This guide demonstrates how to add chat to a JavaScript application using CometChat. Before you begin, we strongly recommend you read the Key Concepts guide.

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I want to integrate with my app

  1. Get your application keys
  2. Add the CometChat dependency
  3. Initialize CometChat
  4. Register and Login your user
  5. Integrate our UI Kits
  6. Integrate our Chat Widget

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I want to explore a sample app (includes UI)

Open the app folder in your favourite code editor and follow the steps mentioned in the README.md file. React Sample App Angular Sample App Vue Sample App

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Get your Application Keys

Signup for CometChat and then:
  1. Create a new app
  2. Head over to the API & Auth Keys section and note the Auth Key, App ID & Region

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Add the CometChat Dependency

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NPM

npm install @cometchat-pro/chat@3.0.13 --save
Then, import the CometChat object wherever you want to use CometChat. 
import { CometChat } from "@cometchat-pro/chat";

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HTML (via CDN)

Include the CometChat JavaScript library in your HTML code 
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/@cometchat-pro/chat@3.0.13/CometChat.js"></script>

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Server Side Rendering (SSR) Compatibility

You can use CometChat with SSR frameworks such as Next.js or NuxtJS by importing it dynamically on the client side.

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Next.js

You need to import the CometChat SDK dynamically in useEffect React Hook or componentDidMount() lifecycle method. 
import React from 'react';
import Chat from './Chat';

export default function Home() {
let [libraryImported, setLibraryImported] = React.useState(false);

React.useEffect(()=>{
  window.CometChat = require('@cometchat-pro/chat').CometChat;
  setLibraryImported(true);
});

return(
  libraryImported ? <Chat/> : <p>Loading....</p>
)

}

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NuxtJS

You need to import the CometChat SDK dynamically in mounted lifecycle hook. 
<template>
  <div v-if="libraryImported">
    <chat/>
  </div>
  <div v-else>Loading....</div>
</template>

<script>
export default {
  name: "Index",
  components: {
      'chat': () => import('./chat')
  },
  data() {
    return{
      libraryImported: false
    }
  },
  mounted() {
    window.CometChat = require('@cometchat-pro/chat').CometChat;
    this.libraryImported = true;
  }
}
</script>

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Initialize CometChat

The init() method initialises the settings required for CometChat. The init() method takes the below parameters:
  1. appID - Your CometChat App ID
  2. appSettings - An object of the AppSettings class can be created using the AppSettingsBuilder class. The region field is mandatory and can be set using the setRegion() method.
The AppSettings class allows you to configure two settings:
  • Region: The region where you app was created.
  • Presence Subscription: Represents the subscription type for user presence (real-time online/offline status)
  • autoEstablishSocketConnection(boolean value): This property takes a boolean value which when set to true informs the SDK to manage the web-socket connection internally. If set to false , it informs the SDK that the web-socket connection will be managed manually. The default value for this parameter is true. For more information on this, please check the Managing Web-Socket connections manually section. The default value for this property is true.
  • overrideAdminHost(adminHost: string): This method takes the admin URL as input and uses this admin URL instead of the default admin URL. This can be used in case of dedicated deployment of CometChat.
  • overrideClientHost(clientHost: string): This method takes the client URL as input and uses this client URL instead of the default client URL. This can be used in case of dedicated deployment of CometChat.
You need to call init() before calling any other method from CometChat. We suggest you call the init() method on app startup, preferably in the index.js file. 
let appID = "APP_ID";
let region = "APP_REGION";
let appSetting = new CometChat.AppSettingsBuilder()
                  .subscribePresenceForAllUsers()
                  .setRegion(region)
                  .autoEstablishSocketConnection(true)
                  .build();
CometChat.init(appID, appSetting).then(
() => {
  console.log("Initialization completed successfully");
}, error => {
  console.log("Initialization failed with error:", error);
}
);
Make sure you replace the APP_ID with your CometChat App ID and APP_REGION with your App Region in the above code.

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Register and Login your user

Once initialization is successful, you will need to create a user. To create users on the fly, you can use the createUser() method. This method takes a User object and the Auth Key as input parameters and returns the created User object if the request is successful. 
let authKey = "AUTH_KEY";
var UID = "user1";
var name = "Kevin";

var user = new CometChat.User(UID);

user.setName(name);

CometChat.createUser(user, authKey).then(
  user => {
      console.log("user created", user);
  }, error => {
      console.log("error", error);
  }
)
Make sure that UID and name are specified as these are mandatory fields to create a user. Once you have created the user successfully, you will need to log the user into CometChat using the login() method. We recommend you call the CometChat login() method once your user logs into your app. The login() method needs to be called only once. 
var UID = "cometchat-uid-1";
var authKey = "AUTH_KEY";

CometChat.getLoggedinUser().then(
  (user) => {
  			if(!user){
          CometChat.login(UID, authKey).then(
            user => {
              console.log("Login Successful:", { user });
            }, error => {
              console.log("Login failed with exception:", { error });
            }
          );
      }
  	}, error => {
  			console.log("Some Error Occured", { error });
  	}
);
Make sure you replace the AUTH_KEY with your CometChat AuthKey in the above code.
Sample UsersWe have set-up 5 users for testing having UIDs: cometchat-uid-1, cometchat-uid-2, cometchat-uid-3, cometchat-uid-4 and cometchat-uid-5.
The login() method returns the User object on Promise resolved containing all the information of the logged in user.
UID can be alphanumeric with underscore and hyphen. Spaces, punctuation and other special characters are not allowed.

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Integrate our UI Kits

  • Please refer to the React UI Kit section to integrate React UI Kit in your website.
  • Please refer to the Angular UI Kit section to integrate Angular UI Kit in your website.
  • Please refer to the Vue UI Kit section to integrate Vue UI Kit in your website.

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Integrate our Chat Widget

  • Please refer to the Chat Widget section to integrate Chat Widget in your Website.