Build A Chat App With Flutter With MirrorFly's Chat SDK

Question

"Below are detailed yet simple steps on how to build a Flutter chat application without any hassles and using Firebase for authentication."

Trust me or not, but today Flutter has become the most popular cross-platform framework preferred by developers globally for developing chat applications within a short time and helping businesses boost user engagement, retention, and satisfaction. And you can build a chat app in Flutter either from the scratch or simply use Flutter chat SDKs from various third-party providers like MirrorFly or Stream.

So, in this article or call it a tutorial, we are going to see how to use MirrorFly's chat SDK for building Flutter chat application along with covering why you should choose this framework amongst the many that are available in the market.

Why Flutter For Building Chat Apps?

So far we know that Flutter is a powerful framework brought in by Google to build high-quality chat software within the shortest time possible. But besides this, there are other benefits or we can say top reasons why the framework is preferred by the developer community. For:

1. Cross-platform compatibility - Being a cross-platform framework, you can build apps for multiple devices using a single codebase and alleviate the stress of writing codes for each platform.

2. User-friendliness - Flutter is highly customizable and because of which you can create a modern chat system that attracts user's attention and helps them keep retained within the app.

3. Hot-reload - This particular framework helps you see the changes that you make in the code in real-time, without affecting the existing app state.

Other than this, it is the shorter development time without having to compromise on the quality of the app built. Now, let us move to the big play.

Steps to build a Flutter Chat App with Mirrofly Flutter SDK

Below, we will see some of the steps to integrate MirrorFly's Flutter chat SDK into your existing Flutter chat app for enhancing your messaging experience and functionality. And before we step into that, we will see how to set up the development environment and basic requirements you must do beforehand.

Step 1: Set Up Your Flutter Environment

You need to install Android Studio for working with the Flutter framework and have it set up. Besides these, your minimum requirements will include -

1. Flutter 2.0.0. or later versions
2. Android 4.4 or later
3. MirrorFly chat SDKs and license key
4. Dart 2.12.0 or later
5. Firebase account for authentication
6. Java 7 or higher

Step 2: Get MirrorFly SDK & License Key

Your next step will be to create a MirrorFly account and verify the same by clicking on the confirmation link sent to your Email ID. Once you have completed that, sign in to your account and complete the account set up process.

Then download the Flutter SDK package and extract the required files to your device. Post this step, make a note of your license key by revisiting your MirrorFly account dashboard.

Step 3: Build Your Flutter Chat App Project

Here, you need to create a new Android project by setting up the Flutter language as your development language. You can do this by opening the Android Studio IDE, filling the basic information, importing dependencies to your app's folder.

Once you do this, your next step will be to add pubspec.yaml file. Then, to avoid conflicts that may occur by importing multiple files, you need to add - android.enable Jetfire=true in the gradle.properties. Finally, you need to configure the license key acquired from the MirrorFly account's dashboard in the app/build.gradle of the Flutter project.

Step 4: Add MirrorFly Chat SDK to Your Flutter App

Now, you must create Android and iOS dependencies. To do that, you need to find the build-gradle component in the root directory of your Android folder and add the below code:

android {
    packagingOptions {
        exclude 'META-INF/AL2.0'
        exclude 'META-INF/DEPENDENCIES'
        exclude 'META-INF/LICENSE'
        exclude 'META-INF/LICENSE.txt'
        exclude 'META-INF/license.txt'
        exclude 'META-INF/NOTICE'
        exclude 'META-INF/NOTICE.txt'
        exclude 'META-INF/notice.txt'
        exclude 'META-INF/ASL2.0'
        exclude 'META-INF/LGPL2.1'
        exclude("META-INF/*.kotlin_module")
    }
}

Likewise, go to the end of your iOS/Podfile and add the code dependencies for your iOS project:

post_install do |installer|
  installer.pods_project.targets.each do |target|
flutter_additional_ios_build_settings(target)
target.build_configurations.each do |config|
  config.build_settings['IPHONEOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET'] = '12.1'
  config.build_settings['ENABLE_BITCODE'] = 'NO'
  config.build_settings['APPLICATION_EXTENSION_API_ONLY'] = 'No'
  config.build_settings['BUILD_LIBRARY_FOR_DISTRIBUTION'] = 'YES'
  config.build_settings['EXCLUDED_ARCHS[sdk=iphonesimulator*]'] = "arm64"
end end end

Your final step should be adding the Flutter dependencies by adding the import 'package:mirrorfly_plugin/mirrorfly.dart' code in the pubspec.yaml section.

Step5: Initializing MirrorFly SDK

To initialize the MirrorFly plugin, you need to add the following code in the prime function of your main.dart file, just before the runApp().

  void main() {
  WidgetsFlutterBinding.ensureInitialized();
  Mirrorfly.initializeSDK(
    licenseKey: LICENSE_KEY,
    iOSContainerID: iOS_APP_GROUP_ID,
    chatHistoryEnable: ENABLE_CHAT_HISTORY);
  runApp(const MyApp());
}

Step 6: User Registration and Authentication

Here in this step you need to register a user in Sandbox Live mode by following the below instructions:

Mirrorfly.registerUser(userIdentifier).then((value) {
// you will get the user registration response
var userData = registerModelFromJson(value); }).catchError((error) {
// Register user failed print throwable to find the exception details. debugPrint (error.message);
});

Also note that the registerUser function described above will not pass and accept the FCM_TOKEN during the registration process. Then, you can use the var userJid = await MirrorFly.getJid(username); to send the message and use the onMessageReceived.listen() to receive the message from the user.

Step 7: Building the Chat Interface in Flutter

Inorder to build the chat interface using the Flutter widgets you can use a ListView function to list the conversations made and add the send button by customizing the code.

Step 8: Advanced Features

While this tutorial has only specified how to register a user and send a message, you can also add other top features like group chats, push notifications, typing and presence indicators, and media sharing using MirrorFly's Flutter chat SDK. For more information on how to use this code, check out their documentation.

Step 9: Testing and Debugging

This is the final step where once you have written the code, you must check for errors, and connectivity issues, message validation checks, UI updates, and other debugging related issues that may arise before deployment.

Step 10: Deployment

Once you have completed the above steps and everything is tested, you need to prepare for release by updating the build.grade file and using the below code - flutter build apk - release and flutter build ios - release.

Then you can deploy onto the Play Store and App Store respectively.

Final Thoughts!

So this was all, some of the simple steps that will help you build a Flutter messaging app with MirrorFly's chat SDK libraries. And I hope that this tutorial was the one that you were searching for your needs. Plus, by using these codes, you can add the required features and functionalities, and in case you have doubts or need clarification on any of the steps, you can write to use, or visit MirrorFly's tutorial page.

With these, the provider also offers Flutter UI kits to build exceptional UI by just dragging and dropping your desired components. Amazing is it not? That's all for now, we will meet soon in yet another post, bye!