MTChat

Maliwan chat backed back-ended with Firebase.

Features

• Typing indicator
• Photo messages
• Avatars as urls or as images

How to integrate

1. Add MTChat.framework to the project.

* Make sure to mark "copy items if needed":

• Make sure you added the framework into "Embedded frameworks" section in "General" tab of the target.

2. Subclass from main chat view controller:

@import MTChat;

@interface MyChatViewController : MTChatViewController {
}

@end

3. Add the chatDidLoad and onError handling block inside MyChatViewController.m:

#import "MyChatViewController.h"

@implementation MyChatViewController

- (void)viewDidLoad {
  [super viewDidLoad];
  
  //show spinner here
  self.onChatDidLoad = ^{
     //[weakSelf removeSpinner];
  };
  
  self.onError = ^(NSError *error) {
     NSLog(@"Eror: %@", error.localizedDescription);
  };
  
}
@end

4. Instantiate your chat view controller and set display name and avatars:

MyChatViewController *chatViewController = [[MyChatViewController alloc] init];
chatViewController.senderDisplayName = @"User2";
chatViewController.channelId = @"hockey";
chatViewController.senderId = @"user2";
    
chatViewController.ownAvatarURL = @"https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRE6Jn-YODWU_Ra92q8sEQdFdlB1D6FBePwNhr3PeCAgPzuZugt";
chatViewController.senderAvatarURL = @"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNzQzNDMxMjQxNF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwMTc5NTI2._V1_UY317_CR7,0,214,317_AL_.jpg";
    
[self.navigationController pushViewController:chatViewController animated:YES];

Backend. Firebase database and storage for photos

Channels contain the list of channels. Messages keep the conversation history. Appending new node in messages will automatically result in new incoming message.

Typing indicator

typingIndicator node indicates the user typing the message at the moment. In the screenshot above typingIndicator contains user2 : 1. 1 is the integer value indicating the typing process. It means that user2 is typing message at the moment. If the typingIndicator is empty it means that no one is typing the message at the moment.

Messages

There're two types of messages:

1. Text message
2. Photo message

Text message

It consists of:

• senderId. A simple unique id of the user who sent the message. Should not contain special symbols llike @, /, "", etc.
• senderName. A name of the user that sent a message. It will show up visually in the chat.
• text. Text of the message.

Photo message

It consists of:

• photoURL. The url of to the photo in the Firebase Storate.
• senderId. A simple unique id of the user who sent the message. Should not contain special symbols llike @, /, "", etc.

Firebase Storage

The storage persis all the images sent in chat. In this example the structure of the storage is the following: Every user has its own foler in the root folder of the storage. Folder name is the user id and the filename of the picture inside that folder is just the time when user sent that picture. Firebase.auth().currenuser().uid()/[timestamp].jpg