WhatsApp Copy - FlashChat App

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Motivation
• Technology Used
• Build Status
• Features
• Installation
• Execution

Introduction

Mobile full stack WhatsApp copy app where users can register, login and message each other in a chatroom. Messages are stored in Google Firebase.

Motivation

This is a personal learning project aimed to teach me the Table View. Table Views are used everywhere from the Mail app to Messages app. It's a crucial part of every iOS app. Thus, I want to get to grips with Table Views, creating custom cells, and making my own cloud-based backend database.

Technology Used

Language

Swift

Notable Technology Utilized

Storyboard Storing data in the cloud using Firebase Firestore Querying and sorting Firebase database Firebase for user authentication, registration and login Using UITableViews and setting their data sources and delegates Creating custom views using .xib files to modify native design components Embedding View Controllers in a Navigation Controller and understanding navigation stack Creating constants file and use static properties to store Strings and other constants Create animations using loops Using direct Segues for navigation

Build Status

Project is completed.

Features

• Register new users
• Login for existing users
• Chat window - custom cells for different users
• Chat window - Scrollable and ordered list
• Chat window - Retrieval of cloud stored messages
• Chat window - Keyboard pushes up screen
• Chat window - Send a message
• Chat window - Logout

Register new users

• User can register a new account by typing in a unique name and password longer than 6 characters.
• Registration is created through FireBase.

Login for existing users

• Existing users can login through the login screen
• Authentication is done through FireBase.

Chat window - custom cells for different users

• Logged in user will have a custom .XIB message cell compared to the sender
• Custom cells will hide and display cell contents based on back-end logic

Chat window - Scrollable and ordered list

• User can scroll up for previous messages
• Messages are ordered based on the message created timestamp

Chat window - Retrieval of cloud stored messages

• When the user open the chatView it will trigger code to fetch the messages stored in the Cloud Firebase FireStore
• The cloud messages will provide data to the front-end such as sender, receipient, text message, timestamp

Chat window - Keyboard pushes up screen

• When the user select the textbox to type the on-screen keyboard will appear and push the app upwards
• This is done using a 3rd party library named IQKeyboardManager

Chat window - Send a message

• User can type in a message and click the send button. This will send the message to the cloud storage
• When the message is sent it will instantly refresh the UI with the new message and scroll down automatically

Chat window - Logout

• User can log out and return to the home screen

Installation

• Ensure XCode is installed (only available on MacOS)
• Install the 3rd party pods by executing in terminal "pod install" in the project directory

Execution

• Open the "Flash Chat iOS13.xcworkspace" file in XCode
• Once the project is open you can click the play button at the top of the IDE to run the iPhone simulator or use a physical device