Fiction Chat Client

Fiction Chat Client is the frontend component for integrating real-time chat into your application. It pairs with fiction-chat-server for a complete chat solution with WebSocket support for interactive and responsive user experiences.

Note: This package is intended to be used with fiction-chat-server, which provides the backend chat functionality for a complete setup.

Installation

Install the package using npm:

bash
Copy code
npm install fiction-chat-client

Configuration

To use Fiction Chat Client, import it into your application and configure the necessary properties. The component requires a valid token for authentication and URLs for the chat server and WebSocket.

Example Setup

'use client';
import { FictionChatClient } from 'fiction-chat-client';
import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';

export default function Home() {
  const [token, setToken] = useState('');

  useEffect(() => {
    console.log(token);
  }, [token]);

  return (
    <main>  
      <h1 className='text-3xl font-bold text-red-500'>Welcome to My Next.js App</h1>  
      <p>This is a simple React page built with Next.js</p>  
      <input  
        className='border-2'  
        type="text"  
        value={token}  
        onChange={(e) => setToken(e.target.value)}
      />
      <div className='flex flex-row w-full border-2 h-screen'>
        <FictionChatClient   
          authToken={token}   
          contentContainerClassName=' '   
          chatServerUrl={process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_CHAT_SERVER_URL}   
          chatWsUrl={process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_CHAT_WS_URL}
        />
      </div>
    </main>
  );
}

Note: Replace the placeholder token input with a real session token for production use.

Additional Hook: createConversation

To initiate a conversation before rendering the main component, use the createConversation hook by passing the recipient’s user ID:

javascript

import { createConversation } from 'fiction-chat-client';

// Example usage:  
const conversationId = createConversation(toId); // toId: recipient's user ID

Environment Variables

Set the following environment variables in your frontend project to connect to the backend chat server and WebSocket:

• NEXT_PUBLIC_CHAT_SERVER_URL: The URL path for the chat route on your server, configured in the backend setup. For example, if your backend route is defined at /api/chat, the value would be https://yourserver.com/api/chat.
• NEXT_PUBLIC_CHAT_WS_URL: The WebSocket URL to establish real-time chat, matching the websocketPort defined in your backend configuration. For example, if WEBSOCKET_PORT is set to 8080, this would be wss://yourserver.com:8080.

Ensure these variables match the route and WebSocket port in the backend implementation for seamless integration.

Example Implementation

For a complete frontend implementation with Fiction Chat Client in a Next.js application, refer to the page.js file here in the fiction-chat-example repository.

Support

For any questions or issues, contact us:

• Phone: [phone]
• Email: [e-mail]