DBMessagingKit

                 

DBMessagingTimestampStyleHidden                  DBMessagingTimestampStyleSliding

What is this repository for?

An open-source Messaging UI Kit for iOS, built with simplicity and customization in mind. The kit provides the tools to create a messaging interface while allowing it to work with your app's schema. This library was built to provide the tools you need to build a messaging UI without the need to force your data into any model object or protocol.

Supports

Supports the following MIME types (Internet Media Type):

• Text
• Image
• Video (In development)
• Location (In development)

Supports iOS 7.0+, Portrait/Landscape iPhone/iPad

####Features####

• Multiple timestamp styles
• Interactive Keyboard Dismiss
• Customize cell labels
• Customize toolbar buttons
• Arbitrary message sizes
• Data detectors
• Dynamic input text view resizing
• Timestamp formatting

How do I get set up?

View Controller

• Subclass DBMessagingViewController
• Implement the required and optional methods in DBMessagingCollectionViewDataSource
• Implement the optional methods in DBMessagingCollectionViewDelegateFlowLayout
• Set the 'timestampStyle' of your view controller subclass to DBMessagingTimestampStyleNone, DBMessagingTimestampStyleHidden, or DBMessagingTimestampStyleSliding.

Message Bubbles

• For complex message bubble layouts (such as Facebook Messenger) you can use a DBMessageBubbleController to figure out for you which message bubble should be displayed for a given message.
• Message bubbles can be created by passing 'template' images to an instance of DBMessageBubbleController.
• You can optionally return a message bubble (UIImageView) in the appropriate dataSource method of your choice or use the convience method messageBubbleForItemAtIndexPath: of a DBMessageBubbleController.

Input Toolbar

The input toolbar's buttons are totally up to you. It is recommended that you add a 'send' button and set it as the toolbar's send button property. You are in charge of handling each button's 'action'.

UIBarButtonItem *cameraBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithImage:[UIImage imageNamed:@"camera_button"] style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain target:self action:@selector(cameraButtonTapped:)];
UIBarButtonItem *sendBarButtonItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"Send" style:UIBarButtonItemStyleDone target:self action:@selector(sendButtonTapped:)];
    
[self.messageInputToolbar addItem:cameraBarButtonItem position:DBMessagingInputToolbarItemPositionLeft animated:false];
[self.messageInputToolbar addItem:sendBarButtonItem position:DBMessagingInputToolbarItemPositionRight animated:false];

At any time you can ask the input toolbar for the current 'Message Parts'. A message part is a dictionary that contains a mime type and a value.

NSString *mime = part[DBMessagePartMIMEKey];
id value = part[DBMessagePartValueKey];

For example, when composing a message comprised simply of text, the input toolbar will contain a single message part with a mime of [DBMessagingTextCell mimeType] and value of type NSString.

Mime Types

You can choose the 'mime' type that should correspond to each cell. The 'mime' type is used to decide which type of view should be used to display the value for a given message. The mime type can be accessed at any time by calling [DBMessagingTextCell mimeType].

Examples of possible mime types and associated values (again these are totally up to your app's schema):

• mime -> 'image/url'       value -> The URL for the remote image or video.
• mime -> 'image/plain'   value -> A base64 encoded string representing an image or video from a socket.
• mime -> 'geo/json'        value -> A JSON string representing a geolocation.
• mime -> 'image/jpeg',   value -> An image retrieved from disk.

[DBMessagingTextCell setMimeType:@"text/plain"];
[DBMessagingImageMediaCell setMimeType:@"image/jpeg"];
[DBMessagingVideoMediaCell setMimeType:@"video/mp4"];
[DBMessagingLocationMediaCell setMimeType:@"geo"];

The mime type you for each type of cell corresponds to the type of view that will be chosen to display your data. For example, if a message at a given index path contains text, you should return the same mime type you assigned to DBMessagingTextCell.

- (NSString *)collectionView:(UICollectionView *)collectionView mimeForMessageAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath {
    Message *message = [_messages objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
    return message.mime;
}

Customization

• The library is well-commented. This should help you configure your view however you like.

Components

A component is built to handle a common task in a messging interface. Components are completly optional.

DBMessagingPhotoPickerController

A 'DBMessagingPhotoPickerController' provides an interface to quickly choose a photo from the user's recent photos. This component was modelled after a similar photo picker found in iMessage.

The 'DBMessagingPhotoPickerController' is only available in iOS8.