Collaborative Document

Learn how to collaborate using a document.

Extension settings

1. Login to CometChat and select your app.
2. Go to the Extensions section and enable the Collaborative Document extension.

How does it work?

Initiating the session

Using the Collaborative Document extension is pretty straight-forward. As an initiator, you only have to create a session. The extension will handle the following for you:

1. Provide you with a link for collaboration.
2. Forward the link as an invitation to the receivers.

You can initiate the session in either one-on-one chat or a group chat. The session can be shared by simply submitting the receiver (uid/guid) and receiverType (user/group).

This extension uses the callExtension method provided by our SDKs.

Javascript

CometChat.callExtension("document", "POST", "v1/create", { 
	"receiver": "UID/GUID",
	"receiverType": "user/group"
}).then(response => {
	// Response with document url
}).catch(error => {
	// Some error occured
});

Java

import org.json.simple.JSONObject;

JSONObject body=new JSONObject();
body.put("receiverType", "user/group");
body.put("receiver", "uid/guid");

CometChat.callExtension("document", "POST", "/v1/create", body,
	new CometChat.CallbackListener<JSONObject>() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess(JSONObject responseObject) {
        // The document link to join as an initiator.
    }

    @Override
    public void onError(CometChatException e) {
      	// Some error occured.
    }
});

Swift

CometChat.callExtension(slug: "document", type: .post, endPoint: "v1/create",
body: ["receiverType":"user/group", "receiver":"uid/guid"], onSuccess: { (response) in
        // Success response
      }) { (error) in
        // Some error occured
      }

Receiving the details

As an initiator

You will be receiving the document_url of the session in the success callback of the callExtension method as shown in the above code sample.

As a collaborator

The receiver (can be a user or group) will get a message with the following properties:

1. category: custom
2. type: extension_document

You have to implement the Custom message listener to get the message. Please check out our Receive Messages documentation under the SDK of your choice.

By default, the unread count is not incremented for Custom Messages.

Hence, the metadatacontains incrementUnreadCount with value as true. Use this for incrementing the unread count every time a Collaborative Document's custom message is received.

Document metadata

The metadata section will have the details about the document_url.

JSON

"metadata": {
  	"incrementUnreadCount": true,
  	"@injected": {
      "extensions": {
        "document": {
          "document_url": "https://document.cometchat.io/p/uniqdocid"
        }
      }
    }
}

You can make use of the getMetadata() method for extracting the details. Refer the code samples below:

Javascript

if (metadata != null) {
  var injectedObject = metadata["@injected"];
  if (injectedObject != null && injectedObject.hasOwnProperty("extensions")) {
    var extensionsObject = injectedObject["extensions"];
    if (
      extensionsObject != null &&
      extensionsObject.hasOwnProperty("document")
    ) {
      var documentExtension = extensionsObject["document"];
      var document_url = documentExtension["document_url"];
    }
  }
}

Java

JSONObject metadata = message.getMetadata();
if (metadata != null) {
  JSONObject injectedObject = metadata.getJSONObject("@injected");
  if (injectedObject != null && injectedObject.has("extensions")) {
    JSONObject extensionsObject = injectedObject.getJSONObject("extensions");
    if (extensionsObject != null && extensionsObject.has("document"))
        {
          JSONObject documentObj = extensionsObject.getJSONObject("document");
          String board_url = documentObj.getString("document_url");
        }
    }
}

Kotlin

if (metadata != null) {
  if (metadata.has("@injected")) {
   val injectedJSONObject = metadata.getJSONObject("@injected")
   if (injectedJSONObject != null && injectedJSONObject.has("extensions")) {
   val extensionsObject = injectedJSONObject.getJSONObject("extensions")

   if (extensionsObject != null && extensionsObject.has("document")) {
   val documentObj = extensionsObject.getJSONObject("document")
   val document_url = documentObj.getString("document_url")
         }     
       }
     }
   }

Swift

let textMessage = message as? TextMessage
var metadata : [String : Any]? = textMessage.metaData
if metadata != nil {

    var injectedObject : [String : Any]? = (metadata?["@injected"] as? [String : Any])!
            
    if injectedObject != nil && (injectedObject!["extensions"] != nil){

      var extensionsObject : [String : Any]? = injectedObject?["extensions"] as? [String : Any]

      if extensionsObject != nil && extensionsObject?["document"] != nil             {
        var documentObj = extensionsObject?["document"] as! [String :  Any]

        let document_url = documentObj["document_url"] as! String
      }
   }
}

Start collaborating

The Collaborative document has the following editing features:

1. Bold
2. Italic
3. Underline
4. Strikethrough
5. Numbered list
6. Bulleted list
7. Indent and Outdent

You can export your document as:

1. Etherpad
2. HTML
3. Plain text