Add a Pre-Conversation ViewController

When implemented, a user sees the following displayed below an article in the article view controller:

• Preview of comments (preConversationVC) from the conversation
• Text box to enter comments
• Button to show all comments

If a user clicks the button to see more comments, the SDK opens a new ViewController which displays all comments from the conversation.

If a user clicks on the text box, the creation screen appears to enable the user to type a comment.

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Requirement

    OpenWeb iOS SDK

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Implementation

Use the following steps to add a Conversation:

1. Implement the SpotImLoginDelegate protocol. This delegate is called when a user that is not logged in tries to post a comment when guest commenting is not allowed. An empty implementation can also be provided.

📘

You can learn more about the SpotImLoginDelegate in the Implement SSO for the OpenWeb iOS SDK article.

extension ArticleViewController: SpotImLoginDelegate {
   func startLoginUIFlow(navigationController: UINavigationController)
      // Show your login UI flow here, you can either `push` or `present` it
      // Once the flow is done and SSO is completed we will dismiss the whole navigation stack
      // You can still dismiss your UI at the end, but we will do it regardless  
   }

   func renewSSOAuthentication(userId: String) {
      // Renew SSO - Basically silent SSO again to keep the user connected
      // This function will be called once a token is no longer valid and a user was connected from before
      // Follow the above steps to renew the SSO
   }
}

2. Create an instance of SpotImSDKFlowCoordinator. Make sure to have a strong reference, otherwise the instance of SpotImSDKFlowCoordinator will be deallocated.

SpotIm.createSpotImFlowCoordinator(loginDelegate: self) { [weak self] result in
    guard let self = self else { return }                                                     
        switch result {
            case .success(let coordinator):
            self.spotIMCoordinator = coordinator
            case .failure(let error):
            print(error)
        }
}

3. Instantiate preConversationVC for a specific article. Be sure to replace the placeholder text for the POST_ID, url, title, subtitle, and thumbnailUrl.
   
   The preConversationVC will be passed into the completion block.

let articleMetadata = SpotImArticleMetadata(url: "URL TO THE ARTICLE PAGE ON THE WEB", 
                                            title: "ARTICLE TITLE", 
                                            subtitle: "ARTICLE SUBTITLE", 
                                            thumbnailUrl: "URL TO ARTICLE THUMBNAIL IMAGE")

spotIMCoordinator?.preConversationController(
    withPostId: "POST ID",
    articleMetadata: articleMetadata,
    numberOfPreLoadedMessages: 2, // This is optional, Default = 2, Maximum = 15
    navigationController: navigationController,
    completion: { [weak self] preConversationVC in
    // add preConversationVC to your view controller
  }
)

4. Add preConversationVC as a child to another view controller.
5. Add the preConversationVC.view to a view of another view controller or of a container view.
6. Lay out the preConversationVC view.
7. Call the open func didMove(toParent parent: UIViewController?) method of the preConversationVC instance.

preConversationVC.view.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false

self.addChild(preConversationVC)
self.containerView.addSubview(preConversationVC.view)

preConversationVC.view.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.containerView.topAnchor).isActive = true
preConversationVC.view.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.containerView.leadingAnchor).isActive = true
preConversationVC.view.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.containerView.bottomAnchor).isActive = true
preConversationVC.view.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: self.containerView.trailingAnchor).isActive = true

preConversationVC.didMove(toParent: self)

💡

Make sure the container view can be resized when the PreConversationViewController is filled with comments.

To understand when the view gets resized, implement theSpotImLayoutDelegate protocol and get a callback through the viewHeightDidChange(to newValue: CGFloat) method. To get the callback, make sure to set the layout delegate in the SpotImSDKFlowCoordinator before trying to load the view.

spotIMCoordinator.setLayoutDelegate(delegate: YOUR_DELEGATE_IMPLEMENTATION)

8. (Optional) Customize the Conversation.