is it possible to hide message bubble

Question

I'm using JSQMessagesViewController to implement chat in my iOS app. I need to display some system messages in the middle of the screen (see attached picture). I was hoping that I can achieve that by using the message bottom label and not showing the message bubble. But I haven't found a way to hide the message bubble. Is it possible? Thanks.

Answer 1

I sort of achieved what I need by overriding collectionView sizeForItemAtIndexPath function and return a height of kJSQMessagesCollectionViewCellLabelHeightDefault, then return nil for both messageBubbleImageDataForItemAtIndexPath and avatarImageDataForItemAtIndexPath

override func collectionView(collectionView: UICollectionView, layout collectionViewLayout: UICollectionViewLayout, sizeForItemAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> CGSize {
    let userMessageCellSize = super.collectionView(collectionView, layout: collectionViewLayout, sizeForItemAtIndexPath: indexPath)
    let message = messages[indexPath.item]
    if message.type == MessageType.System {
        // for system message, only show bottom label, plus the top label when timestamp needs to be displayed
        // this will hide the avatar image and message bubble which are not needed for system messages.
        var newHeight: CGFloat = 0
        if (shouldDisplayTimestamp(indexPath)) {
            newHeight = kJSQMessagesCollectionViewCellLabelHeightDefault * 2
        } else {
            newHeight = kJSQMessagesCollectionViewCellLabelHeightDefault
        }
        return CGSizeMake(userMessageCellSize.width, newHeight)
    } else {
        return super.collectionView(collectionView, layout: collectionViewLayout, sizeForItemAtIndexPath: indexPath)
    }
}

override func collectionView(collectionView: JSQMessagesCollectionView!, messageBubbleImageDataForItemAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath!) -> JSQMessageBubbleImageDataSource! {
    let message = messages[indexPath.item]

    if message.type == MessageType.System {
        return nil
    }

    if message.senderId == senderId{
        return self.outgoingBubbleImageView
    } else {
        return self.incomingBubbleImageView
    }
}

override func collectionView(collectionView: JSQMessagesCollectionView!, avatarImageDataForItemAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath!) -> JSQMessageAvatarImageDataSource! {
    let message = messages[indexPath.item]

    if message.type == MessageType.System {
        return nil
    }

    if let avatar = avatars[message.senderDisplayName] {
        return avatar
    } else {
        setupAvatarImage(message.senderDisplayName, imageUrl: message.profileImgUrl, incoming: true)
        return avatars[message.senderDisplayName]
    }
}