channels_flutter

Embed a Channels.social community as a native screen in your Flutter app. It's a webview_flutter-backed widget with passthrough auth — pass your signed-in member and they're logged in with no extra screen. Renders on iOS and Android from one codebase.

Phase 1 is embed only. Push notifications are a planned add-on (see below).

Requires a Channels account

This is a client SDK for Channels.social — it embeds your community, so it needs a Channels account (a paid product) and your API key. Sign up at https://channels.social, then copy your key from Admin → Integration. The widget does nothing without a valid key.

Install

# pubspec.yaml
dependencies:
  channels_flutter: ^0.1.0

flutter pub get

Usage

Give it a bounded size (e.g. a Scaffold body or an Expanded):

import 'package:channels_flutter/channels_flutter.dart';

Scaffold(
  body: ChannelsCommunity(
    apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY',
    user: ChannelsUser(
      externalId: 'u_123',      // your user id (preferred)
      name: 'Jane',
      email: 'jane@acme.com',
    ),
    // channel: 'general',      // optional: open a specific channel/topic
    // theme: 'dark',           // optional: 'light' | 'dark'
  ),
)

Get your apiKey from the admin Integration tab.

Props

Param	Type	Notes
apiKey	String (req)	Your community's public API key.
user	ChannelsUser?	Member to sign in (passthrough).
channel	String?	Open directly on this channel (by name).
topic	String?	Open directly on this topic (by name).
theme	String?	'light' or 'dark'.
host	String	Override host (staging/self-host).
onEvent	void Function(String)?	Raw embed postMessage payloads.

ChannelsCommunity also accepts loadingBuilder and errorBuilder to customize those states.

Passthrough auth

When you pass a user with an externalId or email, the SDK loads the embed with autoLogin=true and the identity params, so the member is signed in automatically — provided the community's auth mode is Trusted or JWT (set in the admin panel). On other auth modes the embed shows its normal login.

The SDK sends: external_id / email / name / image (whichever you provide) as query params on the embed URL.

Platform setup

Android — webview_flutter needs minSdkVersion 19+ (check android/app/build.gradle). The INTERNET permission is included by default; no extra config.

iOS — works over HTTPS out of the box; no App Transport Security changes needed. Run cd ios && pod install after adding the dependency.

Roadmap: push notifications

Native push (mentions, DMs, Talk-to-us replies) is a planned add-on. It will use firebase_messaging to register the device with the Channels backend and a WebView JavaScript channel to deep-link into the right channel on tap — the same phased approach as the React Native SDK. It is intentionally not in this version, so embedding requires no Firebase setup.

License

MIT