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Seamless Membership Management: Channel membership operations provide reliable joining and leaving functionality with idempotent behavior. Once joined, users can participate in conversations and receive updates, while membership status can be observed in real-time for dynamic UI updates.

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Membership Operations

Channel membership management supports both joining and leaving operations with automatic membership tracking and real-time status updates.

Join Channels

Become a channel member
  • Idempotent operation with safe retry behavior
  • Immediate participation in conversations
  • Automatic membership status updates

Leave Channels

Remove membership from channels
  • Clean disconnection from channel activity
  • Stop receiving messages and updates
  • Permanent membership removal

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Membership Management

  • Join Channel
  • Leave Channel
  • Observe Membership
Add user to channel membershipThe joinChannel function allows users to join a channel, making them a member of the channel. This function takes one parameter, channelId which is the ID of the channel that the user wishes to join.Once the user joins the channel, they will be able to participate in conversations and receive updates about the channel’s activity. It is important to note that this function is idempotent, which means that it can be called multiple times without causing any issues. If the user has already joined the channel, a successful result will still be returned.

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Parameters

ParameterTypeRequiredDescription
channelIdString✅Unique identifier of the channel to join

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Code Examples

do {
    let channel = try await channelRepository.joinChannel(channelId: "<channel-id>")
    print("Sucessfully join a channel: \(channel.channelId)")
} catch {
    print("Unable to join a channel: \(error)")
}
Idempotent Operation: This function can be called multiple times safely. If the user has already joined the channel, a successful result will still be returned without any issues.

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Channel Membership Concepts

Understanding the relationship between different channel operations is crucial for effective membership management:

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Operation Differences

Understanding channel operation distinctionsEach channel is identified by a 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 social.plus’s Chat SDK to automatically generate one for you.Key Differences:
  • createChannel: Guarantees that the requested channel is new (except for conversation type)
  • joinChannel: Attempts to join an existing channel and adds user to membership
  • getChannel: Only retrieves the channel Live Object but doesn’t make the current user join the channel
Real-time membership monitoringWhen a user joins a channel, they can observe and chat with other users in that channel. They are also automatically considered a member of that channel. The Chat SDK provides the ability to view which users are currently in the channel as well as invite other users to join the channel.Membership Benefits:
  • Participate in conversations and send messages
  • Receive real-time updates about channel activity
  • Access to channel history and member information
  • Ability to observe membership changes in real-time
Status Monitoring:
  • Observe membership changes for dynamic UI updates
  • Handle banned status appropriately with user redirection
  • Track member additions and removals for activity indicators
  • Implement appropriate error handling for membership failures
Robust membership operation handlingCommon Scenarios:
  • Channel Not Found: Handle cases where the channel ID doesn’t exist
  • Permission Denied: Manage situations where users lack join permissions
  • Already Member: Leverage idempotent behavior for safe retry operations
  • Banned Users: Implement appropriate UI flow for banned status
Best Practices:
  • Always check membership status before performing channel operations
  • Implement proper error handling with user-friendly messages
  • Use membership observation for dynamic UI state management
  • Handle network failures with appropriate retry mechanisms

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Next Steps

Query Members

Search and retrieve channel members

Member Management

Advanced member administration and permissions

Channel Creation

Create new channels for conversations
Membership Strategy: Use the idempotent nature of joinChannel to safely retry operations, and always observe membership status for dynamic UI updates, especially to handle banned user scenarios gracefully.