The QuickBlox UIKit for Android comprises a collection of pre-assembled UI components that enable the effortless creation of an in-app chat equipped with all the necessary messaging functionalities. Our development kit encompasses light and dark themes, colors, and various other features. These components can be personalized to fashion an engaging messaging interface that reflects your brand’s distinct identity. The QuickBlox UIKit fully supports both private and group dialogs. To initiate the process of sending a message from the ground up using Java or Kotlin, please refer to the instructions provided in the guide below.

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Requirements

The minimum requirements for QuickBlox UIKit for Android are:
  • Android 5.0 (API level 21) or higher
  • Java 8 or higher
  • Android Gradle plugin 4.0.1 or higher

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Before you begin

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. Create the app clicking New app button. Configure the app. Type in the information about your organization into corresponding fields and click Add button. Go to Dashboard => YOUR_APP => Overview section and copy your Application ID, Authorization Key, Authorization Secret, and Account Key .

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Get started

If you build mobile applications for the Android platform then you are no doubt already familiar with Android Studio, a popular tool and the official Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for Android app development.

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Step 1. Create a project

  1. Launch Android Studio
  2. Click “New project” button in the Welcome to Android Studio window.
  3. Select Empty Activity in “Phone and Tablet” Template window and click Next.
  4. Set your project name and desired configurations and click Finish.
Image 1

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Step 2. Install QuickBlox UIKit

There are 2 ways to install to QuickBlox UIKit from:
  • Repository
  • Local source
Install QuickBlox UIKit from repository To install QuickBlox UIKit to your app, import QuickBlox UIKit and QuickBlox SDK dependencies via build.gradle file. Include a reference to the SDK repository in your project-level build.gradle file at the root directory or to settings.gradle file. Specify the URL of the QuickBlox repository where the files are stored. Following this URL, gradle finds SDK artifacts.
Kotlin
repositories {
    maven {
        url "https://github.com/QuickBlox/android-ui-kit-releases/raw/master/"
    }
    maven {
        url "https://github.com/QuickBlox/quickblox-android-sdk-releases/raw/master/"
    }
}
Then need to add the implementation of QuickBlox UIKit and QuickBlox SDK to dependencies in your module-level(App) build.gradle file. 
dependencies {
implementation "com.quickblox:android-ui-kit:0.10.1"

implementation 'com.quickblox:quickblox-android-sdk-messages:4.3.0'
implementation 'com.quickblox:quickblox-android-sdk-chat:4.3.0'
implementation 'com.quickblox:quickblox-android-sdk-content:4.3.0'
}
Install QuickBlox UIKit from local source To connect QuickBlox SDK to your app, import QuickBlox SDK dependencies via build.gradle file. Include a reference to the SDK repository in your project-level build.gradle file at the root directory or to settings.gradle file. Specify the URL of the QuickBlox repository where the files are stored. Following this URL, gradle finds SDK artifacts.
Kotlin
repositories {
    google()
    mavenCentral()
    maven {
        url "https://github.com/QuickBlox/quickblox-android-sdk-releases/raw/master/"
    }
}
Then you need to download the source code of Android UIKit from the GitHub repository at this link to include UIKit locally in your project. Specify the path of the UIKit project in settings.gradle file.
Kotlin
include ':ui-kit'
project(':ui-kit').projectDir = new File('YourFullPathToDir/android-ui-kit/ui-kit')
Also, need to add the implementation of the UIKit project to dependencies in your module-level(App) build.gradle file.
Kotlin
dependencies {
    implementation project(':ui-kit')
}

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Step 3. Init QuickBlox SDK

To initialize the QuickBlox Android SDK, we need to create a class for example name App and perform the initialization in the onCreate() method. The class App will inherit from the Application class to ensure proper management of the application’s lifecycle and provide a global context. The Application class is the base class for creating Android applications and serves as a container for global application states and settings. An application can have only one instance of the Application class, which is created by the system when the application is launched. By inheriting from the Application class, we can create a custom class App that extends the functionality of the base class. In the App class, we can override the onCreate() method, which is called when the application is launched, and perform the initialization of the QuickBlox Android SDK there. Thus, the App class becomes the entry point and control point for initializing and configuring various components, including the QuickBlox SDK, during the application’s startup. Also to init QuickBlox SDK you need to pass Application ID, Authorization Key, Authorization Secret, and Account Key to the init() method. How to get credentials is described in the Before you begin section.
Kotlin
private const val APPLICATION_ID = "67895"
private const val AUTH_KEY = "lkjdueksu7392kj"
private const val AUTH_SECRET = "BTFsj7Rtt27DAmT"
private const val ACCOUNT_KEY = "9yvTe17TmjNPqDoYtfqp"

class App : Application() {
    override fun onCreate() {
        super.onCreate()

        QBSDK.init(applicationContext, APPLICATION_ID, AUTH_KEY, AUTH_SECRET, ACCOUNT_KEY)
    }
}
SecurityIt’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. Instead you can Initialize QuickBlox SDK without Authorization Key and Secret
App class needs to be registered in the AndroidManifest.xml file.
XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <application
        android:name=".App"
        android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:theme="@style/Theme.QuickBloxUiKitApplication">
        <activity
            android:name=".MainActivity"
            android:exported="true">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/>
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>
</manifest>

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Step 4. Authenticate and start QuickBlox UIKit

Before sending your first message you need to authenticate users in the QuickBlox system. You can read more about different ways of authentication by this link. In our example, we show how to authenticate users with login and password. After successfully sign-in, you need to initialize the QuickBlox UIKit by invoking init(applicationContext) method of the QuickBlox UIKit and start the Dialogs screen by invoking show() method of the DialogActivity from your Activity.
Kotlin
class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)

        val user = QBUser()
        user.login = "userlogin"
        user.password = "userpassword"

        QBUsers.signIn(user).performAsync(object : QBEntityCallback<QBUser> {
            override fun onSuccess(user: QBUser?, bundle: Bundle?) {
                // init QuickBlox UIKit
                QuickBloxUiKit.init(applicationContext)
                // show Dialogs screen
                DialogsActivity.show(this@MainActivity)
            }

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

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Step 5. Send your first message

After successful authentication, you will be directed to the chat list screen. To send your first message, follow these steps:
  • Tap on the icon located in the top-right corner of the screen, specifically designed for creating a new chat.
  • Choose the type of chat you want to create. You can select either a private chat or a group chat.
  • If you selected a group chat, enter a name for the chat.
  • Select the users with whom you want to create the chat and tap the “Create” button.
  • After creating the chat, enter your first message and start sending it.
Now, your first message will be sent to the created chat and will be visible to other users who have joined the chat.
Quick start using our Android UIKit sampleThis sample implements authorization functionality and provides an example of color theme customization. Sample code available by this link. How to set up and run a sample, see the article in out blog Getting Started with the QuickBlox Android UIKit.