Smack iOS App

Summary

• Slack-style Chat Messaging iOS App written in Swift
• Chat system based on Chat channels
• Independent personal project worked on as part of taking the Devslopes iOS11 App Developer Course on Udemy

Features

• Can make accounts with email to register as user with customizable profile icons
• Real-time chat messaging between users in channels
• Login verification in place
• Can join or create own chat channels
• Can see when other users in channel are typing
• Notification indicator for unread messages in other channels

Skills & Concepts Learned

• Used Course-provided Chat Web-API with connection to a MongoDB instance via mLabs add-on & deployed on Heroku
• Used Cocoapods to add functionality to app:
  • Alamofire - HTTP Networking Library written in Swift allowing simplified common networking tasks including:
    • Executing web requests (via chainable request/response methods)
    • Retrieving data from a RESTful API
  • SwiftyJSON - JSON-parsing library in Swift providing easier ability and syntax to handle JSON
  • Socket.IO-Client-Swift - Socket.IO client for Swift, allowing easier access to working with WebSockets for real-time event-based communication
• Used 3rd-Pary SWRevealViewController library to implement slide out menu for chat channel menu
• Learned to create web requests and API calls to a RESTful API to talk to a MongoDB database instance and process/parse JSON data
• Parsed/handled JSON data for handling information comprising chat messages
• Account login verification with help of Alamofire
• HTTP Methods for RESTful chat API via Alamofire for operations including account login, account creation, channel list retrieval, writing messages to chat channels, and more
• Event driven app using MVC pattern, learning about closures, completionHandlers, and callbacksS

Screenshots / Demo

Opening Screen / Chat Channel

Channel list

Account menu

Video demo of app & account creation process