Each channel is identified by an unique channelId, which is any string that uniquely identifies the channel and is immutable through its lifetime. When creating channels, you can specify your own channelId, or leave it to Upstra to automatically generate one for you.

There are 4 channel types 1. Community: a channel that is discoverable by all users. 2. Live: a channel that is discoverable only if user is already added as a member. 3. Broadcast: a channel that limits message creation to only Admin user. Message can only be created from Admin panel. 4. Conversation: a one-to-one chat that once created will not be available on Admin panel.

There are three ways of obtaining an EkoChannel object: via create, join, or get methods. EkoChannel management methods are all contained in the EkoChannelRepository class. To get an instance of EkoChannelRepository:

val channelRepository = EkoClient.newChannelRepository();

Create Channel

The SDK provides 2 typical ways of channel creation.

1. Channel creation with specific channelId.

2. Channel creation with auto-generation of channelId.

The channel creation API guarantees that the requested channel is a new channel. If the channel already exists, the error will be an EkoExceptionwith code 400900

The createChannel() method initiates channel creation method chain and let you choose which channel type to be created.

To let SDK handle channelId generation, uses withDisplayName() method to skip channelId specification.

// create channel by specifying channelId
channelRepository.createChannel()
                .communityType()
                .withChannelId("Weekly-promo")
                .displayName("Weekly promo") // optional
                .metadata(jsonObject) // optional
                .tags("promotions") // optional
                .build()
                .create()
                .subscribe()
​
// let SDK handle channelId generation                               
channelRepository.createChannel()
                .communityType()
                .withDisplayName("Weekly promo")
                .metadata(jsonObject) // optional
                .tags("promotions") // optional
                .build()
                .create()
                .subscribe()

Create Conversation

Channel of type Conversation can also be created with createChannel() method chain. However, the channelId is always being generated by SDK.

To create a conversation channel with a user, pass the user's userId to withUserId() method.

// let SDK handle channelId generation                               
channelRepository.createChannel()
                .conversationType()
                .withUserId(userId)
                .displayName("BFF") // optional
                .metadata(jsonObject) // optional
                .tags("friends") // optional
                .build()
                .create()
                .subscribe()

Join Channel

The joinChannel() method will add the active user as a member of the channel.

This API can be called as many time as needed. If the channel has already been joined, a "success" result will be returned, ie., going into doOnSuccess{}block.

channelRepository.joinChannel(channelId)
                .subscribe()

Get Channel

In the case where you only want to fetch a channel's data without joining, you can use the getChannel() method:

channelRepository.getChanel(channelId)
                .subscribe( { ekoChannel -> ... } )

Channel Query

The EkoChannelRepository provides the getChannelCollection() method which initiates channel query method chain. The query returns Flowable<PagedList<EkoChannel>> representing all matching channels available.

// Query for Community type
channelRepository.getChannelCollection()
                .communityType()
                .build()
                .query()        
                .subscribe( { adapter.submitList(it)} )
​
// Query for Live type
channelRepository.getChannelCollection()
                .liveType()
                .build()
                .query()        
                .subscribe( { adapter.submitList(it)} )
​
// Query for Broadcast type
channelRepository.getChannelCollection()
                .broadcastType()
                .build()
                .query()        
                .subscribe( { adapter.submitList(it)} )
​
// Query for Conversation type
channelRepository.getChannelCollection()
                .conversationType()
                .build()
                .query()        
                .subscribe( { adapter.submitList(it)} )     
​
// Query for Multiple types
val types : List<EkoChannel.Type> = // create a list of your desired types
​
channelRepository.getChannelCollection()
                .types(types)
                .build()
                .query()        
                .subscribe( { adapter.submitList(it)} )

Channel Filtering

• the filter() method lets you filter channels based on the current user membership status

• the includingTags() and excludingTags() methods let you filter channels based on the tags set (or not set) in each channel

val includingTags = EkoTags()
includingTags.add("games")
​
// Query for Community channels where the user is member, tagged as "games"
channelRepository.getChannelCollection()
                .communityType()
                .filter(EkoChannelFilter.MEMBER)
                .includingTags(includingTags)
                .build()
                .query()
                .subscribe( { adapter.submitList(it)} )

val includingTags = EkoTags()
includingTags.add("games");
​
val excludingTags = EkoTags()
excludingTags.add("staff-only")
​
// Query for Community channels where the user is not member, tagged as "games", and not tagged as "staff-only"
channelRepository.getChannelCollection()
                .communityType()
                .filter(EkoChannelFilter.NOT_MEMBER)
                .includingTags(includingTags)
                .excludingTags(excludingTags)
                .build()
                .query()
                .subscribe( { adapter.submitList(it)} )

Metadata

Metadata is a general purpose data store that is automatically synchronized to all users of a channel. It is designed to store contextual information about a specific channel. The metadata is a JSON object which can store any number of JSON key value pairs up to 100 kb. Example use cases include:

• Conversation title or cover photo

• Global conversation settings

Metadata is implemented with last writer wins semantics on the entire store. This means that multiple mutations by independent users to the metadata object will result in a single stored value. The metadata object set by last user override any previous values. No locking, merging, or other coordination is performed across participants.

To set metadata, simply call the following method:

val metadata = channel.getMetadata()
metadata.addProperty("tutorial_url", "https://docs.ekomedia.technology/")
​
channelRepository.getChannelCollection()
                .updateChannel(channelId)
                .metadata(metadata)
                .build()
                .update()
                .subscribe()

Display Name

Every channel contains an optional displayName field. This field is mainly used to identify the channel in push notifications, but it is also exposed to the application via EkoChannel object.

You can set a channel's displayName with the following methods:

channelRepository.setDisplayName(channelId, "General Eko chat discussion");

Participation

All participation related methods in a channel falls under a separate EkoChannelParticipation model. You can access EkoChannelParticipation from EkoChannelRepository.membership() method as well as from EkoChannel.membership() method.

// Access from EkoChannelRepository
val membership = channelRepository.membership(channelId)
​
// EkoChannel object already knows its channelId
val membership = channel.membership();

Members Query

The EkoChannelParticipation provides a list of members in the given channnel

membership.getCollection()
                .build()
                .query()
                .subscribe( { adapter.submitList()} )

Manage Members

You can add and remove members, as well as removing yourself as a member of a channel (leaving the channel) via EkoChannelParticipation model should you have appropriate privileges.

// Add 'user1' and 'user2' to this channel
membership.addUsers(listOf("user1", "user2")).subscribe()
​
// Remove 'user3' from this channel
membership.removeUsers(listOf("user3")).subscribe()
​
// Leave the channel
membership.leave().subscribe()

Role and Permission

Creator of channel can add and remove role of user via EkoChannelModeration.

Role

//Add role
EkoClient.newChannelRepository()
                .moderate(:channelId)
                .addRole(role = :roleName, userIds = listOf(:userId))
                .subscribe()
​
//Remove role
EkoClient.newChannelRepository()
                .moderate(:channelId)
                .removeRole(role = :roleName, userIds = listOf(:userId))
                .subscribe()

Query memberships by role

The EkoChannelParticipation provides a list of members by role in the given channnel.

EkoClient.newChannelRepository()
                .membership(:channelId)
                .getCollection()
                .roles(listOf(:roleName))
                .build()
                .query()
                .subscribe()

Note: This method .role(role:String) is deprecated. You can still use old function if you don't want send role in list type

Permission

You can check your permission in channel by send EkoPermission enums to EkoClient.hasPermission(:ekoPermission) method.

EkoClient.hasPermission(:ekoPermission)
         .atChannel(:channelId)
         .check()
         .subscribe()

Reading Status And Unread Count

The EkoChannelRepository provides getTotalUnreadCount() method. It's giving the flowable of the number of messages that the current user has yet to read. This count is the sum of all the unreadCount channels properties where the user is member of.

// total unread count
channelRepository.getTotalUnreadCount()
                .doOnNext( totalUnreadCount -> {
​
                })
                .subscribe();
​
// channel unread count
val unreadCount = channel.getUnreadCount()

To let the server know when the current user is reading one channel, hence resetting that channel unreadCount to zero, the participation membership exposes the EkoChannelParticipation.startReading() and EkoChannelParticipation.stopReading() methods.

You can call both methods as much as you want, the SDK takes care of multi-device management: therefore a user can read multiple channels, from one or multiple devices at once. In case of an abrupt disconnection (whether because the app was killed, or the internet went down etc) the SDK backend will automatically call the EkoChannelParticipation.stopReading() on the user behalf.

// Start reading a channel
membership.startReading()
​
// Stop reading a channel
membership.stopReading()