Channels

Join and leave channels

Each application can have one channel or many, and each client can choose which channels it subscribes to. Channels provide a way of filtering data. For example, in a chat application there may be a channel for people who want to discuss ‘technology’ and when a message is sent to the 'technology' channel, all subscribers (channel members) are notified about the message and its contents.

Channels do not need to be explicitly created, and are instantiated on client demand. You can just call the join method for a client to join a channel and similarly call the leave method to leave a channel.

Javascript

// Join to a channel
altogic.realtime.join('technology-chat');

// Leave from a channel
altogic.realtime.leave('technology-chat');

Dart

// Join to a channel
altogic.realtime.join('technology-chat');

// Leave from a channel
altogic.realtime.leave('technology-chat');

Parameters

Both join and leave methods have the same input parameters.

#	Name	Data type	Required	Description
1	channelName	String	Yes	The name of the channel to join or leave.
2	echo	Boolean	No	Override the echo flag specified when creating the client library to enable or prevent channel:join or channel:leave event originating from this connection being echoed back on the same connection.

note

If the client library key is set to enforce session, an active user session is required (e.g., user needs to be logged in) to call join and leave methods.

Update user channel profile

You can update the channel member (e.g., profile) data and broadcast an update event to each joined channel so that other channel members can get the information about the updated member data. Whenever the socket joins a new channel, this updated member data will be broadcasted to channel members. As a result of this action a channel:update event is sent to all members of the subscribed channels notifying the member data update.

As an example if you are developing a realtime chat application it might be a good idea to store the username and user profile picture URL in member data so that channel members can get updated user information.

Javascript

// Update user channel profile data
altogic.realtime.updateProfile({
    username: 'Luke Skywalker',
    profileImage: 'https://myimagestorage.com/luke.jpg',
    status: 'Available'
});

Dart

// Update user channel profile data
altogic.realtime.updateProfile({
    "username": 'Luke Skywalker',
    "profileImage": 'https://myimagestorage.com/luke.jpg',
    "status": 'Available'
});

info

Please note that updates to user profile data are broadcasted to all channels that the user is a member of. The profile data is shared across the channels and you cannot specify different profile data for different channels.

Parameters

Both join and leave methods have the same input parameters.

#	Name	Data type	Required	Description
1	profileData	JSON object, string, number etc.	Yes	Profile payload data for the current member. The supported payload types are Strings, JSON objects and arrays, buffers containing arbitrary binary data, and null.
2	echo	Boolean	No	Override the echo flag specified when creating the websocket to enable or prevent channel:update event originating from this connection being echoed back on the same connection.

note

If the client library key is set to enforce session, an active user session is required (e.g., user needs to be logged in) to call updateProfile method.

Get channel members

When you join a channel you might be interested to see the list of people already in a channel. You an use the getMembers method to get the profile data of the specified channel members. The profile data that you receive for each channel member will be the profile data set using the update method. The id value provided in the response is the unique socket id of the channel member.

Javascript

// Get list of `technology-chat` channel members
let result = await altogic.realtime.getMembers('technology-chat');

Dart

// Get list of `technology-chat` channel members
final members = await altogic.realtime.getMembers('technology-chat');

Example response

{
  "data": [
      {
          "id": "sNZNwVxTQ-xerrDKAAAU",
          "data": {
              "username": "Luke Skywalker",
              "profileImage": "https://myimagestorage.com/luke.jpg",
              "status": "Available"
          }
      },
      {
          "id": "9VlzdovgcCeZ5yZzAAAO",
          "data": {
              "username": "Darth Vader",
              "profileImage": "https://myimagestorage.com/vader.jpg",
              "status": "Talking to Darth Sidious"
          }
      }
  ],
  "errors": null
}

note

If the client library key is set to enforce session, an active user session is required (e.g., user needs to be logged in) to call getMembers method.

Listen to channel events

You can listen to key channel events through their respective listener functions. The following are the key channel events and their counterpart listener functions.

Event	Description	Listener function
channel:join	Fired when a new member joins a channel.	onJoin
channel:leave	Fired when an existing member leaves a channel.	onLeave
channel:update	Fired when a channel member updates its member (profile) data.	onUpdate

Javascript

// Listen to join events
altogic.realtime.onJoin((payload) => {
  console.log(
    'Member joined to channel',
    payload.channel, //The name of the channel joined
    payload.message.id, //Socket id
    payload.message.data //Joined member profile data
  );
});

// Listen to leave events
altogic.realtime.onLeave((payload) => {
  console.log(
    'Member left to channel',
    payload.channel, //The name of the channel left
    payload.message.id, //Socket id
    payload.message.data //Left member profile data 
  );
});

// Listen to member profile data update events
altogic.realtime.onUpdate((payload) => {
  console.log(
    'Member updated profile data',
    payload.channel, //The name of the channel the update message is broadcasted
    payload.message.id, //Socket id
    payload.message.data // Member updated profile data
  );
});

Dart

// Listen to join events
altogic.realtime.onJoin((payload) {
  print(
    'Member joined to channel'
    + payload.channel //The name of the channel joined
    + payload.message.id //Socket id
    + payload.message.data //Joined member profile data
  );
});

// Listen to leave events
altogic.realtime.onLeave((payload) {
  print(
    'Member left to channel'
    + payload.channel //The name of the channel left
    + payload.message.id //Socket id
    + payload.message.data //Left member profile data 
  );
});

// Listen to member profile data update events
altogic.realtime.onUpdate((payload) {
  print(
    'Member updated profile data'
    + payload.channel //The name of the channel the update message is broadcasted
    + payload.message.id //Socket id
    + payload.message.data // Member updated profile data
  );
});