About Zapier Community
New to our Community? Get to know more about our space and how to make the most of your time here.

Code of Conduct Community FAQ's Zapier Common Questions What to Expect

Get Started With Zapier
New to Zapier? We have got you covered with our Zapier 101 Resources.

Zapier Essentials

Get Support
Have a question? Let's get you an answer!

How Do I...? Troubleshooting Code & Webhooks Developer Zone

Other Help Resources
Wait, there's more! Check out these Community sourced spaces for additional resources.

Zapier Help Center Hire an Expert

Zapier Reading
All of our best learning resources can be found here.

Featured Articles Show & Tell AI Hub Zapier Tools Hub

Learning Groups
Excited to meet other builders? Check out our interest areas full of doers, dreamers, and in-betweeners.

User Groups

Other Learning Resources
Some of our favorite additional ways to upskill your Zapier knowledge.

Zapier Learn Zapier Blog Zapier Webinars

Product Updates
Check out what is new and upcoming with Zapier with our regular product updates.

Product Updates

Early Access Program
Want to join Early Access? Learn more here.

Best answer

Posting a message to a new slack channel

  • 21 July 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 138 views
L

Hi there,

 

I have a Zap which creates a new slack channel with a name which is referenced from a previous step.

 

I then want to post a message to that channel, but of course at this point it is not available from the drop down list (not to mention that it’ll change every time, so I don't want to “hard select” it within the Zap). I’ve used the custom field to reference the same variable used to create the channel name, but it keeps returning an error and is unable to find the channel.

 

The flow is as follows:

 

> A new invoice is created in Xero

> Zap creates a new slack channel with the [invoice reference] as the channel name (this works perfectly)

> Zap posts a message to a slack channel called [invoice reference] using a custom field

> It returns the following error: Error from Slack: channel_not_found

 

Please note that I have tried this with an existing channel so I know that the issue is not with the channel being newly created. 

 

Is anyone out there able to help with this? Why can't I post a message to a Slack channel this way? Any suggestions on how to achieve the same result, if indeed this functionality isn't possible?

icon

Best answer by Danvers 16 August 2022, 14:13

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

3 replies

Troy Tessalone
Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Hi @laveryj_ 

Good question.

You’ll need to map the returned Slack Channel ID between Zap steps using the ‘Custom’ option: https://zapier.com/help/create/basics/set-up-your-zap-action#set-up-your-action

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

Hey @laveryj_!

Have you managed to get this working? It should definitely be possible, using the method that Troy mentioned.

Danvers
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

You’ll need to map the returned Slack Channel ID between Zap steps using the ‘Custom’ option: https://zapier.com/help/create/basics/set-up-your-zap-action#set-up-your-action

Hi @laveryj_!

Expanding a little on Troy’s answer, when you use a Custom value in a Zap step, you need to use the ID of something, not the name. You can learn more about using Custom values in this help guide. 

 

In the case of your Zap, you’re likely seeing the error ‘channel_not_found’ because the Zap is expecting to see the ID of the new channel and not the name. If you select the channel ID from the previous step and not the name, you should be good to go!

Terms & Conditions