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Channels

Talo Channels are a way of passing messages between players that are subscribed to a specific topic. Channels can be used for player chats, sending arbitrary JSON to various groups and pushing game updates directly to clients.

You can learn more about channel here.

Listing channels​

To get all available channels for your game, use the Talo.Channels.GetChannels() function. This is a paginated function which takes a single page parameter.

This function returns an array with 3 items: the channels, the total number of channels (if they weren't paginated) and if this is the last page.

var page = 0
var res = await Talo.Channels.GetChannels(new GetChannelsOptions { page = page })

var channels: Channel[] = res.channels
var count: int = res.count
var isLastPage: bool = res.isLastPage

Filtering by prop keys and values​

The following code will only fetch channels that have the "guildId" key:

var options = new GetChannelsOptions() { page = page, propKey = "guildId" }
var res = await Talo.Channels.GetChannels(options)

You can also filter by a prop value. This code will now make sure there is a "guildId" key and its value is "157":

var options = new GetChannelsOptions() { page = page, propKey = "guildId", propValue = "157" }
var res = await Talo.Channels.GetChannels(options)

Listing subscribed channels​

You can use Talo.Channels.GetSubscribedChannels() which returns a Channel[] to find out which channels the current player is subscribed to.

Filtering by prop keys and values​

Similar to GetChannels(), you can filter by prop keys and values by providing options:

var options = new GetSubscribedChannelsOptions() { propKey = "guildId", propValue = "157" }
var res = await Talo.Channels.GetSubscribedChannels(options)

Creating a channel​

To create a channel, call Talo.Channels.Create() with a channel name and (optionally) the auto cleanup value and/or props. When auto cleanup is enabled, the channel will be deleted when the owner or the last subscribed member leaves. Props (a dictionary of string key/value pairs) are a way of adding arbitrary data to your channels in the same way as you would for events, players and leaderboards.

var channel = await Talo.Channels.Create(new CreateChannelOptions() { name = channelName, autoCleanup = true }

Finding a channel​

You can find a channel by its ID using Talo.Channels.Find(). This function takes a channel ID integer and returns a Channel object.

Joining and leaving channels​

To join or leave a channel, use Talo.Channels.Join() and Talo.Channels.Leave() respectively. Both functions take the ID of the channel as the only parameter. If you attempt to join a channel and the current player is already in that channel, nothing will happen. Leaving a channel also follows the same pattern.

Updating channels​

The owner of a channel can update the channel using Talo.Channels.Update(). The name and owner of the channel can be updated using this function.

To transfer ownership of the channel, you should specify the ID of the player alias that will own the channel. The new owner of the channel must be a member first before ownership can be transferred.

You can also update the props of the channel: keys will be overrided with new values and keys with a value of null will be deleted.

Deleting channels​

The owner of a channel can delete the channel using Talo.Channels.Delete(). All other members of the channel will be unsubscribed automatically.

Private channels​

You can also create an invite-only private channels using the isPrivate option.

Private channels will not be listed when using Talo.Channels.GetChannels(). They also cannot be joined in the same way: the channel owner must invite players to a private channel.

Channel invites​

To create a channel invite, use Talo.Channels.Invite() with a channel ID and player alias ID.

Invited players will automatically join the channel.

var channel = await Talo.Channels.Create(new CreateChannelOptions() { name = "channel name", isPrivate = true }
await Talo.Channels.Invite(channel.id, inviteePlayerAlias.id);

Note: you can use invites for public channels too.

Temporary membership channels​

If players should only be members of a channel while they're online, you can choose to the enable the temporary_membership option when creating your channel:

var channel = await Talo.Channels.Create(new CreateChannelOptions() { name = "channel name", temporaryMembership = true }

Any player that joins the channel and then goes offline will automatically be removed from the channel. The Talo.Channels.OnChannelLeft event will fire with the reason ChannelLeavingReason.TemporaryMembership.

Getting channel members​

You can fetch a list of channel members using Talo.Channels.GetMembers(). This will return a PlayerAlias[]:

var members = await Talo.Channels.GetMembers(channel.id);
Debug.Log(string.Join(", ", members.Select((m) => m.identifier)));

Note: the current player can only fetch channel members for channels they are part of.

Listening for messages​

To listen for messages, you can subscribe to the Talo.Channels.OnMessageReceived event. This event provides the Channel, the sender's PlayerAlias and the message.

Here's an example of how to use this event to update a chat UI:

private void Start()
{
    Talo.Channels.OnMessageReceived += OnMessageReceived;
}

private void OnMessageReceived(Channel channel, PlayerAlias sender, string message)
{
	if (channel.id == _activeChannelId)
	{
		AddChatMessage($"[{channel.name}] {sender.identifier}: {message}");
	}
}

Listening for other events​

You can also listen for the following events:

  • Talo.Channels.OnChannelJoined: Emitted when a player joins a channel. Returns the TaloChannel and the TaloPlayerAlias that joined.

  • Talo.Channels.OnChannelLeft: Emitted when a player leaves a channel. Returns the TaloChannel, the TaloPlayerAlias that left and the ChannelLeavingReason.

  • Talo.Channels.OnOwnershipTransferred: Emitted when channel ownership is transferred. Returns the TaloChannel and the new owner's TaloPlayerAlias.

  • Talo.Channels.OnChannelDeleted: Emitted when a channel is deleted. Returns the TaloChannel that was deleted.

  • Talo.Channels.OnChannelUpdated: Emitted when a channel is updated. Returns the TaloChannel that was updated and a string[] of properties that were changed.

Channel storage​

Channel storage is a shared pool of props (key/value pairs) that can be read, created, updated and deleted by all members of the channel. In an open world game, you could store a reference to all the gatherable resources using channel storage. When a resource is gathered, other players in the same channel can be automatically notified so their world can be synced with the global world state.

Getting storage props​

To get a prop, use Talo.channels.get_storage_prop(). In the example below, we're finding a channel for the player's guild and fetching the shared gold pool:

var options = new GetSubscribedChannelsOptions() { propKey = "guildId", propValue = "157" };
var res = await Talo.Channels.GetSubscribedChannels(options);

var channel = res[0];
var prop = await Talo.Channels.GetStorageProp(channel.id, "shared-gold")

After fetching a prop, you can access the value, createdBy, lastUpdatedBy (and more) from the ChannelStorageProp class.

Cache-busting​

Talo keeps an internal cache of storage props which is automatically updated whenever props are created, updated or deleted. By default, Talo will pull from the internal cache which is generally up-to-date. To guarantee fetching the freshest data, you can skip the internal cache with the final parameter of GetStorageProp():

// checks the internal cache first,
// if the key isn't set, fetches the latest data directly from the database
var prop = await Talo.Channels.GetStorageProp(channel.id, "shared-gold", false /* default */);

// fetches the latest data directly from the database
var freshProp = await Talo.Channels.GetStorageProp(channel.id, "shared-gold", true);

Updating storage props​

Any player can update the global store using Talo.Channels.SetStorageProps():

await Talo.Channels.SetStorageProps(
	channel.id,
	("prop1", "value1"),
	("prop2", "value2")
);

This method accepts any number of prop (string, string) tuples. You can set a prop value to null to delete it.

Handling failures​

Sometimes, setting props can fail. This usually happens when you set a prop key with a size over 128 characters or a prop value with a size over 512 characters. The Talo.Channels.OnChannelStoragePropsFailedToSet event lets you listen for these errors:

void Start()
{
	Talo.Channels.OnChannelStoragePropsFailedToSet += (Channel channel, ChannelStoragePropError[] errors) => {
		foreach (var prop in errors)
		{
			// shared-gold: Prop value length (596) exceeds 512 characters
			Debug.Log($"{prop.key}: {prop.error}");
		}
	};
}

Listening for storage updates​

The Talo.Channels.OnChannelStoragePropsUpdated event will fire when a storage update is received. It will list the channel, upserted (inserted or updated) props and deleted props:

void Start()
{
	Talo.Channels.OnChannelStoragePropsUpdated += OnChannelStoragePropsUpdated;
}

void OnChannelStoragePropsUpdated(Channel channel, ChannelStorageProp[] upsertedProps, ChannelStorageProp[] deletedProps)
{
	foreach (var prop in upsertedProps)
	{
		// e.g. "shared-gold: 80 upserted by jim"
		Debug.Log($"{prop.key}:{prop.value} upserted by {prop.lastUpdatedBy.identifier}");
	}

	foreach (var prop in deletedProps)
	{
		// e.g. "shared-gold deleted by jim, previous value was 80"
		Debug.Log($"{prop.key} deleted by {prop.lastUpdatedBy.identifier}, previous value was {prop.value}");
	}
}