Implementing Syde, An online Forum in Flutter (Update 4: Chatroom, Notification,Bookmark a story)

Repository

https://github.com/enyason/Syde

History

• Implementing Syde An online Forum in Flutter (Update 3 : Add Comments to a story)

• Implementing Syde An online Forum in Flutter (Update 2 : Post A Story, Retrieve All Stories)

• Implementing Syde An online Forum in Flutter (Update: Authenticate With Google)

• Implementing Syde(An online Forum) in Flutter

New Features

• Chat Room(Syde Chat)

• Bookmarking a story

• User Dash Board

• Adding Image Content(Chat Room and Creating a Story)

Chat Room

An interesting part of syde is the chatroom feature. Users on the platform can all communicate right from the chatroom.

Implementation

Implementing this part of the platform, FireStore of FireBase was used. FireStore NoSQL cloud database to store and sync data for the client- and server-side development. Firebase handles most of the back-end complexities allow the developer to focus on implementing important features of a product. In the chatroom, users can send two types of messages, either a text or an image.

• Getting Image from Phone

This was done by the help of a photo picker library https://pub.dartlang.org/packages/image_picker

The code block below shows this:

  Future getImage() async {

    _image = await ImagePicker.pickImage(source: ImageSource.gallery);
    uploadFile();
  }

• Basically, I call to the device gallery to pick an image and the response is stored to a global variable of type File.

• Uploading Image to storage

  Image contents from the phone is sent to firebase and stored in the storage bucket

    Future uploadFile() async {
  //upload file to server
      String fileName = DateTime.now().millisecondsSinceEpoch.toString()+_image.path;
      StorageReference reference = FirebaseStorage.instance.ref().child("syde_chat").child(fileName);
      StorageUploadTask uploadTask = reference.putFile(_image);
      StorageTaskSnapshot storageTaskSnapshot = await uploadTask.onComplete;
      storageTaskSnapshot.ref.getDownloadURL().then((downloadUrl) {
        _imageUrl = downloadUrl;
        setState(() {
  //        isLoading = false;
          _handleSubmitted(_imageUrl, 1);
        });
      }, onError: (err) {
  
        Toast.show('This file is not an image',context,duration: 1,backgroundColor: Colors.grey);
      });
    }
  

  • The file to upload is renamed to the current time in millisecond plus its file path

  • reference to the storage is made and then upload the image.

  • From the snapshot return, I get the link to the URL then pass it to the function that sends the entire message content to the database.

• Send message content to server

  The code block below handles sending the message content to the server

   void _handleSubmitted(String text, int type) async {
      //submit message to server
      if (text
          .trim()
          .length < 1) return;
  
      _textController.clear();
      
      var map = {
        "photoUrl": currentUser.photoUrl,
        "message": text,
        "sender": currentUser.displayName,
        "type": type,
        "sender_id": currentUser.uid,
        "timestamp": DateTime
            .now()
            .millisecondsSinceEpoch
            .toString()
      };
  
      DocumentReference documentReference = Firestore.instance
          .collection("chatroom")
          .document(DateTime
          .now()
          .millisecondsSinceEpoch
          .toString());
  
      Firestore.instance.runTransaction((transaction) async {
        await transaction.set(documentReference, map);
      });
    }
  }
  

  • The message content is structured in a map object.

  • A reference to the chat Collection is gotten then a transaction query is made.

  • A transaction is used, to prevent any potential race condition.

• Reveal Images in Detailed Form

  In the chat room screen, image content shared is shown in a little space. To reveal this image in detail, users can click on it, then another screen comes up displaying the image in full. The code block below reveals that

  class PhotoDialog extends StatelessWidget {
  
    final String _image;
    const PhotoDialog(this._image);
    @override
    Widget build(BuildContext context) {
      return Scaffold(
        backgroundColor: Colors.black,
        body: Center(
          child: Container(
            height: 500.0,
            width: double.infinity,
            color: Colors.black,
              child: PhotoView(
                imageProvider: CachedNetworkImageProvider(_image),
              )
          ),
        ),
      );
    }
  }
  

  • The photo view is a widget that permits zooming of images. This widget is made available from this library https://pub.dartlang.org/packages/photo_view

Images for chatroom

Bookmark a story

Users can now save a post to read later

Implementation

First, get users list of bookmark stories then use the id to fetch the individual stories to display a list;

 Widget getId() {
    return FutureBuilder(
        future: Firestore.instance
            .collection("saved_story")
            .document(uid)
            .collection("bookmark")
            .orderBy("time_stamp", descending: true)
            .getDocuments(),
        builder: (context, snapShot) {

          if (snapShot.connectionState == ConnectionState.waiting) {
            return Center(
              child: CircularProgressIndicator(
                  strokeWidth: 2,
                  valueColor: AlwaysStoppedAnimation<Color>(
                      Colors.black)),
            );
          }
          QuerySnapshot shot = snapShot.data;

          if (snapShot.hasData) {
            if ((shot.documents.length) < 1) {
              return Center(child: Text("No Story found"));
            }


              return makeNotificationItem(shot.documents);
            } else {
              return Center(child: Text("No Story found"),);
            }
          }

    );
  }

User Dash Board

User can view the profile and that of others on the platform

***Implementation ***: This was done using the users ID. with the user ID, information regarding a particular user is extracted. When the current user navigates to his profile, he as the access to edit his bio while other users can only view it

Notification

Part of syde is for users to get notified of upcoming events and job opportunities. The image below shows the implementation done.

Adding Image Content When Creating a Story

Recently updated syde to allow users to create a story with image content. The maximum number of images is two and they can see a preview of the images at the bottom of the page before preceding to make a post. Image below reveals this. To see this implementation, check the demo video to get a good view.

N/B

• I have introduced the bloc library to help implement the bloc pattern for effective state management. So far, i have re-factored the authentication and log in to work with the library.
• Also, I have included a license to the repository, as advised by utopian moderators.

Demo Video

IMPORTANT RESOURCES

*Github *: https://github.com/enyason/Syde

Commits

Commits on Apr 19, 2019

1. Merge pull request #2 from enyason/add-license-1

2. create license

Commits on Apr 12, 2019

1. added package for selecting an image from the Gallery

2. added package for selecting an image from the Gallery

3. improved UI of the chat room. I created a different layout to msg sent by… …

4. added a package to display a toast

Commits on Apr 11, 2019

1. created notification detailed page to display full notification details
2. updated the UI of the notification list page
3. get data snapshot with future builder rather than a stream builder
4. get data snapshot with future builder rather than a stream builder
5. added a delay of 200ms in between closing the nav drawer and opening … …
6. refactored the bookmark screen to work with future builder rather tha… …
7. implemented the bookmark screen

RoadMap

• Authenticate User
• Persisting user post
• Displaying all post
• Detailed screen implementation
• Story Reaction Implementation (like and unlike a story)
• Searching all posts
• Providing different layouts
• Display Notification
• ToDo for users to track their daily progress
• Push Notifications
• Posts sharing
• Users dashboard
• Searching all users
• Direct Messaging with Users
• ChatGroup
• Bookmarking post

How to contribute?

You can reach me by commenting on this post or send a message via enyasonjnr@gmail.com.If you want to make this application better, you can make a Pull Request.

Github