How to implement a list of chats with XMPP

Question

I have Ejabberd server and mobile iOS/Android apps.

I want to build a simple Chat app with something like 2 screens:

• List of chats
• Screen with messages of particular chat

I have an issue with the List of chats implementation. I use XEP-0313: Message Archive Management to store chat history and it suites very well for my 2nd screen - screen with messages of particular chat.

But I can't find a proper way to show a list of chats

I have an idea to merge all user's contacts (roster) + group rooms and then show, but users do not have active chats with all their contacts so this is not a right solution.

It's also good to show a last message text along with each chat on a list of chats screen. So this is a pretty standard feature in all modern messengers.

Is it possible to do with any XEPs? or maybe I can use a Message Archive XEP in some way

Some thoughts here Get last message of each conversation with XEP-0313?, but still no answer

Anissaanita

Do you use local storage like SQLite database? What is difference between chatlist and current chats? Is it time difference or something more? – Dellinger

I use SQLite, but I want it to be accessible from all of my devices, so the same data should be on the Chats screen across all of my devices. – Anissaanita

@KenanBegić what do you mean by "between chatlist and current chats". We can call it as you wish, it's just a list of all users chats – Anissaanita

@Rubycon, this is a great question. Did you find an answer or a workaround? – Sparkle

@Sparkle I ended up with building an external API endpoint to get it all and provide to user. This endpoint can access Ejabberd DB – Anissaanita

Answer 1

But I can't find a proper way to show a list of chats

List of rooms where a particular account is occupant (has joined):

$ ejabberdctl get_user_rooms user1 localhost
[email protected]
[email protected]

Urinary

This is right regarding group chats, but user may have also 1-1 chats. How can I get a list of 1-1 chats ? – Anissaanita

You can know which messages a user has sent to another one, or has received from another ones, by looking in the MAM archive. Other than that, the server keeps no more information. – Urinary

Well, this is not good. Let's say I have 30 chats, so it means I need to do 30 request to MAM on start app to render list of chats screen. I want to omit it. I want to limit it to a couple of requests on start app and then when a user goes to particular chat - check MAM of chat chat. Anything like this is possible? – Anissaanita

do you have nay advises here? – Anissaanita