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Quick Start

Learn how to install QuickBlox SDK and send your first message.

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QuickBlox SDK helps you implement a real-time chat, video chat, and push notifications to your app. You can fully concentrate on your mobile app development. QuickBlox Android SDK supports both Java and Kotlin programming languages.

Start with sample apps

If you are just starting your app and developing it from scratch, we recommend to use our sample apps. We use GitHub repositories to make it easy to explore, copy, and modify our code samples. The guide on how to launch and configure the sample app is on GitHub.

Chat samples

Choose the code sample below to jump-start the development.

Java Chat Sample App

View on GitHub Documentation

Kotlin Chat Sample App

View on GitHub Documentation

Video chat sample

Choose the code sample below to jump-start the development.

Java Video Calling Sample App

View on GitHub Documentation

Kotlin Video Calling Sample App

View on GitHub Documentation

More samples

For more samples, head to our Code Samples page. These sample apps are available on GitHub so feel free to browse them there. Just clone the repository and modify the source code for your own projects.

Get application credentials

QuickBlox application includes everything that brings messaging right into your application - chat, video calling, users, push notifications, etc. To create a QuickBlox application, follow the steps below:

  1. Register a new account following this link. Type in your email and password to sign in. You can also sign in with your Google or Github accounts.
  2. Create the app clicking New app button.
  3. Configure the app. Type in the information about your organization into corresponding fields and click Add button.
  4. Go to Dashboard => YOUR_APP => Overview section and copy your Application ID, Authorization Key, Authorization Secret, and Account Key .

Requirements

The minimum requirements for QuickBlox Android SDK are:

  • Android 5.0 (API 21)
  • Android Studio
  • Gradle 4.6
  • Gradle plugin 2.5.1

Install QuickBlox SDK into your app

To connect QuickBlox SDK to your app, import QuickBlox SDK dependencies via build.gradle file.

Include reference to SDK repository in your project-level build.gradle file at the root directory. Specify the URL of QuickBlox repository where the files are stored. Following this URL gradle finds SDK artifacts.

allprojects {
    repositories {
        google()
        jcenter()
        maven {
            url "https://github.com/QuickBlox/quickblox-android-sdk-releases/raw/master/"
        }
    }
}

def qbSdkVersion = '4.1.1'

When the artifacts are found in QuickBlox repository, they get imported to particular SDK modules in build.gradle project file. Add the following code lines to app-level build.gradle file.

dependencies {
    implementation "com.quickblox:quickblox-android-sdk-messages:4.1.1"
    implementation "com.quickblox:quickblox-android-sdk-chat:4.1.1"
    implementation "com.quickblox:quickblox-android-sdk-content:4.1.1"
    implementation "com.quickblox:quickblox-android-sdk-videochat-webrtc:4.1.1"
    implementation "com.quickblox:quickblox-android-sdk-conference:4.1.1"
    implementation "com.quickblox:quickblox-android-sdk-customobjects:4.1.1"
}

Send your first message

Initialize QuickBlox SDK

Initialize the SDK with your application credentials. Pass the APPLICATION_ID, AUTH_KEY, AUTH_SECRET, and ACCOUNT_KEY to the init() method.

static final String APPLICATION_ID = "67895";
static final String AUTH_KEY = "lkjdueksu7392kj";
static final String AUTH_SECRET = "BTFsj7Rtt27DAmT";
static final String ACCOUNT_KEY = "9yvTe17TmjNPqDoYtfqp";
//
QBSettings.getInstance().init(getApplicationContext(), APPLICATION_ID, AUTH_KEY, AUTH_SECRET);
QBSettings.getInstance().setAccountKey(ACCOUNT_KEY);

private const val APPLICATION_ID = "67895"
private const val AUTH_KEY = "lkjdueksu7392kj"
private const val AUTH_SECRET = "BTFsj7Rtt27DAmT"
private const val ACCOUNT_KEY = "9yvTe17TmjNPqDoYtfqp"
//
QBSettings.getInstance().init(applicationContext, APPLICATION_ID, AUTH_KEY, AUTH_SECRET)
QBSettings.getInstance().accountKey = ACCOUNT_KEY

🚧

You must initialize SDK before calling any methods through the SDK, except for the init() method. If you attempt to call a method without connecting, the error is returned.

❗️

Security

It's not recommended to keep your authKey and authSecret inside an application in production mode, instead of this, the best approach will be to store them on your backend and initialize QuickBlox SDK with applicationId and acountKey only. More details you can find in Initialize QuickBlox SDK without Authorization Key and Secret section.

Authorize user

Now, it is time to log in with the user. To get it done, set the login and password of the user, call the signIn() method, and pass the user to it using the code snippet below.

final QBUser user = new QBUser();
user.setLogin("johnsmith");
user.setPassword("johnPassword");

QBUsers.signIn(user).performAsync(new QBEntityCallback<QBUser>() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess(QBUser user, Bundle bundle) {
        
    }

    @Override
    public void onError(QBResponseException exception) {
        
    }
});

val user = QBUser()
user.login = "johnsmith"
user.password = "johnPassword"

QBUsers.signIn(user).performAsync(object : QBEntityCallback<QBUser> {
    override fun onSuccess(user: QBUser?, bundle: Bundle?) {
        
    }

    override fun onError(exception: QBResponseException?) {
        
    }
})

Connect to chat

Having authorized a user, you can proceed with connecting to the chat server to start using Chat module functionality. Call the login() method to connect to the chat server.

final QBUser user = new QBUser();
user.setId(12345);
user.setPassword("johnPassword");

QBChatService.getInstance().login(user, new QBEntityCallback() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess(Void aVoid, Bundle bundle) {
 
    }

    @Override
    public void onError(QBResponseException exception) {

    }
});

val user = QBUser()
user.id = 12315
user.password = "johnPassword"

QBChatService.getInstance().login(user, object : QBEntityCallback<Void> {
    override fun onSuccess(aVoid: Void?, bundle: Bundle?) {

    }

    override fun onError(exception: QBResponseException?) {

    }
})

Create dialog

QuickBlox provides three types of dialogs: 1-1 dialog, group dialog, and public dialog. Learn more about dialogs here.

Let’s create a simple 1-1 dialog. Set the type and occupants IDs of the dialog using the the setType() and setOccupantsIds() methods. Then, call the createChatDialog() method and pass the dialog to it. 

ArrayList<Integer> occupantIdsList = new ArrayList<Integer>();
int occupantId = 123;
occupantIdsList.add(occupantId);
 
QBChatDialog dialog = new QBChatDialog();
dialog.setType(QBDialogType.PRIVATE);
dialog.setOccupantsIds(occupantIdsList);
 
// or just use DialogUtils
//QBChatDialog dialog = DialogUtils.buildPrivateDialog(recipientId);
 
QBRestChatService.createChatDialog(dialog).performAsync(new QBEntityCallback<QBChatDialog>() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess(QBChatDialog result, Bundle bundle) {
 
    }
 
    @Override
    public void onError(QBResponseException exception) {
 
    }
});

val occupantIdsList = ArrayList<Int>()
val occupantId = 123
occupantIdsList.add(occupantId)

val dialog = QBChatDialog()
dialog.type = QBDialogType.PRIVATE
dialog.setOccupantsIds(occupantIdsList)

// or just use DialogUtils
//QBChatDialog dialog = DialogUtils.buildPrivateDialog(recipientId);

QBRestChatService.createChatDialog(dialog).performAsync(object : QBEntityCallback<QBChatDialog> {
    override fun onSuccess(result: QBChatDialog?, bundle: Bundle?) {

    }

    override fun onError(exception: QBResponseException?) {

    }
})

Subscribe to receive messages

Through QBDialogMessageListener you can monitor whether an incoming message or error is received from QuickBlox server. Use QBIncomingMessagesManager to listen to all incoming messages and related errors. 

QBChatService chatService = QBChatService.getInstance();
QBIncomingMessagesManager incomingMessagesManager = chatService.getIncomingMessagesManager();

incomingMessagesManager.addDialogMessageListener(new QBChatDialogMessageListener() {
    @Override
    public void processMessage(String dialogId, QBChatMessage chatMessage, Integer senderId) {

    }

    @Override
    public void processError(String dialogId, QBChatException exception, QBChatMessage chatMessage, Integer senderId) {

    }
});

val chatService = QBChatService.getInstance()
val incomingMessagesManager = chatService.incomingMessagesManager

incomingMessagesManager.addDialogMessageListener(object : QBChatDialogMessageListener {
    override fun processMessage(dialogID: String?, qbChatMessage: QBChatMessage?, senderID: Int?) {

    }

    override fun processError(dialogID: String?, e: QBChatException?, qbChatMessage: QBChatMessage?, senderID: Int?) {

    }
})

Send message

To send a message, create QBChatMessage instance and set a text message using the setBody() method. Then, call the sendMessage() method.

QBChatMessage chatMessage = new QBChatMessage();
chatMessage.setBody("Hello QuickBlox!");
chatMessage.setSaveToHistory(true);

dialog.sendMessage(chatMessage, new QBEntityCallback<Void>() {
    @Override
    public void onSuccess(Void aVoid, Bundle bundle) {

    }

    @Override
    public void onError(QBResponseException exception) {

    }
});

val chatMessage = QBChatMessage()
chatMessage.body = "Hello QuickBlox!"
chatMessage.setSaveToHistory(true)

dialog.sendMessage(chatMessage, object : QBEntityCallback<Void> {
    override fun onSuccess(aVoid: Void?, bundle: Bundle?) {

    }

    override fun onError(exception: QBResponseException?) {

    }
})

📘

Set the saveToHistory parameter if you want this message to be saved in the chat history.

Updated over 1 year ago

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