React Native Gifted Fire Chat

React Native Gifted chat is an abstraction over React Native Gifted Chat and React Native Firebase. It provides a simpler API to integrate a chat component into a React Native app, using Firebase Realtime Database to store the chat data.

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Motivations and Aims

The idea behind this package was to simplify the process of integrating a chat component in a React Native app. While working on a personal project, I had trouble finding any documentation or resources to do this. So, I decided to create a module myself and share it so that anyone else who might face the same problem as I did, might stumble upon this package.

IMPORTANT NOTES

• If you are using [email protected], then use version 1.2.4. Else, use version >= 2.0.0

• This module supports only Android right now. It has not been tested on iOS. Using this module on iOS may result in unexpected behaviour.

• Module will not work without an internet connection(obviously). So remember to check for internet connection. Check Tips section

Installation

1. Initialize a react native app using react-native-cli if you dont have one already. Use react-native version 0.60.x

2. Install Gifted Chat UI yarn add react-native-gifted-chat or npm install --save react-native-gifted-chat

3. Follow all the instructions here to integrate firebase credentials into your app. Don't build the project yet.

4. Add the core module to your project. yarn add @react-native-firebase/app or npm install --save @react-native-firebase/app

5. Add realtime database dependency to your app yarn add @react-native-firebase/database or npm install --save @react-native-firebase/database.

6. Build your project by running react-native run-android

After completing the installation, you are ready to use this package.

Usage

import GiftedFireChat from 'react-native-gifted-fire-chat';

render() {
    return(
		<GiftedFireChat
			senderPhoneNumber='+11234567890'
			receiverPhoneNumber='+10987654321'
		/>
	)
}

• Required Props:

  • senderPhoneNumber: (string) The current user's phone number along with the country code. Eg: If you are providing a phone number from India, then it should be given as "+911234567890".
  • receiverPhoneNumber: (string) The phone number of the other user. It should be provided in a similar format as the sender's number.

• Optional Props

  • userId(String): A custom id passed to denote the sender's identity. Make sure that it is unique for each user. Default is the sender's phone number passed in senderPhoneNumber prop.
  • userAvatar (String): A url for the user image. It can be a local or a network image
  • userName (String): Name of the user to enter into the message object
  • All other react-native-gifted-chat props. View documentation here. Quick replies and system messages are not yet supported.

Tips

1. Use react-native-gifted-chat props here to customize the UI to suit your app. You can change almost everything to suit your needs.
2. To insert a header into your view, it is recommended to use Header from react-native-elements. View the documentation.
3. Use a navigation library such as react-navigation or react-native-router-flux to move from one screen to another. You can also user the header provided by these libraries if you wish so. View react-navigation. View react-native-router-flux.
4. Use @react-native-community/netinfo to check for internet connectivity. View here.

Future Works

I plan to add support for sending images and videos using Firebase Storage, support for location sharing. If you want to contribute, ping me and I will add you as a collaborator.