ChatUI is an open-source Swift package that provides a simple and reliable solution for implementing chat interfaces using SwiftUI.

Overview

written by ChatGPT

There are many companies that provide Chat SDK, such as Firebase, Sendbird, GetStream, and Zendesk. This means that the interface we use to implement chat functionality depends on our choice of SDK. While Apple’s UI framework, SwiftUI, allows for incredibly flexible and fast UI design, there is a lack of available information on how to implement chat functionality, particularly when it comes to managing scrolling in message lists. To solve this problem, some Chat SDK companies offer their own Chat UI kits. However, since one UIKit only supports one SDK, there is no guarantee that a given UIKit will support the Chat SDK we are using, and switching to a different Chat SDK can create significant UI issues.

Nevertheless, you know that different Chat SDKs essentially have the same meaning and essence despite different interface names and forms. If you conform to the protocols provided by ChatUI for the channels, messages, and users that we want to implement UI for, ChatUI can draw a SwiftUI-based chat UI based on this information.

Although ChatUI currently offers very limited features, I’m confident that it can provide best practices for implementing chat interfaces using SwiftUI. Additionally, since ChatUI is an open source project, you can expand its capabilities and create a more impressive ChatUI together through contributions. I appreciate your interest.

Note To see Quickstart or Real use cases examples projects, please go to ChatUI-examples

Note To see Figma, the design resources, please see ChatUI - Figma Community

Note To see ChatUI Canvas app that allows to create view using ChatUI without any code, please see Discussion - 🎉 ChatUI Canvas starts beta testing!

Contribution

I welcome and appreciate contributions from the community. If you find a bug, have a feature request, or want to contribute code, please submit an issue or a pull request on our GitHub repository freely.

Please see 💪 How to Contribute in Discussion tab.

Important

When you contribute code via pull request, please add the executable previews that conforms to PreviewProvider.

License

ChatUI is released under the MIT license. See LICENSE for details.

Installation

To use ChatUI in your project, follow these steps:

1. In Xcode, select File > Swift Packages > Add Package Dependency.
2. In the search bar, paste the ChatUI URL: https://github.com/jaesung-0o0/ChatUI
3. Select the branch as main to install.
4. Click Next, and then click Finish.

Usage

To use ChatUI in your project, add the following import statement at the top of your file:

import ChatUI

You can then use ChatUI to implement chat interfaces in your SwiftUI views. Follow the guidelines in the ChatUI documentation to learn how to use the package.

Real Use-cases Examples

To see Quickstart or Real use cases examples projects, please go to ChatUI-examples

Design Resources

To see Figma, the design resources, please see ChatUI - Figma Community

Key Functions

Chat in Channels

Name	Description	Documentation
ℹ️ Channel Info View	This is a view that displays the following channel information	See documentation
🥞 Message List	This is a view that lists message objects.	See documentation
💬 Message Row	This is a view that is provided by default in ChatUI to display message information.	See documentation
⌨️ Message Field	The message field is a UI component for sending messages	See documentation

List Channels

Coming soon

Appearances

Name	Description	Documentation
Appearance	The Appearance struct represents a set of predefined appearances used in the app’s user interface such as colors and typography.	See documentation
Colors	The predefined colors used in the ChatUI.	See documentation
Typography	The predefined colors used in the ChatUI.	See documentation
Images	The predefined images used in the ChatUI as an extension of the SwiftUI.Image.	See documentation
Image Scales	The predefined image scales used in the ChatUI.	See documentation

To do list

Features (🚀 target release date: Late June, 2023)

If you have any feature you want, please let me know via Issue or Discussion

• MessageList: Dimiss keyboard when tap outside
• MessageList: Date view
• MessageList: Publisher for retrieving more message while scrolling
• MessageList: Message Menu
• MessageList: Message reaction publisher
• MessageRow: placement (e.g., Both, leftOnly, rightOnly)
• MessageField: CameraCapturer
• Giphy: Resize body with GIF frame size
• MapView: The view to shows map when the .media(.location) style message was tapped.
• MediaView: The view to display / play media in message
• MessageSearch: The feature that searches messages.

Next Key functions (2023 Feature Plans)

• List Chanels: ChannelList, ChannelGrid, ChannelRow, ChannelColumn
• Thread in Message: CommentList, CommentRow, etc,… (Add comment to the message)
• Feed: FeedStack (Add message to the feed)
• List Notifications: NotificationList, NotificationRow

Documentations

• Code Style Convention
• Issues Convention
• Branch Convention (name, commit)
• Pull Requests Convention (how to PR, review process)