`/list` equivalent as API endpoint

[furudean]

It would be nice to get the information from the IRC command /list in an API call.

My particular use case is I want to display information about what channels exist on a website, but I'm sure there's many others as well.

There are some security considerations. One would probably want to know which channels are password protected or secret so that they can be filtered out from any public-facing place.

[SarahRoseLives]

I second this, currently I have a bot write joined channel to a Json file and then read those out to my web page with JavaScript but this idea seems far better than how I currently do it.

[clbm87]

I definitely like this idea as well.

[clbm87]

Regarding the comment from: @furudean last week:

I am not sure if the IRCx style listx is compatible with the IRCd style list command @slingamn ?

This is something I had wanted to do as well but have resorted to running /list to get a list, then using a node.js bot to loop through and do mode # to get this info and then join them later. I am not sure how compatible the listx and list commands are or if listx was IRCx only?

[slingamn]

Not familiar with listx, is it https://chatzilla.rdmsoft.com/docs/ircx/docbook/ch03s08.html ?

[clbm87]

That's it!

For IRCd the list command typically pulls channel name, topic, and number of people in the channel.

IRCx allowed a ListX command that pulled additional info (ie channel modes, PICS (ratings), and other content into the List command. based on the example here, if modes are returned as part of LISTX in the string, this would allow users to take the json output of the listx (list command) and then using their own resources filter out things they did not want to display.

:irc.example.net 322 user #general 23 :Welcome to General Chat +stnl 50
:irc.example.net 323 user :End of /LIST

Ergo would simply provide raw listx or raw list as normal, but this would allow for @furudean's comment the List command (if ran as an operator level permission) would show all channels even those that are hidden (+s).

PICS is a bit outdated but can give flexible channel categorization formatting (Category, Premium Channel Designation, NSFW designation) I am not sure I would go down the rabit hole of defining all those but its a pretty open standard for others to use and customize as they wish. https://www.w3.org/PICS/services-960303.html

Additionally or instead of PICS ircv3 does allow for metadata which can be on the channel or on the user; the LISTX command could theoretically support the metadata output of channels.

As is, a list json would be sufficient and each server operator can filter the list as they choose but without modes and other things in the list json it will take external databases or custom filtering.