chat-sdk-ios: An Objective-C repository from wazowski78

#Chat SDK ###Open Source Messaging framework for iOS

Chat SDK is a fully featured open source instant messaging framework for iOS. Chat SDK is fully featured, scalable and flexible and follows the following key principles:

Open Source. The Chat SDK is open source under the MIT license.
Full data control. You have full and exclusive access to the user's chat data
Quick integration. Chat SDK is fully featured out of the box
Firebase Powered by Google Firebase

A demo of the project is available on the App Store.

##Features

Private and group messages
Public chat rooms
Username / password, Facebook, Twitter, Anonymous and custom login
Push notifications
Text, Image and Location messages
User profiles
User search
Powered by Firebase
Cross Platform - see Android Version

Full breakdown is available on the features page.

##Get involved! We're very excited about the project and we're looking for other people to get involved. Over time we would like to make the best messaging framework for mobile. Helping us could involve any of the following:

Providing feedback and feature requests
Reporting bugs
Fixing bugs
Writing documentation
Improving the user interface
Help us update the library to use Swift
Helping to write adapters for other services such as Layer, Pusher, Pubnub etc...
Write a tutorial - we pay $100 for quality tutorials

If you're interested please email me at ben@chatsdk.co.

##The license This project uses the MIT license which is a commercially friendly open source license. The license has the following features:

Commercial use is allowed
You can modify, distribute and sublicense the source code
The work is provided "as is". You may not hold the author liable.
You must include the copyright notice
You must include the license

Running the demo project

This repository contains a fully functional verion of the Chat SDK which is configured using our Firebase account and social media logins. This is great way to test the features of the Chat SDK before you start itegrating it with your app.

Clone Chat SDK
Run pod install in the ChatSDK directory
Open the Chat SDK Firebase.xcworkspace file in Xcode
Compile and run

##Swift Version If you want to use Swift, you can use the Swift Xcode project. If you want to add new files, you should make sure that the header files are added to ChatSDK-Bridging-Header.h.

If your integrating the Chat SDK with a project that's written in Swift, you should do the following:

Create a new file called [project name]-Bridging-Header.h
Set this file in the Build Settings -> Objective-C Bridging Header. Note that this path should be relative to your .xcodeproj file
Add the necessary imports to this header - they will be available to your Swift project

Explore the Wiki

We have a number of additional guides available on our Wiki including:

Integration with an existing project

It's easy to integrate the Chat SDK with an existing project.

Clone Chat SDK
Add the Chat SDK development pods to your Podfile

  pod "ChatSDK", :path => "[Path to ChatSDK folder]"

Note
Chat SDK supports push notifications but this requires the installation of an additional free module. This guide includes the additional steps necessary to setup push notifications. These steps will be marked with a comment.

For push notifications you should download the free BackendlessPushHandler module.

  pod "ChatSDKModules/Backendless", :path => "[Path to ChatSDKModules folder]"

Run Pod install
Copy the BTwitterHelper and GooglerService-Info.plist files into your main project target folder
Copy the following rows from the ChatSDK Info.plist file to your project's Info.plist
chat_sdk
App Transport Security Settings
Privacy rows appropriate for your project (location, photo library, microphone, camera etc)
Open the AppDelegate.m add the following code to initialise the chat

#import "BTwitterHelper.h"
#import <ChatSDK/ChatCore.h>
#import <ChatSDK/ChatUI.h>
#import <ChatSDK/ChatFirebaseAdapter.h>
#import <ChatSDK/ChatCoreData.h>

For push notifications:

#import <ChatSDKModules/BBackendlessPushHandler.h>

Add the following code to the start of your didFinishLaunchingWithOptions function:

// Configure app for Facebook login
[FIRApp configure];
[[FBSDKApplicationDelegate sharedInstance] application:application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:launchOptions];

// Start the twitter helper to handle login
[BTwitterHelper sharedHelper];

// Set the default interface manager
[BInterfaceManager sharedManager].a = [[BDefaultInterfaceAdapter alloc] init];
    
// This is the main view that contains the tab bar
_mainViewController = [[BAppTabBarController alloc] initWithNibName:Nil bundle:Nil];

// Create a network adapter to communicate with Firebase
// The network adapter handles network traffic
BFirebaseNetworkAdapter * adapter = [[BFirebaseNetworkAdapter alloc] init];

// Set the login screen
// This screen is customizable - for example if you are using the
// Two factor authentication module
adapter.auth.challengeViewController = [[BLoginViewController alloc] initWithNibName:Nil bundle:Nil];

// Set the adapter
[BNetworkManager sharedManager].a = adapter;
    
// Set the data handler
// The data handler is responsible for persisting data on the device
[BStorageManager sharedManager].a = [[BCoreDataManager alloc] init];

// Set the root view controller
[self.window setRootViewController:_mainViewController];

For push notifications also add:

adapter.push = [[BBackendlessPushHandler alloc] initWithAppKey:[BSettingsManager backendlessAppId] secretKey:[BSettingsManager backendlessSecretKey] versionKey:[BSettingsManager backendlessVersionKey]];
    
[[BNetworkManager sharedManager].a.push  registerForPushNotificationsWithApplication:application launchOptions:launchOptions];

Finally Make sure the following functions are either copied into your AppDelegate.m file or the code is added to your existing functions:

- (void)applicationDidBecomeActive:(UIApplication *)application
{
    [FBSDKAppEvents activateApp];
}

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application openURL:(NSURL *)url sourceApplication:(NSString *)sourceApplication annotation:(id)annotation
{
    if ([[url scheme] isEqualToString:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"fb%@",     [BSettingsManager facebookAppId]]]) {
        return [[FBSDKApplicationDelegate sharedInstance] application:application openURL:url sourceApplication:sourceApplication annotation:annotation];
    }
    else {
        return [[GIDSignIn sharedInstance] handleURL:url sourceApplication:sourceApplication annotation:annotation];
    }
}

For push notifications also add:

-(void) application:(UIApplication *)application didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken:(NSData *)deviceToken {
    [[BNetworkManager sharedManager].a.push application:application didRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithDeviceToken:deviceToken];
}

-(void) application:(UIApplication *)application didReceiveRemoteNotification:(NSDictionary *)userInfo {
    [[BNetworkManager sharedManager].a.push application:application didReceiveRemoteNotification:userInfo];
}

Firebase Setup

The ChatSDK relies on a number of different backends for its functionality.

Firebase. Firebase is a real-time data and storage service provided by Google. Firebase is free up to around 20k daily active users.

Backendless: Backendless is a mobile app development platform with server functionality. Backendless provide free targeted push notifications.

Create a Firebase account
Create a Firebase account here
Create a new project
Adding Firebase details to your project Info.plist
Open your new project and click database in the left menu
Copy the URL at the top of your browser e.g. https://appname.firebaseio.com/
Modify the URL into the following format: gs://appname.appspot.com
Copy the modified URL into your plist field: chat_sdk -> firebase -> storage_path
Enter a custom root_path.

Note:
It is worth opening your downloaded GoogleService-Info.plist and checking there is an API_KEY field included. Sometimes Firebase's automatic download doesn’t include this in the plist. To rectify, just re-download the plist from the project settings menu.

Configure your Firebase iOS App
In your Firebase project, click the cog at the top of the page
Select Project settings
Click to add an iOS App
Enter your BundleID
Click through the remaining steps (all this code has already been added)
Copy the GoogleService-Info.plist into your main project folder (replace the previous one copied from ChatSDK)

Note:
The root path is the initial path which your ChatSDK data will be stored on Firebase. It allows you to use a single Firebase database for multiple versions of your project. For example you could create a /live path and a /testing path. This allows you to test new features without fear of corrupting your current data model.

####Security Rules

Firebase secures your data by allowing you to write rules to govern who can access the database and what can be written. On the Firebase dashboard click Database then the Rules tab.

Copy the contents of the rules.json file into the rules and click publish.

Backendless Set up for push notifications

Configuring your project with Backendless is very simple due to the large amount of documentation Backendless provide.

To get started with Backendless you need to complete the following steps:

Create an account on Backendless
Create a new app on the dashboard
Navigate to your app settings (Manage -> App Settings) and copy the following keys into your plist
The AppID (chat_sdk -> backendless -> app_id)
The iOS Secret Key (chat_sdk -> backendless -> app_secret)
The App Version Key (chat_sdk -> backendless -> app_secret)

You have now added the custom keys to your project. Next, you need to configure the certificates to enable push notifications.

Backendless provide extremely detailed documentation for this and we recommend you to work through this to set up Push Notifications correctly. You can find the iOS Push Notification guide here.

Note:
There have been some instances of the push notifications not being sent and received until the app has been uploaded to iTunes Connect. We recommend carefully configuring Push Notifications before uploading your app and testing it with TestFlight before final release.

Your project is now set up with the ChatSDK.

Note:
Don’t forget that it is still using many of our test accounts for social media.

You find complete documentation to set these up here.

##Integrating the Chat SDK with an existing login system

To start with, you should have completed the steps above to add the Chat SDK to your project. To integrate the Chat SDK we need to intercept three key events in your app:

Login
User profile update
Logout

Once this is done, you will be able to access the Chat SDK API to perform actions like searching for users, creating threads and sending messages.

When integrating the Chat SDK with an existing app it's best practice to create a new class with static methods to handle the lifecycle of the Chat SDK. This means that you can perform actions like setting the authentication token, updating the user and logging out from anywhere in your app. This also helps to separate the Chat SDK code from your own code.

###Login

To integrate with a third party server two steps are necessary:

Generate an authentication token on your server
Pass the token to the Chat SDK

To generate a token, you should follow the Firebase custom authentication guide.

In PHP, an implementation may look like this:

// Get your service account's email address and private key from the JSON key file
$service_account_email = "abc-123@a-b-c-123.iam.gserviceaccount.com";
$private_key = "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----...";

function create_custom_token($uid, $is_premium_account) {
  global $service_account_email, $private_key;

  $now_seconds = time();
  $payload = array(
    "iss" => $service_account_email,
    "sub" => $service_account_email,
    "aud" => "https://identitytoolkit.googleapis.com/google.identity.identitytoolkit.v1.IdentityToolkit",
    "iat" => $now_seconds,
    "exp" => $now_seconds+(60*60),  // Maximum expiration time is one hour
    "uid" => $uid,
    "claims" => array(
      "premium_account" => $is_premium_account
    )
  );
  return JWT::encode($payload, $private_key, "RS256");
}

Note:
It is recommended to set the token expiry to a high value to prevent the case where the user is logged in to the server but not the Chat SDK.

The id should be the id your server uses to identify the user who is currently logged in. This token should be passed back to the app. Then the user can be authenticated as follows:

    [[BNetworkManager sharedManager].a.auth authenticateWithDictionary:@{bLoginTypeKey: @(bAccountTypeCustom),
bLoginCustomToken: token}].thenOnMain(^id(id<PUser> user) {
		  // Login Success
        return Nil;
    }, ^id(NSError * error) {
        // Login Failure
        return Nil;
    });

Note:
This code could be added as a static function to the Chat SDK handler class as mentioned above.

###User integration

The Chat SDK uses CoreData to persist it's data. This includes a user object which is used to store the current user's information.

Whenever the user updates their details in your app, they should also update the information that is used by Chat SDK.

id<PUser> user = [BNetworkManager sharedManager].a.core.currentUserModel;

user.name = @"Name goes here";
user.email = @"Email goes here";
user.phoneNumber = @"Number goes here"

// Set the 
[user setImage:UIImagePNGRepresentation(image)];
[user setThumbnail:UIImagePNGRepresentation(thumbnail)];

// Upload the image and thumbnail if necessary
[[BNetworkManager sharedManager].a.upload uploadImage:image thumbnail:thumbnail].thenOnMain(^id(NSDictionary * urls) {
    
    // Set the paths to the image and thumbnail
    [user setMetaString:urls[bImagePath] forKey:bUserPictureURLKey];
    [user setMetaString:urls[bThumbnailPath] forKey:bUserPictureURLThumbnailKey];
    
    // Update the user profile on Firebase
    [[BNetworkManager sharedManager].a.core pushUser];
    
    return urls;
}, Nil);

###Logging out

When your user logs out of the app, they should also log out of the Chat SDK.

[[BNetworkManager sharedManager].a.auth logout];

##Using the Chat SDK API

The Chat SDK API is based around the network manager and a series of handlers. A good place to start is by looking at the handlers Pods/Development Pods/ChatSDK/Core/Core/Classes/Interfaces. Here you can review the handler interfaces which are well documented. To use a handler you would use the following code:

[[BNetworkManager sharedManager].a.handler_name function: to: call:]

#####Searching for a user

For example, to search for a user you could use the search handler:

-(RXPromise *) usersForIndexes: (NSArray *) indexes withValue: (NSString *) value limit: (int) limit userAdded: (void(^)(id<PUser> user)) userAdded;

Here you pass in a series of indexes to be used in the search i.e. name, email etc... and a value. It will then return a series of user objects.

You can also see example implementations of these handlers by looking at the BFirebaseSearchHandler class. And also seeing how the method is used in the Chat SDK.

#####Starting a chat

To start a chat you can use the core handler.

-(RXPromise *) createThreadWithUsers: (NSArray *) users
                       threadCreated: (void(^)(NSError * error, id<PThread> thread)) thread;

When this method completes, the thread will have been created on Firebase and all the users will have been added. You could then open the thread using the interface adapter.

UIViewController * chatViewController = [[BInterfaceManager sharedManager].a chatViewControllerWithThread:thread];

So a more complete example would look like this:

-(void) startChatWithUser {
    MBProgressHUD * hud = [MBProgressHUD showHUDAddedTo:self.view animated:YES];
    hud.label.text = [NSBundle t:bCreatingThread];
    
    [[BNetworkManager sharedManager].a.core createThreadWithUsers:@[_user] threadCreated:^(NSError * error, id<PThread> thread) {
        if (!error) {
            [self pushChatViewControllerWithThread:thread];
        }
        else {
            [UIView alertWithTitle:[NSBundle t:bErrorTitle] withMessage:[NSBundle t:bThreadCreationError]];
        }
        [MBProgressHUD hideHUDForView:self.view animated:YES];
    }];
}

-(void) pushChatViewControllerWithThread: (id<PThread>) thread {
    if (thread) {
        UIViewController * chatViewController = [[BInterfaceManager sharedManager].a chatViewControllerWithThread:thread];
        [self.navigationController pushViewController:chatViewController animated:YES];
    }
}

##Premium Features

We have also developed some premium features for the Chat SDK. These are available on our website.

Typing indicator
Read Receipts
Audio / Video Messages
Contact book integration
Location based user search
Stickers
Two Factor Authentication

These modules can be purchased on our store.

##Troubleshooting Cocoapods

Always open the .xcworkspace file rather than .xcodeproj
Check CocoaPod warnings - make sure to fix any warnings before proceeding
Make sure that your base configuration isn’t set: Project -> project name -> Info -> Configuration
Make sure that the “Build Active Architecture Only” setting is the same for both the main project and the pods project.
Check the build settings in the Xcode project and check which fields are in bold (this means that their value has been overridden and CocoaPods can't access them). If you press backspace while selecting those fields, their values will be set to the default value.

wazowski78/chat-sdk-ios

Running the demo project

Explore the Wiki

Integration with an existing project

Firebase Setup

Backendless Set up for push notifications