Screens

UIKit v3 for Android allows you to create customizable views and execute essential chat functions such as list channels, create channels, and chat in channels. Key functions are carried out on a screen basis, meaning each function corresponds to a single screen. A key function is composed of three main components: Fragment, Module, and ViewModel. Each fragment has a corresponding module that creates the view, and each module is made up of customizable UI components. A fragment also has a corresponding ViewModel that provides the necessary data from Sendbird Chat SDK. Refer to the table below to see which key functions we provide and the components that make up each key function.

In a key function, fragment plays the most important role because it needs to create a module and ViewModel in order to build the whole screen and gather data from the Chat SDK. The following diagram explains the basic architecture of UIKit for Android.

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UIKit for Android provides both activity and fragment for each key function. An activity allows you to build a single screen and it contains multiple fragments that enable you to divide the UI for more discrete customization. But in UIKit for Android, there is one fragment for every activity, which means the fragment takes up the whole screen. We offer both activity and fragment so you can choose which one to build your app with. You may solely use activity instead of fragment if you wish to.

As shown in the diagram above, each fragment generates a module to build a view. A module is composed of several components, which combined together, make up a single screen. You can customize the view on a component-level, allowing you to easily make small style changes.

Fragments also need to create and use ViewModel to communicate with the Chat SDK. The ViewModel manages data received from the SDK, which are necessary to perform key functions in the screen. You can customize the ViewModel to change how you wish to receive and process data. The fragment plays a binding role between data provided by the ViewModel and view created by the module.

All fragments in the UIKit inherit a BaseModuleFragment class, which creates the modules, UI components, and ViewModel in a set process as shown in the flow diagram below. BaseModuleFragment manages and controls the lifecycle of all fragments in the UIKit.

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Note: The result of whether the ViewModel has been authenticated or not is always called after a view has been built using the onCreateView method.

When the onCreate method of a fragment is called, the onCreateModule, onConfigureParams, and onCreateViewModel methods of BaseModuleFragment are also called. The onCreateModule method creates a module for the fragment to build a view, while the onCreateViewModel method creates a ViewModel that communicates with the Chat SDK. By calling onConfigureParams, you can configure parameters in the setter methods of each module or component. It is strongly recommended that the parameters in the setter methods are set before creating a view.

Once the module and its UI components have been created, the fragment calls the onCreateView method that exists in the module and the UI components to build a view. The returned view of the module is then used by the fragment.

After a ViewModel has been created, the fragment's onCreate method requires the ViewModel to be authenticated. To authenticate, the connect() method of Chat SDK is called and requests connection to Sendbird server. Depending on whether the corresponding key function requires any channel information, the server can retrieve such channel data during the authentication process.

Once the ViewModel is authenticated, the onBeforeReady method is called right before the onReady method. Using onBeforeReady, you can change the setter methods of each component in a module.

Lastly, the onReady method is called when the initialization process of the module and its components are finished and the authentication process of the ViewModel is done. You can find out whether everything has been properly initialized and authenticated through the ReadyStatus property sent to the onReady method.

Once the entire process is finished, the fragment's lifecycle will initialize. The following table shows all methods of the BaseModuleFragment lifecycle.