Messagekit: Ability to add typing indicator view

[SD10]

Support typing indicator view

It would be nice if it's animated 😉
I think @nathantannar4 was discussing this but he had some pretty crazy ideas.

I also think it would be nice to be able to display the avatar bubble on the typing indicator. I think there is another JSQMVC issue related to this. EDIT: #1251

Related issues:
Typing Indicator Animated #1382

[nathantannar4]

I am studying for a Microsoft interview this weekend. I will try to find time next week to look into future enhancements to the MessageInputBar. Will probably try to support the typing bubble and the slack style indicator. Probably slack style first to get the logic down.

[SD10]

@nathantannar4 No worries, open source is for fun - not a job 😃 I'm still unsure if we want to but the typing bubble in the MessageInputBar. It doesn't make sense to me as of now

[mehul-singhal]

@nathantannar4 I would like to work with you you guys in making typing indicator view. Give me some time and i will send you guys a pull request.
Thanks

[nathantannar4]

Cool! I am working on a more refined version of my autocomplete

[SD10]

@DrunkenLord Do you have any idea how you would implement this? We're discussing in Slack how to go about this feature. It has to fit with everything else we're doing in the library.

[mehul-singhal]

@SD10 I have worked with typing indicator in a small application which i built in a hackathon. I will be adding an end point on the server, Triggering pusher from application while typing and some other things. If you want i can join the slack and we can discuss it over there and decide if you want me to go in the direction to work on it or not.

[nathantannar4]

@DrunkenLord this is just a chat UI library. We do not handle server endpoints to see if someone is typing. We simply need a showTypingIndicator: Bool which inserts or removes an indicator cell from the collection view

[mehul-singhal]

@nathantannar4 I am sorry i didn't knew about it. We can choose to use the showTypingIndicator: Bool. It should not be a issue i guess. I haven't worked on it before though.

[jaunesarmiento]

I made some progress adding a typing indicator to the app I'm working on. It's very simple but there's a lot of hardcoded values for frames and positioning. Some questions popped up while working on it though:

1. Should the typing indicator view be a footer view? Or a fully custom supplementary view?
2. Should the typing indicator look like the normal message bubble or do we allow customization here? We can add something like func messageStyleForTypingIndicator() -> MessageStyle to MessagesDisplayDelegate to allow customization.

[jbouaziz]

Just a thought but I'd simplify it and add a label above the messageInputBar with the name of users typing.

[SD10]

We've discussed adding a typing indicator but haven't gotten around to it. I think we decided on inserting a cell at the very bottom of MessagesCollectionView for this.

As @jbouaziz mentioned, you can also add a view as part of the topStackView in the MessageInputBar. This is very similar to the Slack style typing indicator. I don't think we'll provide first class support for this style, because it:

a) Reserves the top stack view
b) Is very easy to do outside the library

[otymartin]

@SD10 @nathantannar4
Just curious if the animated iMessageStyle typing indicator is still in works

[SD10]

@otymartin We don't have first-class support for this yet. You're able to achieve either iMessage style or Slack style it if you want it though

[otymartin]

@SD10 Nice, any guide on that. Not really sure how to proceed

[SD10]

@otymartin iMessage style would likely use a cell or footer at the bottom of the collectionView. For the Slack style typing indicator, you would add a view to the MessageInputBar's top stack view.

[kinoroy]

Since #1038 is merged, I'm closing this.