Discussion Forums  >  Plugins, Customizing, Source Code

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Absentia
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03/20/16 12:53 PM (8 years ago)

Is Socialize dead?

Has anybody been able to integrate Socialize lately with Facebook and Twitter login working perfectly? I spent about 5 hours trying to get it to work yesterday, but I was having all kinds of problems. Every time I would sign in with Twitter it would freeze when returning to the app, and every time I would post after logging in with Facebook the app would crash. On top of that I'm pretty sure the front page of their website hasn't been updated in 6 years - they have also been showcasing the same app on the front page for the last 6 years ("movie pal", which I can't even find in the App Store). Also, they didn't even bother to respond to this thread on their support page (which is a ghost town) - http://support.getsocialize.com/socialize/topics/is-socialize-dead This is a bummer as I have been searching high and low for a like/comment/chat SDK that I can implement on it's own as well as into the image gallery...preferably one that doesn't want to charge me $500 a month if my app gets somewhat popular. Most recently I tried https://sendbird.com - it seemed promising at first, but the SDK is probably the most confusing and convoluted that I've ever come across (for an amateur such as myself) I really miss Scringo...
 
MacApple
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03/20/16 01:07 PM (8 years ago)
Subscribing to this thread! Scringo was indeed a big loss.
 
Absentia
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03/22/16 11:57 PM (8 years ago)
I've spent the last couple of days trying out numerous different chat SDKs and I haven't really had any breakthroughs. It's crazy how unique and unmatched Scringo was and still is..it's really hard to believe that they couldn't make it successful. I'm sure if they had gone with the standard pay per monthly active user model they would probably be killing it right now. Anyway, at the moment https://sendbird.com is really looking like the best bet. $50 a month for 10,000 monthly active users seems pretty fair to me. The SDK documentation is pretty confusing, but I'm emailing with them right now to see if I can get it up and running.
 
ATRAIN53
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03/23/16 08:02 AM (8 years ago)
I've been tinkering with SendBird for a bit, want to use the chat feature for a project. I like their admin back end and how you can moderate the chat rooms - that's critical to have. Have been looking at their Push Notification feature as well. I also tried Quickblox SDK for chat and that was really difficult to integrate into BT. On top of that their samples all use Storyboards and pushing those views on top of BT code is a challenge and returning to the BT stack. I think Sendbird has a better admin panel and easier SDK to work with. They also use code for views so no storyboards to deal with. I used Cocoa Pods to integrate their SDK into my BT project. Try doing it this way, much easier than the manual install of frameworks. Cocoa Pods has always been a PITA to get working IMO, but they seems to have hammered out the bugs in Yosemite and it's working pretty well in OSX 10.10.5 with Xcode 7.1.1. Start with their sample project first and look at that in action before you try to add the SDK to a BT project. I noticed in their sample project the podfile it's missing AFNetworking. Add that and it will build and you can see it in action. It's pretty slick.
 
Absentia
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03/23/16 07:56 PM (8 years ago)
I actually did get the SDK to compile and show up in my app finally...turns out my initial struggles were a result of the outdated code in the sample UI views not matching up with the most recent framework. I downloaded the most recent sample project and everything actually came together pretty easily. Of course now that Sendbird is showing in my app, I have a whole new slew of issues. When I launched the send bird view I was expecting to see a sleek login screen for users to start out on, but instead I just get this blank white page - https://www.dropbox.com/s/7bgxrtc9iadbrp2/Simulator%20Screen%20Shot%20Mar%2023%2C%202016%2C%206.34.11%20PM.png?dl=0 I am wondering how to get this screen to show up - https://www.dropbox.com/s/88fjdysn9h4ga7l/sample_preview.jpg?dl=0 I think my main issue is I'm not sure how to implement the startSendBird method. The documentation says to paste this method - - (void) startSendBird { NSString *USER_ID = [SendBirdUtils deviceUniqueID]; NSString *USER_NAME = userName; messagingUserName = USER_NAME; messagingUserId = USER_ID; ChattingTableViewController *viewController = [[ChattingTableViewController alloc] init]; [viewController setViewMode:viewMode]; [viewController initChannelTitle]; [viewController setUserName:USER_NAME]; [viewController setUserId:USER_ID]; [self.navigationController pushViewController:viewController animated:NO]; } When I paste that I get an error telling me that "userName" is undeclared, and I have no idea what I am supposed to put in place of userName. I'm also having the issue of the Senbird view appearing behind the tab bar in my app, which means I am unable to tap the chat box and type anything. This can be solved with temporarily hiding the tab bar I suppose, but I am wondering if there are any commands in the api that would move the text entry box up above the tab bar
 
ATRAIN53
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03/25/16 06:53 AM (8 years ago)
I really like how their SDK uses that deviceUniqueID and a userName and doesn't require a login with passwords. That is key for an anonymous in-app messaging, much easier than creating full on user accounts to manage. Just copy the code from their sample view controller into your own BT plugin. That's where the code for a screen with the UITextfield and the 2 buttons to launch Chat or Messaging are. It's a little different from that screen pic you posted. You can customize it from there and add more functions and mod the colors/layout. Not sure about the tab issue, I stopped using them a while ago because of those issues. I'm more concerned with rotation on the plugin view I made on bigger devices. Their controllers are responsive, check out the applyConstraints method they use, it's impressive. I'm also looking to jazz it up with some audio notifications and then test it in the real world and see how responsive the chat really is. Then I'm gonna check out the Android SDK or maybe the React Native sample they have. It's really a nice SDK for chat and not overloaded. If you want me to send you my controller so you can see how I integrated it into a BT plugin, PM me :)
 
Absentia
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03/26/16 03:08 AM (8 years ago)
I actually just emailed somebody at Sendbird my whole project to see if they can get it working for me. If they get it up and running I'll paste the tweaks here. I'm really hoping I can get this working - it's crazy how much an app can retain users with a simple chat room
 

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