Manage channel updates

Update channel details and receive events whenever someone updates them.

Requires App Context

To store data about channels, you must enable App Context for your app's keyset in the Admin Portal.

Update channel details

You can edit the metadata of an existing channel with update() and updateChannel().

Both of them give the same output. The only difference is that you call a given method either on the Chat (updateChannel()) or the Channel (update()) object. Depending on the object, these methods take a different set of input parameters - you either have to specify the channel ID you want to update or not because it's already known.

Method signature

These methods take the following parameters:

• update()

  channel.update(
      name: String? = nil,
      custom: [String: JSONCodableScalar]? = nil,
      description: String? = nil,
      status: String? = nil,
      type: ChannelType? = nil,
      completion: ((Swift.Result<ChannelImpl, Error>) -> Void)? = nil
  )

• updateChannel()

  chat.updateChannel(
      id: String,
      name: String? = nil,
      custom: [String: JSONCodableScalar]? = nil,
      description: String? = nil,
      status: String? = nil,
      type: ChannelType? = nil,
      completion: ((Swift.Result<ChannelImpl, Error>) -> Void)? = nil
  )

Input

Parameter	Type	Required in update()	Required in updateChannel()	Default	Description
id	String	No	Yes	n/a	Unique channel identifier.
name	String	No	No	n/a	Display name for the channel.
custom	[String: JSONCodableScalar]	No	No	n/a	JSON providing custom data about the channel. Values must be scalar only; arrays or objects are not supported. App Context filtering language doesn’t support filtering by custom properties.
description	String	No	No	n/a	Additional details about the channel.
status	String	No	No	n/a	Tag that categorizes a channel by its state, like archived.
type	ChannelType	No	No	n/a	Tag that categorizes a channel by its function, like offtopic.

API limits

To learn about the maximum length of parameters used to set channel metadata, refer to REST API docs.

Output

Type	Description
ChannelImpl	Object containing the updated channel with its metadata.

Basic usage

Update the description of the support channel.

• update()

  /// Assuming you have a "chat" instance available
  /// Fetch metadata of the "support" channel
  chat?.getChannel(
    channelId: "support"
  ) {
    switch $0 {
    case let .success(channel):
      if let channel = channel {
        debugPrint("Fetched channel metadata with ID: \(channel.id)")
        
        /// Update the description of the "support" channel
        channel.update(
          description: "This is the updated description for the support channel."
        ) { result in
          switch result {

  show all 28 lines

• updateChannel()

  /// Assuming you have a "chat" instance available
  /// Update the description of the "support" channel using `updateChannel()`
  chat.updateChannel(
    id: "support",
    description: "This is the updated description for the support channel."
  ) { result in
    switch result {
    case let .success(updatedChannel):
      print("Successfully updated the channel description to: \(updatedChannel.description ?? "No Description")")
    case let .failure(error):
      print("Failed to update the channel description: \(error)")
    }
  }

Get channel updates

You can receive updates when specific Channel object(s) are edited or removed on other clients using the following methods:

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

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

Underneath, these methods subscribe the current user to a channel and add an objects event listener to receive all objects events of type channel. 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()

  channel.streamUpdates(
      callback: @escaping ((ChannelImpl)?) -> Void
  ) -> AutoCloseable 

• streamUpdatesOn() (static)

  Channel.streamUpdatesOn(
      channels: [ChannelImpl],
      callback: @escaping (([ChannelImpl]) -> Void)
  ) -> AutoCloseable

Input

Parameter	Type	Required in streamUpdates()	Required in streamUpdatesOn()	Default	Description
channels	[ChannelImpl]	No	Yes	n/a	A collection of ChannelImpl objects for which you want to get updates.
callback	@escaping ((ChannelImpl)?) -> Void	Yes	No	n/a	Function that takes a single ChannelImpl object. It defines the custom behavior to be executed when detecting channel changes.
callback	@escaping (([ChannelImpl]) -> Void)	No	Yes	n/a	Function that takes a set of ChannelImpl objects. It defines the custom behavior to be executed when detecting channel changes.

Output

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

Basic usage

• streamUpdates()

  Get updates on the support channel.

  /// Assuming you have a "chat" instance available
  /// Fetch metadata of the "support" channel
  chat?.getChannel(
    channelId: "support"
  ) {
    switch $0 {
    case let .success(channel):
      if let channel = channel {
        debugPrint("Fetched channel metadata with ID: \(channel.id)")
        
        /// Stream updates on the "support" channel
        let autoCloseable = channel.streamUpdates { updatedChannel in
          if let updatedChannel = updatedChannel {
            debugPrint("Received update for channel with ID: \(updatedChannel.id)")
          } else {

  show all 27 lines

• streamUpdatesOn()

  Get updates on the support and incident-management channels.

  /// Assuming you have a "chat" instance available
  /// Fetch metadata of the "support" channel
  chat?.getChannel(
    channelId: "support"
  ) {
    switch $0 {
    case let .success(channel):
      if let channel = channel {
        debugPrint("Fetched channel metadata with ID: \(channel.id)")
        
        // Stream updates on the "support" channel using static method
        let autoCloseable = ChannelImpl.streamUpdatesOn(
          channels: [channel]
        ) { updatedChannels in
          for updatedChannel in updatedChannels {

  show all 27 lines

Other examples

• streamUpdates()

  Stop listening to updates on the support channel.

  import Foundation  /// Required for DispatchQueue
  
  /// Assuming you have a "chat" instance available
  /// Fetch metadata of the "support" channel
  chat?.getChannel(
    channelId: "support"
  ) {
    switch $0 {
    case let .success(channel):
      if let channel = channel {
        debugPrint("Fetched channel metadata with ID: \(channel.id)")
        
        // Stream updates on the "support" channel
        let autoCloseable = channel.streamUpdates { updatedChannel in
          if let updatedChannel = updatedChannel {

  show all 33 lines

• streamUpdatesOn()

  Stop listening to updates on the support and incident-management channels.

  /// Assuming you have a "chat" instance available
  /// Fetch metadata of the "support" channel
  chat?.getChannel(
    channelId: "support"
  ) {
    switch $0 {
    case let .success(channel):
      if let channel = channel {
        debugPrint("Fetched channel metadata with ID: \(channel.id)")
        
        /// Stream updates on the "support" channel using static method
        let autoCloseable = ChannelImpl.streamUpdatesOn(channels: [channel]) { updatedChannels in
          for updatedChannel in updatedChannels {
            debugPrint("Received update for channel with ID: \(updatedChannel.id)")
          }

  show all 29 lines