vue-advanced-chat

Features

• Realtime chat messaging
• Customizeable
• Backend agnostic
• Images, files & emojis
• Edit messages
• Reply to other messages
• Flexible options
• UI elements for seen, new and deleted messages
• Custom theming - light and dark modes
• Firestore example

Demo

Enjoy 😄

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Usage
• Props API
• Props data structure
• Events API
• Using with Firestore

Installation

# Using npm
npm install --save vue-advanced-chat

# Using yarn
yarn add --save vue-advanced-chat

Usage

You can import it as a custom component:

<template>
  <chat-window :currentUserId="currentUserId" :rooms="rooms" :messages="messages" />
</template>

<script>
  import ChatWindow from 'vue-advanced-chat'
  import 'vue-advanced-chat/dist/vue-advanced-chat.css'

  export default {
    components: {
      ChatWindow
    },
    data() {
      return {
        rooms: [],
        messages: [],
        currentUserId: '1234'
      }
    }
  }
</script>

Props API

Prop	Type	Required	Default
height	String	-	600px
currentUserId (1)	String	true	-
rooms	Array	-	[ ]
loadingRooms (2)	Boolean	-	false
messages	Array	-	[ ]
messagesLoaded (3)	Boolean	-	false
menuActions (4)	Array	-	[ ]
messageActions (5)	Array	-	(4)
showFiles	Boolean	-	true
showEmojis	Boolean	-	true
showReactionEmojis	Boolean	-	true
textMessages (6)	Object	-	null
theme (7)	Sring	-	light
colors (8)	Object	-	(8)

(1) currentUserId is required to display UI and trigger actions according to the user using the chat (ex: messages position on the right, etc.)

(2) loadingRooms can be used to show/hide a spinner icon while rooms are loading

(3) messagesLoaded must be manually set to true when all messages of a conversation have been loaded. Meaning the user cannot scroll on top anymore

(4) menuActions can be used to display your own buttons when clicking the vertical dots icon inside a room.
You can then use the menuActionHandler event to call your own action after clicking a button. Ex:

menuActions="[
  {
    name: 'inviteUser',
    title: 'Invite User'
  },
  {
    name: 'removeUser',
    title: 'Remove User'
  },
  {
    name: 'deleteRoom',
    title: 'Delete Room'
  }
]"

(5) messageActions can be used to display your own buttons when clicking the dropdown icon inside a message.
You can then use the messageActionHandler event to call your own action after clicking a button. Ex:

messageActions="[
  {
    name: 'addMessageToFavorite',
    title: 'Add To Favorite'
  },
  {
    name: 'shareMessage',
    title: 'Share Message'
  }
]"

You can use built-in messageActions names to trigger specific UI modifications when clicked.
Currently, replyMessage, editMessage and deleteMessage action names are available.
If messageActions is not set, it will use the default values below.
If you don't want to display this messageActions menu, you can pass it an empty array.

messageActions="[
  {
    name: 'replyMessage',
    title: 'Reply'
  },
  {
    name: 'editMessage',
    title: 'Edit Message',
    onlyMe: true
  },
  {
    name: 'deleteMessage',
    title: 'Delete Message',
    onlyMe: true
  }
]"

(6) textMessages can be used to replace default texts. Ex:

textMessages="{
  NEW_MESSAGES: 'Nouveaux messages',
  MESSAGE_DELETED: 'Ce message a été supprimé',
  MESSAGES_EMPTY: 'Aucun message',
  CONVERSATION_STARTED: 'La conversation a commencée le :',
  TYPE_MESSAGE: 'Taper votre message',
  SEARCH: 'Rechercher'
}"

(7) theme can be used to change the chat theme. Currently, only light and dark are available.

(8) colors can be use to create your own theme. Ex:

colors="{
  general: {
    color: '#0a0a0a',
    backgroundInput: '#fff',
    colorPlaceholder: '#9ca6af',
    colorCaret: '#1976d2',
    colorSpinner: '#333',
    borderStyle: '1px solid #e1e4e8',
    backgroundScrollIcon: '#fff'
  },

  header: {
    background: '#fff'
  },

  footer: {
    background: 'none',
    borderStyleInput: '1px solid #e1e4e8',
    borderInputSelected: '#1976d2',
    backgroundReply: 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.08)'
  },

  content: {
    background: '#f8f9fa'
  },

  sidemenu: {
    background: '#fff',
    backgroundHover: '#f6f6f6',
    backgroundActive: '#e5effa',
    colorActive: '#1976d2',
    borderColorSearch: '#e1e5e8'
  },

  dropdown: {
    background: '#fff',
    backgroundHover: '#f6f6f6'
  },

  message: {
    background: '#fff',
    backgroundMe: '#ccf2cf',
    color: '#0a0a0a',
    backgroundDeleted: '#dadfe2',
    colorDeleted: '#757e85',
    colorUsername: '#9ca6af',
    colorTimestamp: '#828c94',
    backgroundDate: '#e5effa',
    colorDate: '#505a62',
    backgroundReply: 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.08)',
    colorReplyUsername: '#0a0a0a',
    colorReply: '#6e6e6e',
    backgroundImage: '#ddd',
    colorNewMessages: '#1976d2',
    backgroundReaction: '#eee',
    borderStyleReaction: '1px solid #eee',
    backgroundReactionHover: '#fff',
    borderStyleReactionHover: '1px solid #ddd',
    colorReactionCounter: '#0a0a0a',
    backgroundReactionMe: '#cfecf5',
    borderStyleReactionMe: '1px solid #3b98b8',
    backgroundReactionHoverMe: '#cfecf5',
    borderStyleReactionHoverMe: '1px solid #3b98b8',
    colorReactionCounterMe: '#0b59b3'
  },

  room: {
    colorUsername: '#0a0a0a',
    colorMessage: '#67717a',
    colorTimestamp: '#a2aeb8',
    colorNewDot: '#1976d2'
  },

  emoji: {
    background: '#fff'
  },

  icons: {
    search: '#9ca6af',
    add: '#1976d2',
    toggle: '#0a0a0a',
    menu: '#0a0a0a',
    close: '#9ca6af',
    closeImage: '#fff',
    file: '#1976d2',
    paperclip: '#1976d2',
    closeOutline: '#000',
    send: '#1976d2',
    sendDisabled: '#9ca6af',
    emoji: '#1976d2',
    emojiReaction: '#828c94',
    document: '#1976d2',
    pencil: '#9e9e9e',
    checkmark: '#0696c7',
    eye: '#fff',
    dropdown: '#fff',
    dropdownScroll: '#0a0a0a'
  }
}"

Props data structure

Your props must follow a specific structure to display rooms and messages correctly:

Rooms prop

rooms="[
  {
    roomId: 1,
    roomName: 'Room 1',
    lastMessage: {
      content: 'Last message received',
      sender_id: 1234,
      username: 'John Doe',
      timestamp: '10:20',
      seen: false,
      new: true
    },
    users: [
      {
        _id: 1234,
        username: 'John Doe'
      },
      {
        _id: 4321,
        username: 'John Snow'
      }
    ]
  }
]"

Messages prop

Message objects are rendered differently depending on their type. Currently, only text, emoji and file types are supported.
Each message object has a sender_id field which holds the id of the corresponding agent. If sender_id matches the currentUserId prop, specific UI and actions will be implemented

messages="[
  {
    content: 'message 1',
    sender_id: 1234,
    username: 'John Doe',
    date: '13 November',
    timestamp: '10:20',
    seen: true,
    file: {
      name: 'My File',
      size: 67351,
      type: 'png',
      url: 'https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/...'
    },
    reactions: {
      wink: [
        1234, // USER_ID
        4321
      ],
      laughing: [
        1234
      ]
    }
  }
]"

Events API

Event	Params	Fires when
fetchMessages (1)	{ room, options }	A user has scrolled on top to load more messages
sendMessage	{ roomId, content, file (4), replyMessage (5) }	A user has sent a message
editMessage	{ roomId, messageId, newContent, file (4), replyMessage (5) }	A user has edited a message
deleteMessage	{ roomId, messageId }	A user has deleted a message
openFile	{ message }	A user has clicked to view or download a file
addRoom	-	A user clicks on the plus icon next to searchbar
menuActionHandler (2)	{ roomId, action }	A user clicks on the vertical dots icon inside a room
messageActionHandler (3)	{ roomId, action }	A user clicks on the dropdown icon inside a message
sendMessageReaction	{ roomId, messageId, reaction, remove }	A user clicks on the emoji icon inside a message

(1) fetchMessages should be a method implementing a pagination system. Its purpose is to load older messages of a conversation when the user scroll on top

(2) menuActionHandler is the result of the menuActions prop.
When clicking a button from your menuActions array, menuActionHandler will give you the name of the button that was click. Then you can do whatever you want with it. Ex:

menuActionHandler({ roomId, action }) {
  switch (action.name) {
    case 'inviteUser':
      // call a method to invite a user to the room
    case 'removeUser':
      // call a method to remove a user from the room
    case 'deleteRoom':
      // call a method to delete the room
  }
}

(3) messageActionHandler is the result of the messageActions prop.
When clicking a button from your messageActions array, messageActionHandler will give you the name of the button that was click. Then you can do whatever you want with it. Ex:

messageActionHandler({ roomId, action }) {
  switch (action.name) {
    case 'addMessageToFavorite':
      // call a method to add a message to the favorite list
    case 'shareMessage':
      // call a method to share the message with another user
  }
}

(4) All file params contain: { blob, localURL, name, size, type }

(5) replyMessage object is available when the user replied to another message by clicking the corresponding icon, and contains the message information that was clicked

Using with Firestore

Source code

You can find the source code to implement a full featured chat app using Firebase/Firestore inside the demo folder.
To test it using your own Firebase project:

• Clone this repository: git clone https://github.com/antoine92190/vue-advanced-chat.git
• Inside demo/src/firestore/index.js file, replace the line const config = ... by your own Firebase config
• Go inside demo folder and run npm run serve

Data structure

If you decide to use the same code as in the demo folder to create your chat app, you need to have a specific Firestore data structure.
To help you get started, I added in demo/src/App.vue a method addData to initialize some data on your Firestore database.

Users collection

users: {
  USER_ID_1: {
    _id: 1,
    username: 'User 1'
  },
  USER_ID_2: {
    _id: 2,
    username: 'User 2'
  },
  USER_ID_3: {
    _id: 3,
    username: 'User 2'
  }
}

Rooms collection

chatRooms: {
  ROOM_ID_1: {
    users: [1, 3]
  },
  ROOM_ID_2: {
    users: [1, 2, 3]
  }
}

Messages collection inside a room document

messages: {
  MESSAGE_ID_1: {
    content: 'My first message',
    sender_id: 2,
    timestamp: 'December 11, 2019 at 4:00:00 PM',
    seen: true
  }
}

License

This project is licensed under MIT License