Manage the user-channel membership relationship

Requires App Context

To set up and manage channel membership, you must enable App Context for your app's keyset in the Admin Portal.

When a user joins a channel or gets invited to it, a membership relationship between that user and the channel is created (Membership entity). The membership ends when this user leaves the channel.

Read on to learn how to check and update user-channel membership.

Get members

getMembers() returns the list of all channel members.

Method signature

This method takes the following parameters:

1channel.getMembers(
2    limit: Int?,
3    page: PNPage?,
4    filter: String?,
5    sort: Collection<PNSortKey<PNMemberKey>> = listOf(),
6): PNFuture<MembersResponse>

Input

* required

Parameter	Description
limit Type: Int Default: 100	Number of objects to return in response. The default (and maximum) value is 100.
page Type: PNPage Default: n/a	Object used for pagination to define which previous or next result page you want to fetch.
filter Type: String Default: n/a	Expression used to filter the results. Returns only these members whose properties satisfy the given expression. The filter language is defined here.
sort Type: Collection<PNSortKey<PNMemberKey>> Default: listOf()	A collection to specify the sort order. Available options are id, name, and updated. Use asc or desc to specify the sorting direction, or specify null to take the default sorting direction (ascending). For example: {name: "asc"}. Unless specified otherwise, the items are sorted by the last updated date. Defaults to an empty list.

Output

Type	Description
PNFuture<MembersResponse>	PNFuture containing a set of channel members with membership status, total number of members, and next and prev pages.

Sample code

List all members of the support channel on the premium support plan.

1// reference the "channel" object
2chat.getChannel("support").async { result ->
3    result.onSuccess { channel ->
4        // get the list of all members with the premium support plan
5        channel.getMembers(
6            filter = "custom.support_plan == 'premium'"
7        ).async { membersResult ->
8            membersResult.onSuccess { membersResponse ->
9                val membersList = membersResponse.members
10                // handle success: membersList contains the list of members
11            }.onFailure { error ->
12                // handle failure
13            }
14        }
15    }.onFailure { error ->
16        // handle failure to fetch channel
17    }
18}

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Get membership

getMemberships() returns the list of all channel memberships of a given user.

To get a list of all existing channels, use the getChannels() method.

Method signature

This method takes the following parameters:

1user.getMemberships(
2    limit: Int?,
3    page: PNPage?,
4    filter: String?,
5    sort: Collection<PNSortKey<PNMembershipKey>> = listOf(),
6): PNFuture<MembershipsResponse>

Input

* required

Parameter	Description
limit Type: Int Default: 100	Number of objects to return in response. The default (and maximum) value is 100.
page Type: PNPage Default: n/a	Object used for pagination to define which previous or next result page you want to fetch.
filter Type: String Default: n/a	Expression used to filter the results. Returns only these members whose properties satisfy the given expression. The filter language is defined here.
sort Type: Collection<PNSortKey<PNMembershipKey>> Default: listOf()	A collection to specify the sort order. Available options are id, name, and updated. Use asc or desc to specify the sorting direction, or specify null to take the default sorting direction (ascending). For example: {name: "asc"}. Unless specified otherwise, the items are sorted by the last updated date. Defaults to an empty list.

Output

Type	Description
PNFuture<MembershipsResponse>	PNFuture containing a set of memberships, their status and total number, and next and prev pages.

Sample code

Find out which channels the support_agent_15 user is a member of.

1// reference the "support_agent_15" user
2chat.getUser("support_agent_15").async { result ->
3    result.onSuccess { user ->
4        // get the list of all user memberships
5        user.getMemberships().async { membershipsResult ->
6            membershipsResult.onSuccess { membershipsResponse ->
7                val membershipsList = membershipsResponse.memberships
8                // handle success: membershipsList contains the list of memberships
9            }.onFailure { error ->
10                // handle failure
11            }
12        }
13    }.onFailure { error ->
14        // handle failure to fetch user
15    }
16}

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Get updates

You can receive updates when specific user-channel Membership object(s) are edited (status, type, custom data) using the following methods:

• streamUpdates() checks updates on a single Membership object and it's tied to an instance of the Membership class.
• streamUpdatesOn() checks updates on a list of Membership objects and it's tied to the Membership class.

Membership changes

These methods notify you about field changes (e.g., metadata, status) for existing memberships, not new membership additions or removals.

Both methods accept a callback function as an argument. The Chat SDK invokes this callback whenever someone adds, changes, or removes membership data.

Underneath, these methods subscribe the current user to a channel and add an objects event listener to receive all objects events of type membership. These methods also return the unsubscribe function you can invoke to stop receiving objects events and unsubscribe from the channel.

Method signature

These methods take the following parameters:

• streamUpdates()

  1membership.streamUpdates(callback: (membership: Membership?) -> Unit): AutoCloseable

• streamUpdatesOn()

  1class Membership {
  2    companion object {
  3        fun streamUpdatesOn(
  4            memberships: Collection<Membership>,
  5            callback: (memberships: Collection<Membership>) -> Unit
  6        ): AutoCloseable
  7    }
  8}

Input

Parameter	Required in streamUpdates()	Required in streamUpdatesOn()	Description
memberships Type: Collection<Membership> Default: n/a	No	Yes	A collection of Membership objects for which you want to get updates.
callback Type: (membership: Membership?) -> Unit Default: n/a	Yes	No	Function that takes a single Membership object. It defines the custom behavior to be executed when detecting membership changes.
callback Type: (memberships: Collection<Membership>) -> Unit Default: n/a	No	Yes	Function that takes a set of Membership objects. It defines the custom behavior to be executed when detecting membership changes.

Output

Type	Description
AutoCloseable	Interface that lets you stop receiving membership-related updates (objects events) by invoking the close() method.

Sample code

Get updates on the first user membership.

• streamUpdates()

  1chat.currentUser.getMemberships().async { result ->
  2    result.onSuccess { membershipsResponse ->
  3        // handle success
  4        val firstMembership = membershipsResponse.memberships.firstOrNull()
  5        firstMembership?.let {
  6            val autoCloseable = it.streamUpdates { updatedMembership ->
  7                if (updatedMembership != null) {
  8                    println("Updated membership: $updatedMembership")
  9                } else {
  10                    println("Membership update failed or membership doesn't exist.")
  11                }
  12            }
  13        } ?: run {
  14            println("No memberships found.")
  15        }
  16    }.onFailure { exception ->
  17        // handle failure
  18        println("Failed to fetch memberships: $exception")
  19    }
  20}

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Get updates on the first page of user memberships.

• streamUpdatesOn()

  1chat.currentUser.getMemberships().async { result ->
  2    result.onSuccess { membershipsResponse ->
  3        // handle success
  4        val firstPageMemberships = membershipsResponse.memberships.take(10) // assuming one page has 10 memberships
  5        
  6        val autoCloseable = Membership.streamUpdatesOn(memberships = firstPageMemberships) { updatedMemberships ->
  7            if (updatedMemberships.isNotEmpty()) {
  8                updatedMemberships.forEach { updatedMembership ->
  9                    println("Updated membership: $updatedMembership")
  10                }
  11            } else {
  12                println("No membership updates available.")
  13            }
  14        }
  15    }.onFailure { exception ->
  16        // handle failure
  17        println("Failed to fetch memberships: $exception")
  18    }
  19}

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Other examples

Stop listening to updates on the first user membership.

• streamUpdates()

  1chat.currentUser.getMemberships().async { result ->
  2    result.onSuccess { membershipsResponse ->
  3        // handle success
  4        val firstMembership = membershipsResponse.memberships.firstOrNull()
  5        firstMembership?.let {
  6            val autoCloseable = it.streamUpdates { updatedMembership ->
  7                if (updatedMembership != null) {
  8                    println("Updated membership: $updatedMembership")
  9                } else {
  10                    println("Membership update failed or membership doesn't exist.")
  11                }
  12            }
  13
  
  14            // logic to stop listening to updates can be placed here
  15            // for example, close `autoCloseable` after some condition or delay
  16            // this is just an example of stopping listening immediately for demonstration
  17            autoCloseable.close()  // this stops listening to updates
  18
  
  19        } ?: run {
  20            println("No memberships found.")
  21        }
  22    }.onFailure { exception ->
  23        // handle failure
  24        println("Failed to fetch memberships: $exception")
  25    }
  26}

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Stop listening to updates on the first page of user memberships.

• streamUpdatesOn()

  1chat.currentUser.getMemberships().async { result ->
  2    result.onSuccess { membershipsResponse ->
  3        // handle success
  4        val firstPageMemberships = membershipsResponse.memberships.take(10) // assuming one page has 10 memberships
  5
  
  6        val autoCloseable = Membership.streamUpdatesOn(memberships = firstPageMemberships) { updatedMemberships ->
  7            if (updatedMemberships.isNotEmpty()) {
  8                updatedMemberships.forEach { updatedMembership ->
  9                    println("Updated membership: $updatedMembership")
  10                }
  11            } else {
  12                println("No membership updates available.")
  13            }
  14        }
  15
  
  16        // logic to stop listening to updates can be placed herel
  17        // for example, close `autoCloseable` after some condition or delay
  18        // this is just an example of stopping listening immediately for demonstration
  19        autoCloseable.close()  // this stops listening to updates
  20
  
  21    }.onFailure { exception ->
  22        // handle failure
  23        println("Failed to fetch memberships: $exception")
  24    }
  25}

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Update

update() updates the channel membership information for a given user.

Method signature

This method takes the following parameters:

1membership.update(custom: CustomObject): PNFuture<Membership>

Input

* required

Parameter	Description
custom * Type: ObjectCustom Default: n/a	Any custom properties or metadata associated with the channel-user membership in the form of a JSON. Values must be scalar only; arrays or objects are not supported. App Context filtering language doesn’t support filtering by custom properties.

Output

Type	Description
PNFuture<Membership>	Returned (modified) object containing the membership data.

Sample code

Assign the premium-support role to support_agent_15 on the high-priority-incidents channel.

1// get the list of all user memberships and filter out the right channel
2user.getMemberships(filter = "channel.id == 'high-priority-incidents'").async {
3    it.onSuccess { membershipsResponse ->
4        membershipsResponse
5            .memberships
6            .firstOrNull()
7            // add custom metadata to the user membership
8            ?.update(mapOf("role" to "premium-support"))?.async { membership ->
9            // ...
10        }
11    }.onFailure {
12        // handle failure
13    }
14}