Manage local conversations

Updated

Introduces how to use the Agora Chat SDK to implement managing local messages functionalities.

In chat apps, a conversation is composed of all the messages in a peer-to-peer chat, chat group, or chatroom. The Chat SDK supports managing messages by conversations, including retrieving and managing unread messages, deleting the historical messages on the local device, and searching historical messages.

This page introduces how to use the Chat SDK to implement these functionalities.

Understand the tech

SQLCipher is used to encrypt the database that stores local messages. The Chat SDK uses IChatManager and IConversationManager to manage local messages. The following are the core methods:

  • IChatManager.LoadAllConversations: Loads the conversation list on the local device.
  • IChatManage.DeleteConversation: Deletes the specified conversation.
  • Conversation#DeleteAllMessages:Deletes all messages sent and received in a local conversation.
  • Conversation#DeleteMessages: Deletes messages sent and received in a certain period in a local conversation.
  • IConversationManager.UnReadCount: Retrieves the count of unread messages in the specified conversation.
  • IChatManager.GetUnreadMessageCount: Retrieves the count of all unread messages.
  • IChatManager.PinConversation: Pins a conversation.
  • IChatManager.GetConversationsFromServerWithCursor: Retrieves conversations from the server.
  • IChatManager.DeleteConversationFromServer: Deletes the conversation from the server.
  • IChatManager.searchMsgFromDB: Searches for messages from the local database.
  • Conversation.insertMessage: Inserts messages in the specified conversation.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure that you meet the following requirements:

  • You have integrated the Chat SDK, initialized the SDK and implemented the functionality of registering accounts and login. For details, see Chat SDK quickstart.
  • You understand the API call frequency limits as described in Limitations.

Implementation

This section shows how to implement managing messages.

Retrieve conversations

Call LoadAllConversations to retrieve all the conversations on the local device:

Listlist = SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.LoadAllConversations();

Retrieve messages in the specified conversation

Refer to the following code sample to retrieve the messages in the specified conversation:

// Get the specified conversation on the local device.
Conversation conv = SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.GetConversation(conversationId, convType);
// Call LoadMessages to retrieve messages by specifying the `startMsgId` and `pageSize`.
conv.LoadMessages(startMsgId, pagesize, callback:new ValueCallBack>(
  onSuccess: (list) => {
     Debug.Log($"{list.Count} Messages retrieved.");
  },
  onError:(code, desc) => {
     Debug.Log($"Fails to retrieve the message, errCode={code}, errDesc={desc}");
  }
));

Retrieve the count of unread messages in the specified conversation

Refer to the following code example to retrieve the count of unread messages:

Conversation conv = SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.GetConversation(conversationId, convType);
int unread = conv.UnReadCount;

Retrieve the count of unread messages in all conversations

Refer to the following code example to retrieve the count of all unread messages:

SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.GetUnreadMessageCount();

Mark unread messages as read

Refer to the following code example to mark the specified messages as read:

Conversation conv = SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.GetConversation(conversationId, convType);
// Mark all the messages in the current conversation as read.
conv.MarkAllMessageAsRead();
// Mark the specified message as read.
conv.MarkMessageAsRead(msgId);
// Mark all unread messages as read.
SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.MarkAllConversationsAsRead();

Clear chat history

To clear the current user's chat history, including messages and conversations in individual chats, group chats, and chat rooms, you can call the DeleteAllMessagesAndConversations method. Additionally, you can choose whether to clear the chat history on the server. Note that clearing the chat history on the server means that you will not be able to retrieve conversations and messages from the server, although other users will not be affected.

bool clearServerData = false; // or true
SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.DeleteAllMessagesAndConversations(clearServerData, new CallBack(
    onSuccess: () =>
    {
    },
    onError: (code, desc) =>
    {
    }
));

Delete conversations and historical messages

You can delete conversations on both the local device and the server.

To delete them on the local device, call DeleteConversation and DeleteMessage:

// Call DeleteConversation to delete the specified conversation.
// `true` indicates to keep the historical messages while deleting the conversation. To remove the historical messages as well, set it as `false`.
SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.DeleteConversation(conversationId, true);
// Delete the specified message in the current conversaiton.
Conversation conv = SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.GetConversation(conversationId, convType);
conv.DeleteMessage(msgId);

To delete conversations on the server, call DeleteConversationFromServer:

// Delete a conversation on the server. If you want to keep the historical messages, pass “false” to the third parameter.
SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.DeleteConversationFromServer(conversationId, type, true, new CallBack(
    onSuccess: () => {
    },
    onError: (code, desc) => {
    }
));

Delete all messages in a local conversation

You can call DeleteAllMessages to delete all messages sent and received in a local conversation:

// conversationId: The conversation ID, which is the user ID of the peer user in one-to-one chat, group ID in group chat, and chat room ID in room chat.
// conversationType: The conversation type, which is `Chat` for one-to-one chat, `Group` for group chat, and `Room` for room chat.
Conversation conv = SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.GetConversation(conversionId, conversationType);

if (conv.DeleteAllMessages()){
    //Succeeded in deleting messages
}
else{
    //Failed to delete messages
}

Delete messages in a local conversation by time period

You can call DeleteMessages to delete messages sent and received in a certain period in a local conversation.

// conversationId: The conversation ID, which is the user ID of the peer user in one-to-one chat, group ID in group chat, and chat room ID in room chat.
// conversationType: The conversation type, which is `Chat` for one-to-one chat, `Group` for group chat, and `Room` for room chat.
Conversation conv = SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.GetConversation(conversionId, conversationType);

if (conv.DeleteMessages(startTime, endTime)) {
    //Succeeded in deleting messages
}
else {
    //Failed to delete messages
}

Search for messages using keywords

Search methods provided on this page can be used to search the local database for all types of messages except command messages, because command messages are not stored in the local database.

Call SearchMsgFromDB to search for messages by keywords, timestamp, and message sender:

List list = SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.SearchMsgFromDB(keywords, timeStamp, maxCount, from, MessageSearchDirection.UP);

Search for messages in all conversations based on search scope

You can call the ChatManager#SearchMsgFromDB(string, long, in, string, MessageSearchDirection, MessageSearchScope, ValueCallBack>) method to search in all conversations based on the search scope. This means that, in addition to setting the keywords, message timestamps, number of messages, sender, and search direction, you can also choose to search only in the message content, only in the message extension information, or in both.

SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.SearchMsgFromDB("keywords", -1, 10, "from", MessageSearchDirection.UP, MessageSearchScope.CONTENT, new ValueCallBack>(
  onSuccess: (list) => {
      foreach (var it in list)
      {
          //Iterate over the List list
      }
  },
  onError: (code, desc) => {
}));

Search for messages in the current conversation based on search scope

You can call Conversation#LoadMessagesWithScope(string, MessageSearchScope, long, int, string, MessageSearchDirection, ValueCallBack>) method to search for messages in the current conversation based on the search scope. This means that, in addition to setting keywords, message timestamps, number of messages, sender, direction, and other parameters, you can also choose to search only in the message content, only in the message extension information, or in both.

conv.LoadMessagesWithScope("keywords", MessageSearchScope.CONTENT, -1, 10, "from", MessageSearchDirection.UP, new ValueCallBack>(
    onSuccess: (list) => {
        foreach (var it in list)
        {
            //Iterate over the List list
        }
    },
    onError: (code, desc) => {
    }
));

Import messages

Call ImportMessages to import multiple messages to the specified conversation.

SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.ImportMessages(messages, new CallBack(
  onSuccess: () => {
  },
  onError: (code, desc) =>
  {
  }
));

Insert messages

If you want to insert a message to the current conversation without actually sending the message, construct the message body and call InsertMessage. This can be used to send notification messages such as "XXX recalls a message", "XXX joins the chat group", and "Typing ...".

// Insert the message to the current conversation.
Conversation conv = SDKClient.Instance.ChatManager.GetConversation(conversationId, convType);
conv.InsertMessage(message);

Next steps

After implementing managing messages, you can refer to the following documents to add more messaging functionalities to your app: