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amazon-connect/amazon-connect-chat-ios

Amazon Connect Chat SDK for iOS

Table of Contents

About

The Amazon Connect Chat SDK for iOS is a Swift library that gives you the power to easily integrate Amazon Connect Chat directly into your native iOS applications. The Amazon Connect Chat SDK helps handle client side chat logic and back-end communications similar to the Amazon Connect ChatJS Library. The SDK wraps the Amazon Connect Participant Service APIs and abstracts away the management of the chat session and WebSocket. This allows you to focus on the user interface and experience while relying on the Amazon Connect Chat SDK to interact with all the back-end services. This approach still requires using your own chat back end to call the Amazon Connect StartChatContact API to initiate contact. You can read instructions on how to quickly set up a StartChatContact Lambda from our startChatContactAPI example.

Installation Steps

There are three options to install the Amazon Connect Chat SDK for iOS to your xCode project:

Install via Cocoapods

In your Podfile:

    * Reference the AmazonConnectChatIOS pod in your Podfile
    * target 'YourProject' do
            pod 'AmazonConnectChatIOS'
            ...
        end

Then run pod install in your project's root directory

Download Binaries Directly from GitHub Releases

  1. Go to the Amazon Connect Chat SDK for iOS GitHub Releases page.
  2. Download the latest release of the AmazonConnectChatIOS.xcframework.
  3. Unzip the downloaded file, if necessary.
  4. Drag and drop the AmazonConnectChatIOS.xcframework into your Xcode project.

How to Import the XCFramework

Once you have added the AmazonConnectChatIOS.xcframework to your project, you need to import it into your code. Here are the steps:

  1. Import the Framework in Your Swift Code:
    import AmazonConnectChatIOS

By following these steps, you can integrate the Amazon Connect Chat SDK for iOS into your project using CocoaPods, Swift Package Manager, or by directly adding the XCFramework. Make sure to follow the specific installation instructions for each method to ensure a smooth setup process.

Getting Started

The first step to leveraging the Amazon Connect Chat SDK after installation is to import the library into your file. Next, let's call the StartChatContact API and pass the response details into the SDK’s ChatSession object. Here is an example of how we would set this up in Swift. For reference, you can visit the iOSChatExample demo within the Amazon Connect Chat UI Examples GitHub repository.

The majority of the SDKs functionality will be accessed through the ChatSession object. In order to use this object in the file, we have to first import the AmazonConnectChatIOS library via:

import AmazonConnectChatIOS

Next, we can create a ChatManager class that helps bridge UI and SDK communication. This class should be responsible for managing interactions with the ChatSession object. We can either add it as a class property or reference it directly using ChatSession.shared.

class ChatManager: ObservableObject {
    private var chatSession = ChatSession.shared

    ...

Before using the chatSession object, we need to set the config for it via the GlobalConfig object. Most importantly, the GlobalConfig object will be used to set the AWS region that your Connect instance lives in. Here is an example of how to configure the ChatSession object:

init() {
    let globalConfig = GlobalConfig(region: .USEast1)
    self.chatSession = ChatSession.shared
    chatSession.configure(config: globalConfig)
    ...
}

From here, you are now ready to interact with the chat via the ChatSession object.

How to receive messages

The Amazon Connect Chat SDK for iOS provides two methods to receive messages.

  1. Use ChatSession.onTranscriptUpdated
  • This event will pass back the entire transcript every time the transcript is updated. This will return the transcript via an array of TranscriptItem
  1. Use ChatSession.onMessageReceived
  • This event will pass back each message that is received by the WebSocket. The event handler will be passed a single TranscriptItem.

API List

GlobalConfig

The GlobalConfig object is used to configure both the AWS ConnectParticipant client as well as some of the chat behavior.

GlobalConfig.init

The initializer for the GlobalConfig object takes in the AWSRegionType, the enabled Features and disableCSM flag to disable metrics.

public struct GlobalConfig {
    public var region: AWSRegionType
    public var features: Features
    public var disableCsm: Bool

    public static var defaultRegion: AWSRegionType {
        return Constants.DEFAULT_REGION
    }

    // Initializes a new global configuration with optional custom settings or defaults
    public init(region: AWSRegionType = defaultRegion, features: Features = .defaultFeatures, disableCsm: Bool = false) {
        self.region = region
        self.features = features
        self.disableCsm = disableCsm
    }
}
  • region
    • This property is used to set the region of the ConnectParticipant client. This should be set to the region of your Connect instance (e.g. .USEast1)
    • Type: AWSRegionType
  • features: Features
    • The features property dictates the enablement of certain features as well as their configurations. If no value is passed for this property, the chat will be configured with default values. See Features for more details.
    • Type: Features

Updating configuration

If you have set the GlobalConfig object or want to update the configurations, you can call ChatSession.configure to update the config object.

let globalConfig = GlobalConfig(region: .USEast1)
chatSession.configure(config: globalConfig)

SDKLogger

The SDKLogger class is responsible for logging relevant runtime information to the console which is useful for debugging purposes. The SDKLogger will log key events such as establishing a connection or failures such as failing to send a message.

SDKLogger.configure

This API will allow you to override the SDK's built-in logger with your own SDKLoggerProtocol implementation. This is especially useful in cases where you would want to store logs for debugging purposes. Attaching these logs to issues filed in this project will greatly expedite the resolution process.

public static func configureLogger(_ logger: SDKLoggerProtocol) {
    SDKLogger.logger = logger
}

SDKLoggerProtocol

The SDKLoggerProtocol is a protocol used for the SDKLogger. Users can override the SDKLogger with any class that implements SDKLoggerProtocol.

public protocol SDKLoggerProtocol {
    func logVerbose(
        _ message: @autoclosure () -> String
    )
    func logInfo(
        _ message: @autoclosure () -> String
    )
    func logDebug(
        _ message: @autoclosure () -> String
    )
    func logFault(
        _ message: @autoclosure () -> String
    )
    func logError(
        _ message: @autoclosure () -> String
    )
}

ChatSession APIs

ChatSession.configure

Configures the chat service with a GlobalConfiguration object.

func configure(config: GlobalConfig)

ChatSession.connect

Attempts to connect to a chat session with the given details.

func connect(chatDetails: ChatDetails, completion: @escaping (Result<Void, Error>) -> Void)

public struct ChatDetails {
    var contactId: String?
    var participantId: String?
    var participantToken: String
}
  • chatDetails
    • The details of the chat session to connect to. ChatDetails data is extracted from StartChatContact response.
    • Type: ChatDetails
  • completion
    • The completion handler to call when the connect operation is complete.
    • Type: (Result<Void, Error>) -> Void

ChatSession.disconnect

Disconnects the current chat session.

func disconnect(completion: @escaping (Result<Void, Error>) -> Void)
  • completion
    • The completion handler to call when the disconnect operation is complete.
    • Type: (Result<Void, Error>) -> Void

ChatSession.sendMessage

Sends a message within the chat session.

func sendMessage(contentType: ContentType, message: String, completion: @escaping (Result<Void, Error>) -> Void)
  • contentType
  • message
    • The message to send.
    • Type: String
  • completion
    • The completion handler to call when the send operation is complete.
    • Type: (Result<Void, Error>) -> Void

ChatSession.sendEvent

Sends an event within the chat session.

func sendEvent(event: ContentType, content: String, completion: @escaping (Result<Void, Error>) -> Void)
  • event
  • content
    • The event content to send.
    • Type: String
  • completion
    • The completion handler to call when the send operation is complete.
    • Type: (Result<Void, Error>) -> Void

ChatSession.sendMessageReceipt

Sends read receipt for a message.

func sendMessageReceipt(event: MessageReceiptType, messageId: String, completion: @escaping (Result<Void, Error>) -> Void)
  • event
    • The type of read receipt to send (either .messageDelivered or .messageRead
    • Type: MessageReceiptType
    • Default: .messageRead
  • messageId
    • The ID of the message to acknowledge.
    • Type: String
  • completion
    • The completion handler to call when the send operation is complete.
    • Type: (Result<Void, Error>) -> Void

ChatSession.getTranscript

Retrieves the chat transcript.

func getTranscript(scanDirection: AWSConnectParticipantScanDirection?, sortOrder: AWSConnectParticipantSortKey?, maxResults: NSNumber?, nextToken: String?, startPosition: AWSConnectParticipantStartPosition?, completion: @escaping (Result<TranscriptResponse, Error>) -> Void)
  • scanDirection
    • The direction to scan the transcript.
    • Type: AWSConnectParticipantScanDirection? (String: 'FORWARD' | 'BACKWARD')
    • Default: BACKWARD
  • sortOrder
    • The order to sort the transcript.
    • Type: AWSConnectParticipantSortKey? (String: 'DESCENDING | 'ASCENDING')
    • Default: ASCENDING
  • maxResults
    • The maximum number of results to retrieve.
    • Type: NSNumber?
    • Default: 15
  • nextToken
    • Type: String
    • The token for the next set of results.
  • startPosition
    • The start position for the transcript.
    • Type: AWSConnectParticipantStartPosition?. See StartPosition
  • completion
    • The completion handler to call when the transcript retrieval is complete.
    • Type: (Result<TranscriptResponse, Error>) -> Void

ChatSession.sendAttachment

Sends an attachment within the chat session.

func sendAttachment(file: URL, completion: @escaping (Result<Void, Error>) -> Void)
  • file
    • The URL of the file to attach.
    • Type: URL
  • completion
    • The completion handler to call when the send operation is complete.
    • Type: (Result<Void, Error>) -> Void

ChatSession.downloadAttachment

Downloads an attachment to the app's temporary directory given an attachment ID.

func downloadAttachment(attachmentId: String, filename: String, completion: @escaping (Result<URL, Error>) -> Void)
  • attachmentId
    • The ID of the attachment to download.
    • Type: String
  • filename
    • The name of the file to save the attachment as.
    • Type: String
  • completion
    • The completion handler to call when the download operation is complete.
    • Type: (Result<URL, Error>) -> Void

ChatSession.getAttachmentDownloadUrl

Returns the download URL link for the given attachment ID.

func getAttachmentDownloadUrl(attachmentId: String, completion: @escaping (Result<URL, Error>) -> Void)
  • attachmentId
    • The ID of the attachment.
    • Type: String
  • completion
    • The completion handler to call when the URL retrieval is complete.
    • Type: (Result<URL, Error>) -> Void

ChatSession.isChatSessionActive

Returns a boolean indicating whether the chat session is still active.

func isChatSessionActive() -> Bool

ChatSession Events

ChatSession.onConnectionEstablished

Callback for when the connection is established.

var onConnectionEstablished: (() -> Void)? { get set }

ChatSession.onConnectionBroken

Callback for when the connection is broken.

var onConnectionBroken: (() -> Void)? { get set }

ChatSession.onMessageReceived

Callback for when a WebSocket message is received. See TranscriptItem.

var onMessageReceived: ((TranscriptItem) -> Void)? { get set }

ChatSession.onTranscriptUpdated

Callback for when the transcript is updated. See TranscriptItem

var onTranscriptUpdated: (([TranscriptItem]) -> Void)? { get set }

ChatSession.onChatEnded

Callback for when the chat ends.

var onChatEnded: (() -> Void)? { get set }

ChatSession.onDeepHeartbeatFailure

Callback for when the WebSocket heartbeat is missed.

var onDeepHeartbeatFailure: (() -> Void)? { get set }

ChatSession.onConnectionReEstablished

Callback for when the connection is re-established.

var onConnectionReEstablished: (() -> Void)? { get set }

Classes and Structs

Features

Features are a list of optional chat functions that users may choose to enable, disable or reconfigure.

public struct Features {
    public var messageReceipts: MessageReceipts

    // Provides default Features configuration
    public static var defaultFeatures: Features {
        return Features(messageReceipts: .defaultReceipts)
    }

    public init(messageReceipts: MessageReceipts = .defaultReceipts) {
        self.messageReceipts = messageReceipts
    }
}

the default value for Features will contain the default values for all containing features.


Message Receipts

This feature enables the use of Read and Delivered receipts for messages. This is used to indicate whether agents have read texts that the client has sent and vice versa.

public struct MessageReceipts {
    public var shouldSendMessageReceipts: Bool
    public var throttleTime: Double
    
    // Provides default MessageReceipts configuration
    public static var defaultReceipts: MessageReceipts {
        return MessageReceipts(shouldSendMessageReceipts: true, throttleTime: Constants.MESSAGE_RECEIPT_THROTTLE_TIME)
    }
    
    public init(shouldSendMessageReceipts: Bool, throttleTime: Double) {
        self.shouldSendMessageReceipts = shouldSendMessageReceipts
        self.throttleTime = throttleTime
    }
}
  • shouldSendMessageReceipts
    • Type: Bool
    • This is the flag that dictates whether message receipts will be sent from the client side. Note that this will not block message receipt events from being sent from the agent.
    • Default: true
  • throttleTime
    • Type: Double
    • This is used to determine how long to throttle message receipt events before firing them. We recommend having at least some throttling time before each event to reduce unecessary network requests
    • Default: 5.0

ChatDetails

public struct ChatDetails {
    var contactId: String?
    var participantId: String?
    var participantToken: String
}
  • contactId
  • particpantId
  • participantToken

ContentType

ContentType describe the type of events and messages that come through the WebSocket.

public enum ContentType: String {
    case typing = "application/vnd.amazonaws.connect.event.typing"
    case connectionAcknowledged = "application/vnd.amazonaws.connect.event.connection.acknowledged"
    case messageDelivered = "application/vnd.amazonaws.connect.event.message.delivered"
    case messageRead = "application/vnd.amazonaws.connect.event.message.read"
    case metaData = "application/vnd.amazonaws.connect.event.message.metadata"
    case joined = "application/vnd.amazonaws.connect.event.participant.joined"
    case left = "application/vnd.amazonaws.connect.event.participant.left"
    case ended = "application/vnd.amazonaws.connect.event.chat.ended"
    case plainText = "text/plain"
    case richText = "text/markdown"
    case interactiveText = "application/vnd.amazonaws.connect.message.interactive"
}

MessageReceiptType

MessageReceiptType is a subset of ContentType for message receipt related events.

public enum MessageReceiptType: String {
    case messageDelivered = "application/vnd.amazonaws.connect.event.message.delivered"
    case messageRead = "application/vnd.amazonaws.connect.event.message.read"
}

TranscriptResponse

public class TranscriptResponse: Equatable {
    public let initialContactId: String
    public let nextToken: String
    public var transcript: [TranscriptItem]
}
  • initialContactId
    • This is the id of the chat contact
    • Type: String
  • nextToken
    • The nextToken is used to retrieve the next batch of messages from the server. This can be passed into ChatSession.getTranscript
    • Type: String
  • transcript
    • This contains the messages that were loaded
    • Type: Array of TranscriptItem

TranscriptItem

This is the base class for all renderable messages in the transcript.

public class TranscriptItem: TranscriptItemProtocol {
    public var id: String
    public var timeStamp: String
    public var contentType: String
    public var serializedContent: [String: Any]?
  • id
    • Id for the message. Unique to each message in the transcript.
    • Type: String
  • timeStamp
    • Time when the message or event was sent. Formatted in ISO 8601 (e.g. yyyy-MM-ddThh:mm:ss.SSSZ or 2019-11-08T02:41:28.172Z)
    • Type: String
  • contentType
  • serializedContent
    • The raw JSON format of the received WebSocket message
    • Type: Array of String: Any

Message (extends TranscriptItem)

The Message type of TranscriptItem is reserved for all messages sent by bots, contact flow or other participants. This includes interactive messages, attachments and plain text messages.

public class Message: TranscriptItem, MessageProtocol {
    public var participant: String
    public var text: String
    public var messageDirection: MessageDirection?
    public var attachmentId: String?
    public var displayName: String?
    @Published public var metadata: (any MetadataProtocol)?
}
  • participant
    • This is the participant role of the message sender (e.g. AGENT)
    • Type: String
  • text
    • This is the text content of the message
    • Type: String
  • messageDirection
    • This is the direction of the message
    • Type: MessageDirection (Outgoing | Incoming | Common)
  • attachmentId
    • This is the id of the attachment. Only defined if this message contains an attachment.
    • Type: String
  • displayName
    • This is the display name of the message
    • Type: String
  • metadata
    • This is the metadata associated with the message.
    • Type: Metadata

Event (extends TranscriptItem)

The Event type of the TranscriptItem is for events that come through the WebSocket. See ContentType for a list of possible events.

public class Event: TranscriptItem, EventProtocol {
    public var participant: String?
    public var text: String?
    public var displayName: String?
    public var eventDirection: MessageDirection?
}
  • participant
    • This is the participant role of the message sender (e.g. AGENT)
    • Type: String?
  • text
    • This is the text content of the event
    • Type: String?
  • displayName
    • This is the display name of the event
    • Type: String
  • eventDirection
    • This is the direction of the event
    • Type: eventDirection (Outgoing | Incoming | Common)

Metadata (extends TranscriptItem)

The Metadata event is used to receive additional data on a given message such as message receipt status.

public class Metadata: TranscriptItem, MetadataProtocol {
    @Published public var status: MessageStatus?
    @Published public var eventDirection: MessageDirection?
  • status
    • This is the receipt status for the event.
    • Type: MessageStatus ('Read' | 'Delivered')
  • eventDirection
    • This is the direction of the metadata event.
    • Type: eventDirection (Outgoing | Incoming | Common)

Security

See CONTRIBUTING for more information.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache-2.0 License.