Introduction

This documentation shows you how to embed a mobile chat widget in an Android application.

Installation

To get the project into your build, do the following:

1. Add the JitPack repository

See the repository at JitPack >

Add it to your root build.gradle at the end of repositories:

allprojects {
     repositories {
         ...
         maven { url 'https://jitpack.io' }
     }
 }

2. Add the dependency

To add the dependency, use the following code:

dependencies {
    implementation 'com.github.livechat:chat-window-android:v2.4.3'
}

Your application will need a permission to use the Internet. Add the following line to your AndroidManifest.xml:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />

Setup

You can use this library in a couple of ways. To be able to use all features, we recommend you to add the chat widget as a view, either by using a static method which adds the view to your Activity, or as an embedded view in your xml.

When ChatWindowView is initialized, you will get the events when a new message arrives.

First, let's configure the chat widget.

Configuration

The configuration is very simple - just use ChatWindowConfiguration.java constructor. Note that the licence number is mandatory.

configuration = new ChatWindowConfiguration(
  "your_licence_number",
    "group_id",         // optional
    "Visitor name",     // optional
    "visitor@email.com",// optional
    customParamsMap     // optional
);

You could also use new ChatWindowConfiguration.Builder().

Chat Window View

There are two recommended ways to use the ChatWindow:

• Full screen ChatWindow added to the root of your Activity
• XML embedded ChatWindow to control the location and size

Full Screen Window

All you need to do is to create, attach and initialize the chat widget. For example:

public void startFullScreenChat() {
    if (fullScreenChatWindow == null) {
        fullScreenChatWindow = ChatWindowUtils.createAndAttachChatWindowInstance(getActivity());
        fullScreenChatWindow.setConfiguration(configuration);
        fullScreenChatWindow.setEventsListener(this);
        fullScreenChatWindow.initialize();
    }
    fullScreenChatWindow.showChatWindow();
}

XML Embedded View

If you want to control the location and size of the ChatWindowView, you may want to add it to your app either by including a view in XML:

<com.livechatinc.inappchat.ChatWindowViewImpl
    android:id="@+id/embedded_chat_window"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="400dp"/>

or by inflating the view directly:

ChatWindowViewImpl chatWindowView = new ChatWindowViewImpl(MainActivity.this);

and then initializing the ChatWindow with the full screen window approach:

public void startEmmbeddedChat(View view) {
    if (!emmbeddedChatWindow.isInitialized()) {
        emmbeddedChatWindow.setConfiguration(configuration);
        emmbeddedChatWindow.setEventsListener(this);
        emmbeddedChatWindow.initialize();
    }
    emmbeddedChatWindow.showChatWindow();
}

Navigation

Depending on your use case you may want to hide the ChatWindow if a user hits the back button. You can use our onBackPressed() function which hides the view if it's visible and returns true. Add the following to your activity/fragment:

@Override
public boolean onBackPressed() {
    return fullScreenChatWindow != null && fullScreenChatWindow.onBackPressed();
}

ChatWindowEventsListener

The ChatWindowEventsListener listener allows you to:

• handle a case when a user wants to attach a file in the ChatWindow
• get notified if a new message has arrived in a chat (this comes in handy if you want to show a prompt for a user to read the new message)
• react to visibility changes (the users can hide the view on their own)
• handle user-selected links in a custom way
• react to and handle errors coming from the chat widget
• allow users to use SnapCall integration

File sharing

To provide your users with the option to send files, you need to set ChatWindowEventsListener on your ChatWindowView.

Your listener should override the onStartFilePickerActivity method and call startActivityForResult with intent and requestCode.

@Override
public void onStartFilePickerActivity(Intent intent, int requestCode) {
    startActivityForResult(intent, requestCode);
}

Then, enable the view to handle the activity result, for example, in the following way:

@Override
public void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
    if (fullChatWindow != null) fullChatWindow.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
    super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
}

Handling URLs

You can disable chat widget's default behavior when a user selects a link by implementing the handleUri method from ChatWindowEventsListener.

@Override
public boolean handleUri(Uri uri) {
    // Handle uri here...
    return true; // Return true to disable default behavior.
}

Error handling

You might want to customize the user experience when encountering errors, such as problems with internet connection. By returning true in the onError callback method, you're taking responsibility for handling errors coming from the chat widget.

Please keep in mind that the chat widget, once it's loaded, can handle connection issues by sporadically trying to reconnect. This case can be detected by implementing the following condition in the onError callback method:

@Override
public boolean onError(ChatWindowErrorType errorType, int errorCode, String errorDescription) {
    if (errorType == ChatWindowErrorType.WebViewClient && errorCode == -2 && chatWindow.isChatLoaded()) {
        //Chat window can handle reconnection. You might want to delegate this to chat window
        return false;
    } else {
        reloadChatBtn.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
    }
    Toast.makeText(getActivity(), errorDescription, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    return true;
}

Clear chat session

After your user signs out of the app, you might want to clear the chat session. You can do that by invoking a static method on ChatWindowUtils.clearSession() from anywhere in the app.

In case your ChatWindowView is attached during the logout flow, you will also need to reload it by calling chatWindow.reload() after the clearSession code. See FullScreenWindowActivityExample.java.

Sample application

This sample app will display a chat trigger button. Once clicked, a chat widget with your support team will be opened in the app.

You can refer to our sample app in the module. There are examples for three usage cases:

• Full screen chat widget launched inside of an Activity
• Embedded chat widget launched from a Fragment
• Starting ChatWindowActivity (with limited capabilities)

Possible use-cases include: adding a chat button to your “Contact us” screen or displaying a chat button all the time within the app. Read more about providing in-app support in mobile applications.

Sample usage

There are two ways to open the chat widget – by using an Activity or a Fragment.

Activity

In order to open a chat widget in a new Activity, you need to declare ChatWindowActivity in your manifest. Add the following line to AndroidManifest.xml, between <application></application> tags:

<activity 
    android:name="com.livechatinc.inappchat.ChatWindowActivity" 
    android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize" 
    android:exported="false" 
/>

Finally, add the following code to your application, in the place where you want to open the chat widget (e.g. button listener). You need to provide a Context (your Activity or Application object) and your LiveChat license number:

Intent intent = new Intent(context, com.livechatinc.inappchat.ChatWindowActivity.class);
Bundle config = new ChatWindowConfiguration.Builder()
.setLicenceNumber("<your_license_number>")
    .build()
intent.putExtra(ChatWindowConfiguration.KEY_CHAT_WINDOW_CONFIG, windowConfig);
startActivity(intent);

It’s also possibile to automatically log in to chat window by providing visitor’s name and email and disabling pre-chat survey.

Fragment

In order to open chat widget in a new Fragment, you need to add the following code to your application, in the place where you want to open the chat widget (e.g. button listener). You also need to provide your LiveChat licence number:

getSupportFragmentManager()
   .beginTransaction()
   .replace(
        R.id.frame_layout, 
        ChatWindowFragment.newInstance(
            "your_license_number", 
            "your_group_id", // optional
            "visitor_name", // optional
            "visitor_email",// optional     
        ), 
        "chat_fragment"
    )
   .addToBackStack("chat_fragment")
   .commit();

It’s also possible to automatically log in to chat window by providing visitor’s name and email to the Fragment and disabling pre-chat survey.

Alternative usage

Note: This option has limited capabilities.

If you don't need to be notified when user gets new message in a hidden ChatWindow, you might want to use ChatWindowActivity or ChatWindowFragment.

Localization

You can change or localize error messages by defining your own string resources with the following ids:

<string name="failed_to_load_chat">Couldn\'t load chat.</string>
<string name="cant_share_files">File sharing is not configured for this app</string>
<string name="reload_chat">Reload</string>

Migrating to version >= 2.2.0

• ChatWindowView is now interface that can be casted to View
• setUpWindow(configuration); is replaced by setConfiguration(configuration);
• setUpListener(listener) is replaced by setEventsListener(listener)
• ChatWindowView.clearSession() is moved to ChatWindowUtils.clearSession(Context)
• ChatWindowView.createAndAttachChatWindowInstance(Activity) is moved to ChatWindowUtils.createAndAttachChatWindowInstance(getActivity())

Migrating to versions >=2.3.x

• You no longer need to specify android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission in your AndroidManifest.xml

SnapCall integration

The SnapCall integration requires AUDIO and VIDEO permissions. In order to allow your users to use the SnapCall integration, you need to:

1. Set up your ChatWindowView Event listener, check ChatWindowEventsListener.
2. Add following permissions to you app AndroidManifest.xml file

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.MODIFY_AUDIO_SETTINGS" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />

3. Override void onRequestAudioPermissions(String[] permissions, int requestCode) to ask the user for permissions, as in the example below:

@Override
public void onRequestAudioPermissions(String[] permissions, int requestCode) {
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M) {
        this.requestPermissions(permissions, requestCode);
    }
}

4. Override your activity void onRequestPermissionsResult(int requestCode,@NonNull String[] permissions, @NonNull int[] grantResults) to pass result to ChatWindowView

if (!chatWindow.onRequestPermissionsResult(requestCode, permissions, grantResults)) {
    super.onRequestPermissionsResult(requestCode, permissions, grantResults);
}

For reference, check FullScreenWindowActivityExample.java

Translation

You can change or translate error messages by defining your own string resources with the following IDs:

<string name="failed_to_load_chat">Couldn\'t load chat.</string>
<string name="cant_share_files">File sharing is not configured for this app</string>