If you’re curious about how to create a simple web-based chat application in Java for your users, but aren’t sure where to start, this is the article for you.
In this tutorial , will guide you through the entire process of creating a web chat application in simple steps. Throughout this guide, I’ll be using a plain text editor to create our web app and add the chat features using the MirrorFly Chat SDKs. In addition,
I have recommended compatible versions of web browsers that will be able to operate our build chat application.
Recommended browser versions
- Edge 13 or higher
- Chrome 16 or higher
- Firefox 11 or higher
- Safari 7 or higher above
Later on, you will learn:
How to Create a Web-Based Chat Application (Easy Steps)
- Download the Chat SDKs
- Add chat features to the app
- Connect Chat SDKs to the server
- Send and receive messages through your own web chat app
Sound good? Let’s get started!
1. SDK Authentication
The first step in building a web chat application with third-party APIs is to ensure that the server can authenticate the SDKs.
For this authentication to take place , we need a license key that helps the MirrorFly server know that your application can be trusted to integrate the SDKs.
Let’s get the license key by performing the following steps:
- Go to the MirrorFly console page: https://console.mirrorfly.com/register
- On this page, we will need to create a MirrorFly account by registering as a user.
- We will need to fill in the required details like name, contact details and organization details and click on the Sign up button to complete the registration process
- Now, you will be redirected to the page of our MirrorFly account, where we will find the summary page of our profile.
- In the section ‘Information of the application’, we can find the ‘License Key’ needed for the integration process
2. SDK integration
Once we have acquired the license key, we will enter the SDK integration process.
For SDK integration, download the Javascript SDK in the section Download SDK from MirrorFly account.
Next, we’ll need to extract the files and import the SDK files into your development environment.
After importing the SDK files, include the script file in your index. html
Chat SDK integration using React
- If you are looking to add chat features using React, follow the steps below:
- Include the script file in your index.html< /li
- In the root from the project, create a new SDK.js file and continue pasting the following code
const SDK = window .SDK; export default SDK;
- Next, we’ll need to import the SDK into the app
import SDK from “./SDK”;
Chat SDK integration using React Native
If you plan to integrate the Chat SDK using React Native, you must ensure that the specific version pair dependencies mentioned below are installed
- react-native: any version
- react-native-get-random-values: must use a version equal to or older than version 1.7.1
- @react-native-async-storage/async-storage: any version
- Now, extract all the files from the dist folder and copy them
- Inside our project, create a new folder and paste all the files
- Next, export the SDK objects by creating an SDK.js file
Finally, import the SDKs using the following code:
import ‘./index’; const SDK = window.SDK; export the default SDK;
Integrating the Chat SDK using Angular
- Extract the SDK files from the downloaded folder
- Copy them and paste them into a new folder created inside the Project root folder.
- Open your angular.json
- Navigate to compile > options > scripts
- Add the paths relative file names of the downloaded JS files in the script array
- In the root component, add the following code (in ngOnInit of the root component)
declare var SDK: any ;
- Finally, start the initialization of the angular SDK
3. Initializing the Chat SDKs
- When there are changes in the connection state of the client application, a certain data set must respond to carry out the initialization process
- In the license key parameter, paste the license key purchased from the MirrorFly account.
- To pass the data, use the following method:
const initializeObj = { apiBaseUrl: `API_URL`, licenseKey: `LICENSE_KEY`, isTrialLicenseKey: `TRIAL_MODE`, callbackListeners: { }, }; expect SDK.initializeSDK(initializeObj);
Sandbox Details
function connectionListener(response) { if (response.status === “CONNECTED”) { console.log(“Connection established”); } else if (response.status === “OFFLINE”) { console.log(“Offline”); } } const initializeObj = { apiBaseUrl: “https://api-preprod-sandbox.mirrorfly.com/api/v1”, licenseKey: “XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX”, isTrialLicenseKey: true, callbackListeners: { connectionListener }, }; expect SDK.initializeSDK(initializeObj);
Sample response
{ “statusCode”: 200, “message”: “Success” }
To send or receive messages through the app, we need to connect a user to the server. Get a username and password and proceed with the next method:
4. User registration
awaits SDK.register(`USER_IDENTIFIER`);
Sample response:
{ status code: 200, message: “Success”, data: { username: ” 123456789″, password: “987654321” } }
Connect the SDK to the MirrorFly server
Make use of the credentials acquired during the user registration process above
When the connection is successful, a response message will appear: status code 200. Otherwise, an execution error message will appear
await SDK.connect(`USERNAME`, `PASSWORD`) ;
5. Send a message from your web chat application
Use the following method to send a message to another user through our chat application
wait SDK.sendTextMessage(`TO_USER_JID` , `MESSAGE_BODY`) ;
6. Receive messages from your web chat application
Implement the messageListener function that will fire whenever a new message is received in our web application. To execute receiving messages, we need to call the following method
function messageListener(response) { console.log(“Message Listener”, response); }
Conclusion
If you’ve made it to the end of this article, I must appreciate your perseverance in learning how to build a web chat application. We have come across the complete process of adding chat features to a web application that can work on all supported browsers. In fact, this will create a rich interaction experience for your users and multiply the conversion rate of your brand.
As exciting as it was to write this article, I hope you also had a great time learning about it. All the details. on how to create a simple web-based chat application project. Since we’ve only covered the basic communication features in this article, I urge you to check out other cool features here.
I’m looking forward to hearing from you soon with some other great information. Until then, I wish you the best!
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