René's URL Explorer Experiment

{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"How to capture root message of a thread in a Space?","articleBody":"By root message I mean the first original message from which a thread starts.\n\n\u003cimg width=\"955\" height=\"177\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/90abf083-b2c1-4226-bedc-ff7e49391c20\" /\u003e\n\nIn an attempt to capture the root message of a thread (both 1:1 and Space) from which the webhook was called,\n\n`starter = api.messages.get( parent_id )` works for 1:1 not in a Space, throws error:\n```\nTraceback (most recent call last):\nFile \"/app/webex-bot/app.py\", line 174, in collect_thread_text_and_attachments\nstarter = api.messages.get(parent_id)\nFile \"/app/webex-bot/pyvenv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/webexpythonsdk/api/messages.py\", line 339, in get\njson_data = self._session.get(API_ENDPOINT + \"/\" + messageId)\nFile \"/app/webex-bot/pyvenv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/webexpythonsdk/restsession.py\", line 428, in get\nresponse = self.request(\"GET\", url, erc, params=params, **kwargs)\nFile \"/app/webex-bot/pyvenv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/webexpythonsdk/restsession.py\", line 393, in request\ncheck_response_code(response, erc)\nFile \"/app/webex-bot/pyvenv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/webexpythonsdk/utils.py\", line 207, in check_response_code\nraise ApiError(response)\nwebexpythonsdk.exceptions.ApiError: [404] Not Found - Unable to get message. [Tracking ID: ROUTERGW_add856f9-8590-471d-a355-3b4b2405fdb9]  \n```\n\nAlso, `starter_candidates = list( api.messages.list( roomId = room_id, max = 5, beforeMessage = parent_id ) )` works 1:1 but not in Space, throws error:\n```\nTraceback (most recent call last):\nFile \"/app/webex-bot/app.py\", line 179, in collect_thread_text_and_attachments\nstarter_candidates = list( api.messages.list( roomId = room_id, max = 5, beforeMessage = parent_id ) )\nFile \"/app/webex-bot/pyvenv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/webexpythonsdk/api/messages.py\", line 138, in list\nfor item in items:\nFile \"/app/webex-bot/pyvenv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/webexpythonsdk/restsession.py\", line 502, in get_items\nfor json_page in pages:\nFile \"/app/webex-bot/pyvenv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/webexpythonsdk/restsession.py\", line 455, in get_pages\nresponse = self.request(\"GET\", url, erc, params=params, **kwargs)\nFile \"/app/webex-bot/pyvenv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/webexpythonsdk/restsession.py\", line 393, in request\ncheck_response_code(response, erc)\nFile \"/app/webex-bot/pyvenv/lib/python3.10/site-packages/webexpythonsdk/utils.py\", line 207, in check_response_code\nraise ApiError(response)\nwebexpythonsdk.exceptions.ApiError: [403] Forbidden - Failed to get activity. [Tracking ID: ROUTERGW_48f845fd-b077-4dab-8ec8-57291972479f] \n```\n\nThis piece works fine to capture the root message of a 1:1 thread but fails to capture the root message of a thread in a Space.\n```\ndef collect_thread_text_and_attachments(msg) -\u003e tuple[str, list[str]]:\n    \"\"\"\n    Robustly collect thread text + attachments. Works in 1:1 but not in spaces.\n    Strategy:\n      1) Try api.messages.get(parent_id)\n      2) If that fails, scan recent messages in the room up to MAX_SCAN to find the parent\n      3) If still not found, try beforeMessage(parent_id) as a fallback\n      4) Always include replies (list parentId=...) ordered oldest-\u003enewest\n      5) Ensure the incoming message 'msg' is present\n      6) If starter can't be found, add a placeholder notice\n    Returns (thread_text, [attachment_text]) where attachment_text is list with single big string\n    \"\"\"\n    author_cache = {}\n    thread_text_lines = []\n    attachment_blocks = []\n\n    def process_single_message(m):\n        author = get_display_name(getattr(m, \"personId\", \"unknown\"), author_cache)\n        mtext = (getattr(m, \"text\", \"\") or \"\").strip()\n        if mtext:\n            thread_text_lines.append(f\"[{author}]: {mtext}\")\n\n        if getattr(m, \"files\", None):\n            for f_url in m.files:\n                try:\n                    content, fname, ctype = download_webex_file(f_url)\n                    extracted = extract_text_from_file(content, fname, ctype)\n                    attachment_blocks.append(f\"[Attachment {fname}]:\\n{extracted}\")\n                except Exception as e:\n                    # keep going; record the error in attachments so user sees it\n                    attachment_blocks.append(f\"[Attachment error for {fname}]: {e}\")\n\n    parent_id = getattr(msg, \"parentId\", None)\n    room_id = getattr(msg, \"roomId\", None)\n\n    messages_to_process = []\n    found_starter = None\n    starter_unavailable = False\n\n    if parent_id and room_id:\n        # 1) Try to fetch starter directly (works in many cases)\n        try:\n            starter = api.messages.get(parent_id)\n            found_starter = starter\n        except Exception as ex_get:\n            # failed to get the parent message (common in spaces)\n            # 2) Try scanning recent messages in the room to find that id (paginated)\n            MAX_SCAN = 500  # \u003c= number of messages to scan; adjust as needed\n            scanned = 0\n            try:\n                for m in api.messages.list(roomId=room_id, max=100):\n                    scanned += 1\n                    if getattr(m, \"id\", None) == parent_id:\n                        found_starter = m\n                        break\n                    if scanned \u003e= MAX_SCAN:\n                        break\n            except Exception:\n                # scanning may also fail due to permissions; ignore and fallback\n                pass\n\n            # 3) fallback: try beforeMessage (sometimes works)\n            if not found_starter:\n                try:\n                    candidates = list(api.messages.list(roomId=room_id, max=1, beforeMessage=parent_id))\n                    if candidates:\n                        found_starter = candidates[0]\n                except Exception:\n                    pass\n\n            if not found_starter:\n                starter_unavailable = True  # note that we couldn't retrieve the starter\n\n        # If we found a starter, add it first\n        if found_starter:\n            messages_to_process.append(found_starter)\n\n        # Collect replies (newest-first), reverse to oldest-\u003enewest\n        try:\n            replies = list(api.messages.list(roomId=room_id, parentId=parent_id, max=100))\n            replies.reverse()            \n            messages_to_process.extend(replies)\n            messages_to_process.pop()\n        except Exception:\n            # if replies cannot be fetched, continue - we'll at least include incoming message\n            pass\n\n        # Ensure incoming 'msg' is present (sometimes it's not in replies list)\n        if not any(getattr(m, \"id\", None) == getattr(msg, \"id\", None) for m in messages_to_process):\n            messages_to_process.append(msg)\n\n        # If we couldn't find the starter, insert a placeholder at the top (so LLM sees lack of context)\n        if starter_unavailable:\n            thread_text_lines.append(\"[Starter message unavailable — bot may have joined after the thread started or lacks permission to read the original message.]\")\n\n    else:\n        # Not a thread or missing metadata: just process the single message\n        messages_to_process = [msg]\n\n    # Now process messages in order, avoid duplicates\n    seen_ids = set()\n    for m in messages_to_process:\n        mid = getattr(m, \"id\", None)\n        if mid and mid in seen_ids:\n            continue\n        if mid:\n            seen_ids.add(mid)\n        process_single_message(m)\n\n    # Combine, guardrail sizes\n    thread_text = \"\\n\".join(thread_text_lines)\n    MAX_CHARS = 60_000\n    if len(thread_text) \u003e MAX_CHARS:\n        thread_text = thread_text[:MAX_CHARS] + \"\\n...[truncated]\"\n\n    att_text = \"\\n\\n\".join(attachment_blocks)\n    if len(att_text) \u003e MAX_CHARS:\n        att_text = att_text[:MAX_CHARS] + \"\\n...[attachments truncated]\"\n\n    return thread_text, [att_text] if att_text else []  \n```","author":{"url":"https://github.com/ddebta","@type":"Person","name":"ddebta"},"datePublished":"2025-09-02T21:47:38.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":0},"url":"https://github.com/265/WebexPythonSDK/issues/265"}