Retrieve Conversations

CometChat Allows you to fetch the list of conversations the logged-in user is a part of. This list of conversations consists of both user and group conversations.

Retrieve List of Conversations

In other words, as a logged-in user, how do I retrieve the latest conversations that I’ve been a part of?

To fetch the list of conversations, you can use the ConversationsRequest class. To use this class i.e. to create an object of the ConversationsRequest class, you need to use the ConversationsRequestBuilder class. The ConversationsRequestBuilder class allows you to set the parameters based on which the conversations are to be fetched.

The ConversationsRequestBuilder class allows you to set the below parameters:

Set Limit

This method sets the limit i.e. the number of conversations that should be fetched in a single iteration.

Swift

var conversationRequest = ConversationRequest.ConversationRequestBuilder(limit: 30)
  .build()

A Maximum of only 50 Conversations can be fetched at once. If you want to fetch more conversation, you can use the fetchNext() on the same conversationsRequest Object

Set Conversation Type

This method can be used to fetch user or group conversations specifically. The conversationType variable can hold one of the below two values: a. CometChat.conversationType.user(user) - Only fetches user conversation. b. CometChat.conversationType.group(group)- Only fetches group conversations.

If none is set, the list of conversations will include both user and group conversations.

Swift (User)

var conversationRequest = ConversationRequest.ConversationRequestBuilder(limit: 30)
  .setConversationType(conversationType: .group)
  .build();

With User and Group Tags

This method can be used to fetch the user/group tags in the Conversation Object. By default the value is false.

Swift

var conversationRequest = ConversationRequest.ConversationRequestBuilder(limit: 30)
  .withUserAndGroupTags(true)
  .build();

Set User Tags

This method fetches user conversations that have the specified tags.

Swift

let userTags = ["tag1"]
let conversationRequest = ConversationRequest.ConversationRequestBuilder(limit: 30)
  .setUserTags(userTags)
  .build();

Set Group Tags

This method fetches group conversations that have the specified tags.

Swift

let userTags = ["tag1"]
let conversationRequest = ConversationRequest.ConversationRequestBuilder(limit: 30)
  .setGroupTags(userTags)
  .build();

With Tags

This method makes sure that the tags associated with the conversations are returned along with the other details of the conversations. The default value for this parameter is false

Swift

var conversationRequest = ConversationRequest.ConversationRequestBuilder(limit: 30)
  .withTags(true)
  .build();

Set Tags

This method helps you fetch the conversations based on the specified tags.

Swift

let tags = ["pinned","archived"]
var conversationRequest = ConversationRequest.ConversationRequestBuilder(limit: 30)
  .setTags(tags)
  .build();

Include Blocked Users

This method helps you fetch the conversations of users whom the logged-in user has blocked.

Swift

var conversationRequest = ConversationRequest.ConversationRequestBuilder(limit: 30)
  .include(blockedUsers: true)
  .build();

With Blocked Info

This method can be used to fetch the blocked information of the blocked user in the ConversationWith object.

Swift

var conversationRequest = ConversationRequest.ConversationRequestBuilder(limit: 30)
  .with(blockedInfo: true)
  .build();

Search Conversations

This method helps you search a conversation based on User or Group name.

This feature is only available with Conversation & Advanced Search. The Conversation & Advanced Search is only available in Advanced & Custom plans. If you’re already on one of these plans, please enable the Conversation & Advanced Search from CometChat Dashboard (Open your app, navigate to Chats -> Settings -> General Configuration)

Swift

var conversationRequest = ConversationRequest.ConversationRequestBuilder(limit: 30)
  .set(searchKeyword: "Hiking")
  .build();

Unread Conversations

This method helps you fetch unread conversations.

This feature is only available with Conversation & Advanced Search. The Conversation & Advanced Search is only available in Advanced & Custom plans. If you’re already on one of these plans, please enable the Conversation & Advanced Search from CometChat Dashboard (Open your app, navigate to Chats -> Settings -> General Configuration)

Swift

var conversationRequest = ConversationRequest.ConversationRequestBuilder(limit: 30)
  .set(unread: true)
  .build();

Finally, once all the parameters are set to the builder class, you need to call the build() method to get the object of the ConversationsRequest class.

Once you have the object of the ConversationsRequest class, you need to call the fetchNext() method. Calling this method will return a list of Conversation objects containing X number of users depending on the limit set.

Swift (User)

let convRequest = ConversationRequest.ConversationRequestBuilder(limit: 20)
  .setConversationType(conversationType: .user)
  .build()

convRequest.fetchNext(onSuccess: { (conversationList) in
  print("success of convRequest \(conversationList)")
}) { (exception) in
  print("here exception \(String(describing: exception?.errorDescription))")
}

The Conversation object consists of the below fields:

Field	Information
conversationId	id of the conversation
conversationType	type of conversation (user/group)
lastMessage	last message in the conversation
conversationWith	User or Group object containing the details
unreadMessageCount	unread message count for the conversation
unreadMentionsCount	count of unread mentions in the conversation
lastReadMessageId	ID of the last read message in the conversation

Tag Conversation

In other words, as a logged-in user, how do I tag a conversation?

To tag a specific conversation, you can use the tagConversation() method. The tagConversation() method accepts three parameters.

1. conversationWith: UID/GUID of the user/group whose conversation you want to fetch.

2. conversationType: The conversationType variable can hold one of the below two values:

   1. user - Only fetches user conversation.
   2. group - Only fetches group conversations.

3. tags: The tags variable will be a list of tags you want to add to a conversation.

Swift

let id = "cometchat-uid-1"; //id of the user/group
let tags = ["pinned"];

CometChat.tagConversation(conversationWith: id, conversationType: .user, tags: tags,
  onSuccess: { conversation in
    print("conversation", conversation)
  },
  onError: { error in
    print("error", error)
  }
)

The tags for conversations are one-way. This means that if user A tags a conversation with user B, that tag will be applied to that conversation only for user A.

Retrieve Single Conversation

In other words, as a logged-in user, how do I retrieve a specific conversation?

To fetch a specific conversation, you can use the getConversation method. The getConversation method accepts two parameters.

1. conversationWith: UID/GUID of the user/group whose conversation you want to fetch.
2. conversationType: The conversationType variable can hold one of the below two values:

• user - Only fetches user conversation.
• group - Only fetches group conversations.

Swift (User)

CometChat.getConversation(conversationWith: "conversationWith", conversationType: .user) { conversation in
  print("success \(String(describing: conversation?.stringValue()))")
} onError: { error in
  print("error \(String(describing: error?.errorDescription))")
}

Get Conversation From Message

For real-time events, you will always receive Message objects and not conversation objects. Thus, you will need a mechanism to convert the Message object to the Conversation object. You can use the getConversationFromMessage(BaseMessage message) of the CometChatHelper class.

Swift

let myConversation = CometChat.getConversationFromMessage(message)

While converting a Message object to a Conversation object, the unreadMessageCount will not be available in the Conversation object. As this is for real-time events, the unread message count needs to be managed in your client-side code.