Correct way to recreate the ChatClient?

[jeff-huston]

We have two use cases we need to support:

1. Disconnect and then connect to a different Stream user ID while the app is running
2. When switching environments in our app, we need to disconnect and reconnect the ChatClient with a different Stream API key (since our backend environment needs to point to the same stream environment as our app does).

The first use case is the most important, but the second one also matters.

Currently, I'm using the following approach for both situations:

• Call ChatClient.disconnect()
• Rebuild a new ChatClient with ChatClient.Builder and connect using that one.

This seems to work functionally, but I do get this error in logcat:
E/Chat: [ERROR] You have just re-initialized ChatClient, old configuration has been overridden [ERROR]

Looking at ChatClient's API surface, it seems like for Use Case 1 I could probably just call disconnect() and then connectUser() with the new user. But for Use Case 2 I think I do need to recreate the ChatClient. I'd like to follow the same codepath for both use cases, but can diverge if necessary.

Are there any drawbacks I should be aware of with my current approach, or a better alternative you would suggest?

[jeff-huston]

Note: I just noticed the build warning and changed to chatClient.disconnect(flushPersistence = true).await(), but this error log still appears.

[adasiewiczr]

Hey @hustoj2,

1. That is precisely the way to go. It would be best if you waited for disconnect completion and reconnect with a different userId. We are working on making this process more straightforward by introducing switchUser method which should be available in one of the upcoming releases.
2. This one is more tricky. Rebuilding ChatClient is a way to go but keep in mind the ChatClient instance is being used internally by other classes and components and all of them should be rebuilt. You should disconnect the user before recreating the new instance, as internally it will clear classes related to state, etc. Also, make sure to rebuild all UI-related things like VMs, etc. I'll add a task to investigate if we can improve this process and make sure it's described in our docs

[jeff-huston]

Thanks for the reply and guidance on how to safely recreate the ChatClient when needed. This helped.

[jeff-huston]

Note for future travelers: the switchUser method was in fact added in v5.9.0 (though I haven't tried it yet in our app since our old way is still working)

[adasiewiczr]

we also added more documentation for Handling User Connection