Chat

Our chat module, which lives in lib/core/ui/chat contains the entire chatting functionality, including groups. Being properly modularized, the chat codebase can easily be integrated into any existing Flutter app, with only a few lines of code.

The main components of the Chat module are:

• lib/core/ui/chat/chat/chat_screen.dart
  • This is the Flutter class that handles the core chat room and its functionality.
  • It can be used for both 1-1 chat rooms as well as group chats.
  • It depends on a ChannelDataModel object which contains necessary data that we depend on.
  • It communicates with Firebase (its implementation being the class ChatFireStoreUtils), via the ChatRepository using its bloc - ChatBloc.
  • The sendMessage() is one of the most important methods found in the ChatFireStoreUtils class which is in charge of sending a message and notifying recipients.
  • For apps that have audio and video calling integration, the call is being initiated in this component too.
  • It looks like this:

• lib/core/ui/chat/player_widget.dart

  • This Flutter widget is responsible for rendering audio messages player into the chat_screen.dart.

• lib/core/ui/chat/conversation/conversations_screen.dart

  • This Flutter widget continuously listens for new messages.
  • It displays a horizontal list of current user friends.
  • It displays a list of all the conversations of the current user.
  • It depends on the User object.
  • The top right icon can navigate to create_group_screen.dart.
  • It uses methods listenToConversations and fetchConversations from ChatFireStoreUtils to display data using using its bloc - ConversationBloc.

• lib/core/ui/chat/create_group/create_group_screen.dart
  • This is the screen that lets you select multiple friends to create a group chat.
  • It consumes methods from ChatRepository implementation to fetch the list of friends.
  • It looks like this: