Feature start of the channel view

[JcMinarro]

🎯 Goal

Add a new MessageItem type that represents the beginning of a channel conversation and allows our customers to add a "Welcome View" or any other data related to the channel.

The default view our SDK renders in that case is an empty view

Fix: https://github.com/GetStream/android-internal-board/issues/237

🎨 UI Changes

Example of how this view will be rendered

Before	After

🧪 Testing

To see it in action, you need to go to the beginning of a channel. Logining as "Marton" you can find a couple of conversations with a few messages.
A custom MessageListItemViewHolderFactory needs to be added to the MessageListView.
The following patch add all needed stuff to render it

Provide the patch summary here

Index: stream-chat-android-ui-components-sample/src/main/kotlin/io/getstream/chat/ui/sample/feature/chat/ChatFragment.kt
IDEA additional info:
Subsystem: com.intellij.openapi.diff.impl.patch.CharsetEP
<+>UTF-8
===================================================================
diff --git a/stream-chat-android-ui-components-sample/src/main/kotlin/io/getstream/chat/ui/sample/feature/chat/ChatFragment.kt b/stream-chat-android-ui-components-sample/src/main/kotlin/io/getstream/chat/ui/sample/feature/chat/ChatFragment.kt
--- a/stream-chat-android-ui-components-sample/src/main/kotlin/io/getstream/chat/ui/sample/feature/chat/ChatFragment.kt	(revision 848379aabb70316203bc58d6495c0390de5a4f10)
+++ b/stream-chat-android-ui-components-sample/src/main/kotlin/io/getstream/chat/ui/sample/feature/chat/ChatFragment.kt	(date 1704977004214)
@@ -35,13 +35,20 @@
 import io.getstream.chat.android.ui.common.state.messages.list.DeletedMessageVisibility
 import io.getstream.chat.android.ui.common.state.messages.list.EditMessage
 import io.getstream.chat.android.ui.common.state.messages.list.SendAnyway
+import io.getstream.chat.android.ui.feature.messages.list.adapter.BaseMessageItemViewHolder
+import io.getstream.chat.android.ui.feature.messages.list.adapter.MessageListItem
+import io.getstream.chat.android.ui.feature.messages.list.adapter.MessageListItemPayloadDiff
+import io.getstream.chat.android.ui.feature.messages.list.adapter.MessageListItemViewHolderFactory
+import io.getstream.chat.android.ui.feature.messages.list.adapter.MessageListItemViewType
 import io.getstream.chat.android.ui.utils.extensions.getCreatedAtOrThrow
+import io.getstream.chat.android.ui.utils.extensions.inflater
 import io.getstream.chat.android.ui.viewmodel.messages.MessageComposerViewModel
 import io.getstream.chat.android.ui.viewmodel.messages.MessageListHeaderViewModel
 import io.getstream.chat.android.ui.viewmodel.messages.MessageListViewModel
 import io.getstream.chat.android.ui.viewmodel.messages.MessageListViewModelFactory
 import io.getstream.chat.android.ui.viewmodel.messages.bindView
 import io.getstream.chat.ui.sample.common.navigateSafely
+import io.getstream.chat.ui.sample.databinding.CustomStartOfTheChannelViewBinding
 import io.getstream.chat.ui.sample.databinding.FragmentChatBinding
 import io.getstream.chat.ui.sample.feature.chat.composer.CustomMessageComposerLeadingContent
 import io.getstream.chat.ui.sample.feature.common.ConfirmationDialogFragment
@@ -181,6 +188,7 @@
 
     private fun initMessageListViewModel() {
         val calendar = Calendar.getInstance()
+        binding.messageListView.setMessageViewHolderFactory(CustomMessageListItemViewHolderFactory())
         messageListViewModel.apply {
             messageListViewModel.setDeletedMessageVisibility(
                 deletedMessageVisibility = DeletedMessageVisibility.VISIBLE_FOR_CURRENT_USER,
@@ -270,4 +278,25 @@
     private companion object {
         private const val OVERRIDE_LEADING_CONTENT = false
     }
+
+    class CustomMessageListItemViewHolderFactory : MessageListItemViewHolderFactory() {
+        override fun createViewHolder(
+            parentView: ViewGroup,
+            viewType: Int,
+        ): BaseMessageItemViewHolder<out MessageListItem> {
+            if (viewType == MessageListItemViewType.START_OF_THE_CHANNEL) {
+                return CustomStartOfTheChannelViewHolder(parentView)
+            }
+            return super.createViewHolder(parentView, viewType)
+        }
+    }
+
+    class CustomStartOfTheChannelViewHolder(
+        parentView: ViewGroup,
+    ) : BaseMessageItemViewHolder<MessageListItem.StartOfTheChannelItem>(
+         CustomStartOfTheChannelViewBinding.inflate(LayoutInflater.from(parentView.context), parentView, false).root
+    ) {
+        override fun bindData(data: MessageListItem.StartOfTheChannelItem, diff: MessageListItemPayloadDiff?) {
+        }
+    }
 }

🎉 GIF

[kanat]

Overall, LGTM

[kanat]

@JcMinarro is this ready to be merged? :)

I'm asking due to PR's name Feature start....
So I was wondering if there is something next coming for this feature.

[JcMinarro]

Yes, it is 🙃