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Getting Started

The LikeMinds Chat SDK allows you to seamlessly integrate personalized and engaging chats into your iOS application. This can significantly enhance the user experience and drive user engagement within your app. This getting started guide will walk you through the steps to integrate it into your application.

Prerequisites​

Before you begin, ensure that you have the following:

  1. Xcode: Make sure you have the Xcode 11 or above installed on your development machine.
  2. LikeMinds API Key: Sign up on the LikeMinds dashboard and obtain an API key for your application.

Dependencies​

The SDK tries to keep the list of external dependencies to a minimum, these are the dependencies currently used:

LikeMindsChatUI​

LikeMindsChatCore​

LikeMindsChat​

Step-by-Step Integration Guide​

Follow these steps to integrate the LikeMinds Chat SDK into your iOS application using CocoaPods:

Step 1 Install LikeMindsChatCore via CocoaPods:​

Open your project's Podfile and add the following lines:

platform :ios, '13.0'

target 'YourProjectName' do
  use_frameworks!
  pod 'LikeMindsChatCore', '~> 1.5.0'
end

Then, run pod install from the terminal to install the required dependencies.

Step 2 - Set Up LikeMinds Chat:​

In your AppDelegate.swift file, import the LikeMindsChatCore framework and set up the LikeMinds Chat in the application(_:willFinishLaunchingWithOptions:) method:

import LikeMindsChatCore

func application(_ application: UIApplication, willFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey : Any]? = nil) {
     LMChatCore.shared.setupChat(deviceId: deviceId)
}

Step 3 - Initialise LikeMinds Chat:​

You have successfully initiated the LMChatCore. Now, When integrating the LikeMinds Chat SDK into your application, you have the option to initiate a user session using one of two approaches:

With API Key​

This approach should be used when you want to manage LikeMinds authentication tokens on frontend. In this case, you provide API Key directly to LikeMinds Chat SDK, which will be used to initiate a user session by calling showChat() method from LMChatCore.

import LikeMindsChatCore

func application(_ application: UIApplication, willFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey : Any]? = nil) {
    LMChatCore.shared.showChat(apiKey: "YOUR_API_KEY", username: username, uuid: userId, completionHandler: { })
}

Replace YOUR_API_KEY with the API key you obtained from the LikeMinds dashboard.

tip

It is advised to initiate LikeMindsChat at the beginning of your App Cycle

Without API Key​

This approach should be used when you want to manage LikeMinds authentication tokens on your backend server. In this case, you eliminate the need to expose your API Key to your client app and your backend server is responsible for calling the initiate API to obtain the accessToken and refreshToken which is passed to showChat() from LMChatCore to validate the user session.

  1. Create a function to get accessToken and refreshToken from your backend using the initiate API.

  2. Implement the LMChatCoreCallback protocol in your class:

public protocol LMChatCoreCallback: AnyObject {
    func onAccessTokenExpiredAndRefreshed(accessToken: String, refreshToken: String)
    func onRefreshTokenExpired(_ completionHandler: (((accessToken: String, refreshToken: String)) -> Void)?)
}

Example

class ClientSDKCallBack: LMChatCoreCallback {
  func onAccessTokenExpiredAndRefreshed(accessToken: String, refreshToken: String) {
    // Store the updated tokens
  }
  func onRefreshTokenExpired(_ completionHandler: (((accessToken: String, refreshToken: String)?) -> Void)?) {
    // Call inititate api from your backend and return the fetched accessToken and refreshToken
    // completionHandler?((accessToken, refreshToken))
    // In case the call fails, return nil
    // completionHandler?(nil)
  }
}
info

This protocol has two methods:

  • onAccessTokenExpiredAndRefreshed: Called when the access token expires and is refreshed internally.
  • onRefreshTokenExpired: Called when the refresh token expires. You need to provide new tokens from your backend.
  1. Upon receiving the accessToken and refreshToken from your backend server, call LMChatCore.showChat() function with these tokens.
import LikeMindsChatCore

func application(_ application: UIApplication, willFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey : Any]? = nil) {
    // Pass the earlier created Implementation of LMChatCoreCallback
     LikeMindsChatCore.showChat(accessToken: accessToken, refreshToken: refreshToken, handler: ClientSDKCallback(), completionHandler: { })
}

Step 4 - Navigation:​

In the view controller where you want to display the LikeMinds Chat, import the LikeMindsChatCore framework and initialize the Chat with the appropriate user credentials:

import LikeMindsChatCore

let username = "USER_NAME"
let uuid = "USER_UUID"

try? LMChatCore.shared.showChat(apiKey: apiKey, username: username, userId: userId) {[weak self] result in
            switch result {
            case .success:
                  guard let viewController = try? LMChatHomeChatViewModel.createModule() else {
                  let alert = UIAlertController(title: "Error", message: error.localizedDescription, preferredStyle: .alert)
                  alert.addAction(.init(title: "OK", style: .default))
                  self?.present(alert, animated: true)
                  return
                  }
                  let navigationController = UINavigationController(rootViewController: viewController)
                  UIApplication.shared.windows.first?.rootViewController = navigationController
                  UIApplication.shared.windows.first?.makeKeyAndVisible()
            case .failure(let error):
                // Show error message
                 let alert = UIAlertController(title: "Error", message: error.localizedDescription, preferredStyle: .alert)
                  alert.addAction(.init(title: "OK", style: .default))
                  self?.present(alert, animated: true)
                  return
            }
     }

Replace USER_NAME, USER_UUID and DEVICE_ID with the appropriate user credentials and device unique identifier for your application.

The createModule() method returns the view controller that displays the LikeMinds Chat. - In case of success, it sets the returned view controller as the root view controller of the application's window. - In case of failure, it displays an alert with the error message.

note

The view controller where you initialize the LikeMinds Chat should have a navigation controller, as the Chat requires navigation capabilities.

That's it! You have successfully integrated the LikeMinds Chat SDK into your iOS application. The next step would be to explore additional customization options or configurations provided by the SDK to tailor the Chat to your application's needs.