chat-window-android

Embedding mobile chat window in Android application for

LiveChat: https://developers.livechat.com/docs/getting-started/installing-livechat/android-widget/

Installation

https://jitpack.io/#livechat/chat-window-android

To get a project into your build:

Step 1. Add the JitPack repository to your build file Add it in your root build.gradle at the end of repositories:

allprojects {
     repositories {
         ...
         maven { url 'https://jitpack.io' }
     }
 }

Step 2. Add the dependency

dependencies {
    implementation 'com.github.livechat:chat-window-android:v2.1.6'
}

Your application will need a permission to use the Internet. Add the following line to your AndroidManifest.xml:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />

If you want to allow users to upload files from their external storage using chat window, a permission is also needed:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

Usage

There are couple ways you can use this library. To be able to use all the features we recommend you add chat window as a view, either by using static method which adds view to your activity, or as an embedded view in your xml. As long as ChatWindowView is initilized, you will get events when new message comes in.

First, you need to configure your chat window

Configuration

Simply use ChatWindowConfiguration.java constructor. Note that licence number is mandatory.

configuration = new ChatWindowConfiguration(
    "your_licence_number",
    "group_id",
    "Visitor name",
    "[email protected]",
    customParamsMap);

Chat Window View

There are two recommended ways to use ChatWindow.

Full screen ChatWindow added to the root of your activity, and
XML embedded ChatWindow to controll placement and size

Full Screen Window

All you need to do is to create, attach and initialize chat window. Something in the lines of:

public void startFullScreenChat() {
    if (fullScreenChatWindow == null) {
        fullScreenChatWindow = ChatWindowView.createAndAttachChatWindowInstance(getActivity());
        fullScreenChatWindow.setUpWindow(configuration);
        fullScreenChatWindow.setUpListener(this);
        fullScreenChatWindow.initialize();
    }
    fullScreenChatWindow.showChatWindow();
}

XML Embedded View

If you like to control the place and size of the ChatWindowView, you might want to add it to your app either by inlucidng a view in XML

<com.livechatinc.inappchat.ChatWindowView
    android:id="@+id/embedded_chat_window"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="400dp"/>

or inflating the view directly

ChatWindowView chatWindowView = new ChatWindowView(MainActivity.this);

and then initializing ChatWindow like with full screen window approach:

public void startEmmbeddedChat(View view) {
    if (!emmbeddedChatWindow.isInitialized()) {
        emmbeddedChatWindow.setUpWindow(configuration);
        emmbeddedChatWindow.setUpListener(this);
        emmbeddedChatWindow.initialize();
    }
    emmbeddedChatWindow.showChatWindow();
}

Navigation

Depending on your use case you might want to hide ChatWindow if user hits back button. You can use our onBackPressed() function which hides the view if its visible and returns true. In your activity/fragment add the following:

@Override
public boolean onBackPressed() {
    return fullScreenChatWindow != null && fullScreenChatWindow.onBackPressed();
}

ChatWindowEventsListener

This listener gives you opportunity to:

handle a case, when user wants to attach file in ChatWindow
get notified if new message arrived in chat. This gets handy if you want to show some kind of badge for a user to read new message.
react on visibility changes (user can hide the view on its own)
handle user selected links in a custom way
react and handle errors coming from chat window

File sharing

To provide your users capability to send files, you need to set ChatWindowEventsListener on your ChatWindowView.

Your listener should override onStartFilePickerActivity method and start activity for result with provided intent and request code.

    @Override
    public void onStartFilePickerActivity(Intent intent, int requestCode) {
        startActivityForResult(intent, requestCode);
    }

and then give opportunity to the view to handle activity result, i.e.

@Override
public void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
    if (fullChatWindow != null) fullChatWindow.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
    super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
}

Handling URL's

You can disable chat widget's default behavior when user selects link by implementing handleUri method from ChatWindowEventsListener.

@Override
public boolean handleUri(Uri uri) {
	// Handle uri here...
	return true; // Return true to disable default behavior.
}

Error handling

You might want to customize user experience when encountering errors, such as problems with internet connection. By returning true in onError callback method you're taking responsibility to handle errors coming from the chat window.

Please keep in mind that chat window, once it's loaded, can handle connection issues by sporadically trying to reconnect. This case can be detected by implementing following condition in onError callback method.

@Override
public boolean onError(ChatWindowErrorType errorType, int errorCode, String errorDescription) {
    if (errorType == ChatWindowErrorType.WebViewClient && errorCode == -2 && chatWindow.isChatLoaded()) {
        //Chat window can handle reconnection. You might want to delegate this to chat window
        return false;
    } else {
        reloadChatBtn.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
    }
    Toast.makeText(getActivity(), errorDescription, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    return true;
}

Clear chat session

After your user signs out of the app, you might want to clear the chat session. You can do that by invoking static method on ChatWindowView.clearSession(Context) from anywhere in the app. In case your ChatWindowView is attached in course of the log out flow, you also going to need to reload it by calling chatWindow.reload() after clearSession code. See FullScreenWindowActivityExample.java

Alternative usage with limited capabilities

If you want you don't want users to be notified when user gets new message in hidden Chat, you might want to use provided activity or fragment

If you do not want the chat window to reload its content every time device orientation changes, add this line to your Activity in the manifest:

android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize"

The chat window will handle the orientation change by itself.

Example usage

There are two ways to open the chat window – using Activity or Fragment.

Using Activity

In order to open a chat window in new Activity, you need to declare ChatWindowActivity in your manifest. Add the following line to AndroidManifest.xml, between <application></application> tags:

<activity android:name="com.livechatinc.inappchat.ChatWindowActivity" android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize" />

Finally, add the following code to your application, in a place where you want to open the chat window (e.g. button listener). You need to provide a Context (your Activity or Application object), your LiveChat license number (taken from the your app: LiveChat and, optionally, an ID of a group:

Intent intent = new Intent(context, com.livechatinc.inappchat.ChatWindowActivity.class);
Bundle config = new ChatWindowConfiguration.Builder()
	.setLicenceNumber("<your_license_number>")
	.setGroupId("<your_group_id>")
	.build()
	.asBundle();

intent.putExtras(config);
startActivity(intent);

It’s also possibile to automatically login to chat window by providing visitor’s name and email. You need to disable pre-chat survey in the web application and add the following lines to the previous code:

intent.putExtra(com.livechatinc.inappchat.ChatWindowConfiguration.KEY_VISITOR_NAME, "your_name");
intent.putExtra(com.livechatinc.inappchat.ChatWindowConfiguration.KEY_VISITOR_EMAIL, "your_email");

Using Fragment

In order to open chat window in new Fragment, you need to add the following code to your application, in a place where you want to open the chat window (e.g. button listener). You also need to provide your LiveChat license number and group ID:

getFragmentManager()
   .beginTransaction()
   .replace(R.id.frame_layout, ChatWindowFragment.newInstance("your_license_number", "your_group_id"), "chat_fragment")
   .addToBackStack("chat_fragment")
   .commit();

Method ChatWindowFragment.newInstance() returns chat window Fragment.

It’s also possible to automatically login to chat window by providing visitor’s name and email. You need to disable pre-chat survey in web application and use different newInstance() method:

getFragmentManager()
   .beginTransaction()
   .replace(R.id.frame_layout, ChatWindowFragment.newInstance("your_license_number", "your_group_id", “visitor _name”, “visitor _email”), "chat_fragment")
   .addToBackStack("chat_fragment")
   .commit();

Localisation

You can change or localize error messages, by defining your own string resources with following id's

<string name="failed_to_load_chat">Couldn\'t load chat.</string>
<string name="cant_share_files">File sharing is not configured for this app</string>
<string name="reload_chat">Reload</string>

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