Create a group channel

Create new channels in Sendbird UIKit using the GroupChannelCreateFragment. In the create group channel screen, the current user can select users from the user list to create a new group channel.

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You can start building a create group channel screen by first building a fragment. To do so, call the createGroupChannelCreateFragment method. Once a create group channel fragment is built, you need to set up the navigation props and register the screen to a navigation library. Refer to the code below.

import type { GroupChannelType, UserListContextsType } from '@sendbird/uikit-react-native';
import type { SendbirdUser } from '@sendbird/uikit-utils';

const GroupChannelCreateFragment = createGroupChannelCreateFragment<SendbirdUser>();
const GroupChannelCreateScreen = ({ route: { params } }: any) => {
    const navigateToBack = () => {};
    const replaceToGroupChannelScreen = () => {};
    const channelTypeFromGroupChannelListScreen = params.channelType as GroupChannelType;

    return (
        <GroupChannelCreateFragment
            onPressHeaderLeft={navigateToBack}
            onCreateChannel={replaceToGroupChannelScreen}
            channelType={channelTypeFromGroupChannelListScreen}
        />
    );
};

The following table lists the properties of GroupChannelCreateFragment.

GroupChannelCreateFragment uses UserListModule to display a list of users that the current user can select and add to create a new group channel. To store and handle data that are used to build the create group channel screen, Sendbird UIKit provides UserListContexts, which is comprised of two context objects: UserListContexts.Fragment and UserListContexts.List.

type UserListContextsType<User> = {
    Fragment: React.Context<{
        headerTitle: string;
        headerRight: string;
    }>;

    List: React.Context<{
        selectedUsers: User[];
        setSelectedUsers: React.Dispatch<React.SetStateAction<User[]>>;
    }>;
};

To retrieve user list data from the Chat SDK, you need to call the useContext hook and pass UserListContexts.Fragment as a parameter. The data is then used to render the user list module.

import { useContext } from 'react';
import { UserListContexts } from "@sendbird/uikit-react-native";

const Component = () => {
    const { headerTitle, headerRight } = useContext(UserListContexts.Fragment);
}

You can call the useContext hook and pass UserListContexts.List as a parameter to retrieve user list data from the Chat SDK. The data is then used to render the list component of UserListModule.

import { useContext } from 'react';
import { UserListContexts } from "@sendbird/uikit-react-native";

const Component = () => {
    const { selectedUsers, setSelectedUsers } = useContext(UserListContexts.List);
}

A create group channel screen is composed of five module components: header, list, loading status, empty status, and error status. These components make up the UserListModule and are used to create and display the UI of the screen.

The header component displays the title of GroupChannelCreateFragment, a button on the top left corner, and a button on the top right corner. By default, the left button allows you to go back to the previous screen and when selected, the onPressHeaderLeft navigation prop is called. When the right button is selected, the onCreateChannel function is called and the group channel screen appears.

The following table lists the properties of UserListModule.Header.

The list component shows a list of users' profile images, names, and selectable checkboxes. By default, all users registered to the Sendbird application are retrieved in reverse chronological order of user created date.

The following table lists the properties of UserListModule.List.

The StatusLoading component exists in the UserListModule and lets the user know if the list is loading.

The StatusEmpty component exists in the UserListModule and lets the user know if the list is empty.

The StatusError component exists in the UserListModule and lets the user know if the list fetching failed.

In the create group channel key function, you can customize the default GroupChannelCreateFragment to change various elements of the screen such as the module and its components. See the code below on how to replace the default user list query with a custom user list query as an example. The returned User instance from a custom user list query is different from the default Sendbird.User instance. This means you would need to implement your own renderUser props when using queryCreator with the custom user list query.

Note: To learn more about how to customize a fragment, go to the fragment page.

import { UserStruct } from '@sendbird/uikit-utils';
import { CustomQuery } from '@sendbird/uikit-chat-hooks';
import { createGroupChannelCreateFragment } from '@sendbird/uikit-react-native';

interface MyAppUser extends UserStruct {
    userId: string;
    name: string;
    profile: string;
}

const myAppUserQueryCreator = () => {
    const query = createMyAppUserQuery();
    return new CustomQuery<MyAppUser>({
        hasNext(): boolean {
            return query.hasNext;
        },
        isLoading(): boolean {
            return query.isLoading;
        },
        next() {
            return query.next();
        },
    });
};

const GroupChannelCreateFragment = createGroupChannelCreateFragment<MyAppUser>();
const GroupChannelCreateScreen = ({ route: { params } }: any) => {
    const navigateToBack = () => {};
    const replaceToGroupChannelScreen = () => {};
    const channelTypeFromGroupChannelListScreen = params.channelType as GroupChannelType;

    return (
        <GroupChannelCreateFragment
            onPressHeaderLeft={navigateToBack}
            onCreateChannel={replaceToGroupChannelScreen}
            channelType={channelTypeFromGroupChannelListScreen}
            queryCreator={myAppUserQueryCreator}
            renderUser={(user, selectedUsers, setSelectedUsers) => {
                const selected = selectedUsers.findIndex((u) => u.userId === user.userId) > -1;
                return <MyAppUserBar selected={selected} user={user} onToggle={setSelectedUsers} />;
            }}
        />
    );
};