Multi Tab Chat UI Guide

This guide will help you achieve a tabbed layout (aka Multi-Tab Chat UI) of the components available in CometChatUIKit for Angular.

We’ll use the CometChatConversationsWithMessages, CometChatUsersWithMessages, and CometChatGroupsWithMessages components and launch them as individual tab items within the tabbed layout.

We recommend that you read the Key Concepts , follow the guidelines, and also take the time to familiarise yourself with the library’s components.

Step 1: Create a new component CometChatUI

cometchat-ui.component.ts

import { Component, HostListener, OnInit, TemplateRef, ViewChild } from '@angular/core';
import { CometChatTabItem } from '@cometchat/chat-uikit-angular';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-cometchat-ui',
  templateUrl: './cometchat-ui.component.html',
  styleUrls: ['./cometchat-ui.component.scss']
});

export class CometchatUiComponent implements OnInit {


}

Step 2: Include the Tabs component from the UI Kit and include the ConversationsWithMessages, UsersWithMessages, GroupsWithMessages components. We’ll also apply some styling to the tab items.

cometchat-ui.component.ts

import {
  Component,
  HostListener,
  OnInit,
  TemplateRef,
  ViewChild,
} from "@angular/core";
import { BaseStyle } from "@cometchat/uikit-elements";
import { TabItemStyle } from "@cometchat/uikit-shared";
import { CometChatTabItem } from "@cometchat/chat-uikit-angular";

export class CometchatUiComponent implements OnInit {
  //access the refs using view child
  @ViewChild("chatsRef", { static: false }) chatsRef!: TemplateRef<any>;
  @ViewChild("usersRef", { static: false }) usersRef!: TemplateRef<any>;
  @ViewChild("groupsRef", { static: false }) groupsRef!: TemplateRef<any>;

  public tabsStyle: BaseStyle = {
    border: "1px solid grey",
  };
  public tabs!: CometChatTabItem[]; //array of tabs item

  //Styling tab items
  public tabItemStyle: TabItemStyle = new TabItemStyle({
    height: "fit-content",
    width: "67px",
    background: "white",
    activeBackground: "white",
    titleTextColor: "RGBA(20, 20, 20, 0.46)",
    titleTextFont: "400 13px Inter",
    iconTint: "RGBA(20, 20, 20, 0.46)",
    activeIconTint: "RGB(51, 153, 255)",
    activeTitleTextColor: "RGB(51, 153, 255)",
    activeTitleTextFont: "RGB(51, 153, 255)",
  });

  //create an array of tabs item
  ngAfterViewInit() {
    setTimeout(() => {
      this.tabs = [
        {
          childView: this.chatsRef,
          title: "chats",
          id: "chats",
          iconURL: "assets/chats.svg",
          style: this.tabItemStyle,
        },
        {
          childView: this.usersRef,
          title: "users",
          id: "users",
          iconURL: "assets/user.svg",
          style: this.tabItemStyle,
        },
        {
          childView: this.groupsRef,
          title: "groups",
          iconURL: "assets/group.svg",
          id: "groups",
          style: this.tabItemStyle,
        },
      ];
    }, 0);
  }
}

Step 3: We’ll now set the isMobileView prop to true/false when the window resizes, so that the components will change to a mobile or desktop view accordingly.

cometchat-ui.component.ts

import { Component, HostListener, OnInit, TemplateRef, ViewChild } from '@angular/core';
import { BaseStyle } from '@cometchat/uikit-elements';
import { TabItemStyle } from '@cometchat/uikit-shared';
import { CometChatTabItem } from '@cometchat/chat-uikit-angular';

export class CometchatUiComponent implements OnInit {

  public innerWidth!: number;
  public isMobileView!: boolean;

	//access the refs using view child
	@ViewChild("chatsRef", { static: false }) chatsRef!: TemplateRef<any> ;
	@ViewChild("usersRef", { static: false }) usersRef!: TemplateRef<any>;
	@ViewChild("groupsRef", { static: false }) groupsRef!: TemplateRef<any>;

	public tabs!:CometChatTabItem[]; //array of tabs item

  //Styling tab items
  public tabItemStyle:TabItemStyle = new TabItemStyle({
    height: "fit-content",
    width: "67px",
    background: "white",
    activeBackground: "white",
    titleTextColor: "RGBA(20, 20, 20, 0.46)",
    titleTextFont: "400 13px Inter",
    iconTint: "RGBA(20, 20, 20, 0.46)",
    activeIconTint: "RGB(51, 153, 255)",
    activeTitleTextColor: "RGB(51, 153, 255)",
    activeTitleTextFont: "RGB(51, 153, 255)",
  });

	//updating mobile view and desktop view
	ngOnInit(): void {
		this.onResize();
	}

  //create an array of tabs item
  ngAfterViewInit() {
    setTimeout(() => {
       this.tabs = [
         {
           childView:this.chatsRef,
           title:"chats",
           id:"chats",
           iconURL:"assets/chats.svg",
           style:this.tabItemStyle
         },
         {
           childView:this.usersRef,
           title:"users",
           id:"users",
           iconURL:"assets/user.svg",
           style:this.tabItemStyle
         },
         {
         childView:this.groupsRef,
         title:"groups",
         iconURL:"assets/group.svg",
         id:"groups",
         style:this.tabItemStyle
         }
       ]
     },0);

   }

	//host listener fo
 	@HostListener("window:resize", []);
	onResize(): void {
    try {
    	this.innerWidth = window.innerWidth;
    if (
    (this.innerWidth as any) >=  "320" &&
    (this.innerWidth as any) <=  "767"
    ) {
    	this.isMobileView = true
    } else {
    	this.isMobileView = false
    }
    } catch (error) {}
	}

}

Step 4: Import the CometChatUI component into your App component.

app.module.ts

import { CUSTOM_ELEMENTS_SCHEMA, NgModule } from "@angular/core";
import { BrowserModule } from "@angular/platform-browser";
import {
  CometChatConversationsWithMessages,
  CometChatGroupsWithMessages,
  CometChatUsersWithMessages,
} from "@cometchat/chat-uikit-angular";

@NgModule({
  declarations: [AppComponent, CometchatUiComponent],
  imports: [
    BrowserModule,
    CometChatTabs,
    CometChatConversationsWithMessages,
    CometChatGroupsWithMessages,
    CometChatUsersWithMessages,
  ],
  providers: [],
  bootstrap: [AppComponent],
  schemas: [CUSTOM_ELEMENTS_SCHEMA],
})
export class AppModule {}

You can now see chats, users and group components each as tab items. This is how you can launch CometChat UIKit’s individual component in a tabbed layout. 🎉