User attributes
Updated
Shows how to use the Agora Chat SDK to implement managing user attributes.
After joining a Chat channel, a user can update information such as the nickname, avatar, age, and mobile phone number as needed. These are known as user attributes.
This page shows how to use the Chat SDK to implement managing user attributes.
User attributes are stored on the Chat server. If you have security concerns, Agora recommends that you manage user attributes yourself.To ensure information security, app users can only modify their own user attributes. Only app admins can modify the user attributes of other users.
Understand the tech
The Chat SDK uses UserInfoManager to retrieve, set, and modify user attributes. The following are the core methods:
updateOwnUserInfo: Set or update user attributes.fetchUserInfoById: Retrieve the user attributes of the specified user.
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.
- Have a thorough understanding of the API call frequency limit, the maximum size of all the attributes of a specified user, and the maximum size of all user attributes in an app. For details, see Known limitations.
Implementation
This section shows how to manage user attributes and contacts with the methods provided by the Chat SDK.
Set user attributes
Chat users can set and update their own attributes. Refer to the code example to set all the user attributes:
// Sets the user attributes.
AgoraChatUserInfo *userInfo = [[AgoraChatUserInfo alloc] init];
userInfo.userId = AgoraChatClient.sharedClient.currentUsername;
userInfo.nickName = @"agora";
userInfo.avatarUrl = @"http://www.agora.io";
userInfo.birth = @"2000.10.10";
userInfo.sign = @"hello world";
userInfo.phone = @"12333333333";
userInfo.mail = @"123456@qq.com";
userInfo.gender = 1;
[AgoraChatClient.sharedClient.userInfoManager updateOwnUserInfo:userInfo completion:^(AgoraChatUserInfo *aUserInfo, AgoraChatError *aError)
}];The following sample code uses avatar as an example to show how to set the specified user attribute:
NSString *url = @"https://download-sdk.oss-cn-beijing.aliyuncs.com/downloads/IMDemo/avatar/Image1.png";
[[AgoraChatClient sharedClient].userInfoManager updateOwnUserInfo:url withType:AgoraChatUserInfoTypeAvatarURL completion:^(AgoraChatUserInfo *aUserInfo, AgoraChatError *aError) {
if (aUserInfo && completion) {
completion(aUserInfo);
}
}];Keys listed in the following table are used by default when user attributes are set on the client side, including the nickname, avatar URL, contact information, email address, gender, signature, birthday and extension fields. When you call the RESTful API to set or delete these user attributes, you must pass in the following keys to make sure that the client can obtain the settings from the server:
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
nickname | String | The user nickname, which can contain at most 64 characters. |
avatarurl | String | The user avatar URL, which can contain at most 256 characters. |
phone | String | The user's phone number, which can contain at most 32 characters. |
mail | String | The user's email address, which can contain at most 64 characters. |
gender | Number | The user gender: 1:Male; 2:Female;(Default) 0: Unknown;Other values are invalid. |
sign | String | The user's signature, which can contain at most 256 characters. |
birth | String | The user's birthday, which can contain at most 256 characters. |
ext | String | The extension fields. |
Retrieve user attributes
You can use fetchUserInfoById to retrieve the user attributes of the specified users. For each method call, you can retrieve the user attributes of a maximum of 100 users.
Refer to the following code example to retrieve all the attributes of the specified user:
[[AgoraChatClient sharedClient].userInfoManager fetchUserInfoById:@[AgoraChatClient.sharedClient.currentUsername] completion:^(NSDictionary *aUserDatas, AgoraChatError *aError) {
}];The following sample code shows how to retrieve the specified attributes of the user.
NSString *userIds = @[@"user1",@"user2"];
NSArray *userInfoTypes = @[@(AgoraChatUserInfoTypeAvatarURL),@(AgoraChatUserInfoTypePhone),@(AgoraChatUserInfoTypeMail)];
[[AgoraChatClient sharedClient].userInfoManager fetchUserInfoById:userIds type:userInfoTypes completion:^(NSDictionary *aUserDatas, AgoraChatError *aError) {
}];Next steps
This section introduces extra functions you can implement in your app using user attributes and contact management.
Manage user avatar
The Chat SDK only supports storing the URL address of the avatar file rather than the file itself. To manage user avatars, you need to use a third-party file storage service.
To implement user avatar management in your app, take the following steps:
- Upload the avatar file to the third-party file storage service. Once the file is successfully uploaded, you get a URL address of the avatar file.
- Set the
avatarUrlparameter in user attributes as the URL address of the avatar file. - To display the avatar, call
fetchUserInfoByIdto retrieve the URL of the avatar file, and then render the image on the local UI.
Create and send a namecard using user attributes
Namecard messages are custom messages that include the user ID, nickname, avatar, email address, and phone number of the specified user. To create and send a namecard, take the following steps:
- Create a custom message and set the
eventof the custom message asuserCard. - Add
userId,nickname, andavataras fileds inext. Send the custom message.
The following is sample code for creating and sending a namecard message:
AgoraChatCustomMessageBody *body = [[AgoraChatCustomMessageBody alloc] init];
body.event = @"userCard";
NSDictionary *messageExt = @{@"userId":AgoraChatClient.sharedClient.currentUsername,
@"nickname":@"nickname",
@"avatar":@"https://download-sdk.oss-cn-beijing.aliyuncs.com/downloads/IMDemo/avatar/Image1.png"
};
body.ext = messageExt;
AgoraChatMessage *message = [[AgoraChatMessage alloc] initWithConversationID:@"conversationID"
from:@"sender"
to:@"receiver"
body:body
ext:nil];
// send message
[[AgoraChatClient sharedClient].chatManager sendMessage:message progress:nil completion:^(AgoraChatMessage *message, AgoraChatError *error) {
}];