Making a chat application with parse.com and choosing recipients

Question

I've been stuck on this for a couple of days now. I made a chat application using parse.com with this tutorial at https://github.com/codepath/android_guides/wiki/Building-Simple-Chat-Client-with-Parse How do I make it so that the user can select a recipient (another parseUser)? I want to make it so that the app will be one on one chatting or as a group chat. Right now the app doesn't have a "choose a recipient" option so the chats are coming in to every parseUser.

Answer 1

Add to the Message.java:

...

public String getReceiverId() {
    return getString("receiverId");
}

public void setReceiverId(String receiverId) {
    put("receiverId", receiverId);
}

...

Then in the ChatActivity.java you need to send the id of the friend you want to send a message to. I use intent to pass it through on clicking on a friend in a listview.

private static String sFriendsId;
....

Intent callingIntent = getIntent();
sFriendsId = callingIntent.getExtras().getString("friendsObjectId");

Then under the setupMessagePosting() method you need to set the receiver id:

   // When send button is clicked, create message object on Parse
    btSend.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {

        @Override
        public void onClick(View v) {
            String body = etMessage.getText().toString();
            // Use Message model to create new messages now
            Message message = new Message();
            message.setUserId(sUserId);
            message.setReceiverId(sFriendsId);
            message.setBody(body);
            message.saveInBackground(new SaveCallback() {
                @Override
                public void done(ParseException e) {
                    receiveMessage();
                }
            });
            etMessage.setText("");
        }
    });

Lastly add to the receiveMessage() method:

...
    // Sent Messages Query
    ParseQuery<Message> sentMessagesQuery = ParseQuery.getQuery(Message.class);
    sentMessagesQuery.whereEqualTo("userId", sUserId);
    sentMessagesQuery.whereEqualTo("receiverId", sFriendsId);

    // Receiver Messages Query
    ParseQuery<Message> receiveMessagesQuery = ParseQuery.getQuery(Message.class);
    receiveMessagesQuery.whereEqualTo("userId", sFriendsId);
    receiveMessagesQuery.whereEqualTo("receiverId", sUserId); //receiver is me (current user)

    // Combine the queries
    List<ParseQuery<Message>> queries = new ArrayList<>();
    queries.add(sentMessagesQuery);
    queries.add(receiveMessagesQuery);

    // Get the messages
    ParseQuery<Message> mainQuery = ParseQuery.or(queries);
    // Configure limit and sort order
    mainQuery.setLimit(MAX_CHAT_MESSAGES_TO_SHOW);
    mainQuery.orderByAscending("createdAt");

    mainQuery.findInBackground(new FindCallback<Message>() {
....