send the bot Hello
3. Observe the <bot> is typing indicator, you only see it after the bot replies back

Expected result:

A <bot> is typing indicator to be sent immediately when I do rtmclient.typing(channel=channel_id), and that the indicator disappears immediately after the bot replies back if the indicator was still present at the time.

Actual result:

The <bot> is typing indicator is not sent immediately when I do rtmclient.typing(channel=channel_id) and is instead sent after I post a message.

Attachments:

None