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Best answer

How to get Zapier to Locate a Slack Channel

  • 22 July 2022
  • 4 replies
  • 453 views
A
Userlevel 1
Badge

Hi! 

I’m floundering a bit with a Zap I’m trying to create and I’m hoping some of you may have suggestions or a solution. 

Background/Context: We have an AirTable Database set up to collect project records. Whenever a new record is entered into the AirTable database, it automatically creates a Slack Channel using some of the info from fields in that record. In my case the naming protocol for the Slack Channel is: 
“(Grantor)-(Project Name)-(School)-(Project ID)”. 

The Zap I’m currently trying to create: 
When a project is finished I want the corresponding Slack table to archive. 

 

The issue: 
The issue I’m running into is that Zapier cannot locate the Slack channel name even with my inputting the dynamic fields I referenced above. I understand why it can’t, but I can’t figure out how to fix it since there is no function to look up a Slack channel (that I know of). Right now the problem is that the zap is pulling these fields in and many of them contain spaces in the entries. But Slack automatically inserts hyphens between all words. I can’t figure out how to accurately tell it what record to look for or format the info it’s pulling in a way that slack will understand. I cannot change the entries in AirTable as these are entered by hundreds of different users and there’s no way I can get them all to use (or in some cases even understand) a required naming protocol. 

Thoughts?
 

icon

Best answer by Danvers 28 July 2022, 15:19

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This post has been closed for comments. Please create a new post if you need help or have a question about this topic.

4 replies

Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Hi @ACAIN 

Good question.

Try this setup…

In the Zap that creates the Slack Channel, add another step for Airtable Update Record to add the Slack Channel ID back in a new field on the Airtable Record, that way the Slack Channel ID is available for reference.

⚡ Troy Tessalone - AutomationAce.com | Premier Certified Zapier Expert | #1 Zapier Community Contributor
nicksimard
Userlevel 7
Badge +11

Hi @ACAIN!

I want to make sure I understand what you’re trying to accomplish. Are you trying to archive the Slack channel via a Zap? If so, I’m afraid we don’t have that action, even if it was possible to locate the channel itself. 

Or am I misunderstanding and you’re trying to do something inside of Airtable, maybe? 

A
Userlevel 1
Badge

@Troy Tessalone, thanks so much. That worked to locate the Channel ID. 

 

@nicksimard , yes, I am trying to archive the channel. I knew that there wasn’t a straightforward way to do that. I had hoped that I could have Zapier send a message to the channel with “/archive” in it, but I tried that and although it sends the message it doesn’t actually execute the archive command. Any idea if and when we will get the ability to create zaps that archive a channel? This is actually a gigantic issue for a project I’m working on. 

Danvers
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

Hi @ACAIN! 

I’m glad that Troy’s idea of storying the Channel IDs in an Airtable worked for you, but I’m sorry that you can’t achieve what you need to with the Zapier Slack integration right now. You correct that slash commands don’t work when sent to the channel by Zapier (I’ve come up against this limitation myself!). 

There is a feature request for the ability to archive a channel using a Zap action, but I wouldn’t expect it to be added in the near future, I’m sorry about that. I have added you as an interested user on the request, which lets the team know how many users would like to see that addition and means that we’ll send you an email if we have an update on it. 

If you’re feeling up for a technical challenge, here’s the Slack API documentation regarding archiving a channel. You may be able to achieve what you need with a webhook, but I’m not familiar with trying to authenticate with Slack via webhooks, so I’m not 100% sure. I hope that helps!

 

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