slack api to find existing channel

Question

I am playing with slack apis to create an integration. I am able to sucessfully create a slack channel using

 this.http.post(slackApiHost + '/channels.create', payload, {headers: headers})
            .subscribe(
                res => {
                    console.log(res);
                    resolve(res)
                },
                err => {
                    console.log('error:' + err)
                }
                )
        })

the payload looks like

var payload = {
        "name" : channelName
    };

So, it will fail with name_taken if the channel already exists. which is great. However, I need to find the channel id of the existing channel so that i can then use it for my purpose. how do i go about it?

Answer 1

To get a list of all existing channel you can use conversations.list. This is the most flexible approach and allows you to retrieve any type of channel if you so choose.

If you are looking for a channel by a specific name you will need to first retrieve the list of all channels and then run your own name matching against the full list. An API method which allows you to directly search for a channel by name does not exist.

Note that if you are looking for private channels this method will only retrieve channels that you (the installer of your Slack app / your bot user) has been invited to.