MessagesTableViewController

A messages UI for iPhone and iPad.

   

This messages tableview controller is very similar to the one in the iOS Messages app. Note, this is only a messaging UI, not a messaging app. This is intended to be used in an existing app where you have (or are developing) a messaging system and need a user interface for it.

See more screenshots in the Screenshots/ directory. (Surprise!)

About

This is based on work by @soffes SSMessagingViewController. I took Soffes' code base and developed this to use in Hemoglobe for private messages between users. The features section lists the most notable improvements from SSMessagingViewController.

Features

• Up-to-date for iOS 6.0 and ARC
• Storyboards support (if that's how you roll)
• Universal for iPhone and iPad
• Allows arbitrary message (and bubble) sizes
• Timestamp options
• Swipe/pull down to hide keyboard
• Dynamically resizes input text view as you type
• Smooth hiding/showing keyboard animations with NSNotification
• Automatically enables/disables send button if text view is empty or not
• Smooth send animations
• Send/Receive sound effects
• Blue or green outgoing message bubble color

Installation

From CocoaPods

pod 'JSMessagesViewController'

From source

• Drag the JSMessagesTableViewController/ folder to your project.
• Add the AudioToolbox.framework to your project, if you want to use the sound effects
• Subclass JSMessagesViewController

How To Use

• Override the following methods:

  • - (JSBubbleMessageStyle)messageStyleForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath

    • The style of the bubble for this row, options are:
      • JSBubbleMessageStyleIncoming
      • JSBubbleMessageStyleOutgoing
      • JSBubbleMessageStyleOutgoingGreen

  • - (NSString *)textForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath

    • The text to be displayed for this row

  • - (NSDate *)timestampForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath

    • The timestamp to be displayed above this message bubble

  • - (void)sendPressed:(UIButton *)sender withText:(NSString *)text

    • Hook into your own backend here
    • Call [self finishSend] at the end of this method to animate and reset the text input view
    • Optionally play sound effects: [JSMessageSoundEffect playMessageSentSound] or [JSMessageSoundEffect playMessageReceivedSound]

  • - (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section

    • The API table view data source method that you should be familiar with

  • Set the timestampPolicy property in - (void)viewDidLoad, options are:

    • JSMessagesViewTimestampPolicyAll
    • JSMessagesViewTimestampPolicyAlternating
    • JSMessagesViewTimestampPolicyEveryThree
    • JSMessagesViewTimestampPolicyEveryFive
    • JSMessagesViewTimestampPolicyCustom

  • NOTE if using JSMessagesViewTimestampPolicyCustom YOU MUST OVERRIDE - (BOOL)shouldHaveTimestampForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath

    • See the default implementation of this method for details

• Call setBackgroundColor: to set table view background color

Notes

• Remember, you must subclass JSMessagesViewController
• You may present view programmatically, or use Storyboards
• Your JSMessagesViewController subclass must be presented in a UINavigationController

Demo projects included

• MessagesDemo.xcodeproj for example of programmatic presentation
• MessagesDemoStoryboards/MessagesDemoSB.xcodeproj for example of use with Storyboards

ToDo

• Landscape mode
• Allow text input view to resize up to navigation bar (instead of only 5 lines)
• Display "To: " search field for new messages
• Option for user avatar to display next to bubbles
• "Send" images or video

Related Projects

SSMessagingViewController

AcaniChat

License

You are free to use this as you please. No attribution necessary.

If you use this, please tell me about it!

MIT License Copyright © 2013 Jesse Squires

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.