How to add an Avatar image in GetStream iOS Activity Feed component? - ios

Question

My config: XCode 10.3, Swift 5, MacOS Catalina v10.15
I followed the native iOS Activity Feed demo (https://getstream.io/ios-activity-feed/tutorial/?language=python) to successfully add an activity feed to my XCode project.
How do I add an avatar image for each user? Here is what I have tried so far:
I uploaded an avatar image to my backend storage, obtained the corresponding URL, and used a json object to create a new user using my backend server like so:
{
"id" : "cqtGMiITVSOLE589PJaRt",
"data" : {
"name" : "User4",
"avatarURL" : "https:\/\/firebasestorage.googleapis.com\/v0\/b\/champXXXXX.appspot.com\/o\/profileImage%2FcqtGMiITVSOLXXXXXXXX"
}
}
Verified that user was created successfully, but the FlatFeedPresenter view controller shows up with a blank avatar image even though activities in the feed show up correctly. How can I use the user's data.avatarURL property to populate the avatar image correctly?
Here is the StreamActivity ViewController class behind the Main storyboard.
import UIKit
import GetStream
import GetStreamActivityFeed
class StreamActivityViewController: FlatFeedViewController<GetStreamActivityFeed.Activity> {
let textToolBar = TextToolBar.make()
override func viewDidLoad() {
if let feedId = FeedId(feedSlug: "timeline") {
let timelineFlatFeed = Client.shared.flatFeed(feedId)
presenter = FlatFeedPresenter<GetStreamActivityFeed.Activity>(flatFeed: timelineFlatFeed, reactionTypes: [.likes, .comments])
}
super.viewDidLoad()
setupTextToolBar()
subscribeForUpdates()
}
override func tableView(_ tableView: UITableView, didSelectRowAt indexPath: IndexPath) {
let detailViewController = DetailViewController<GetStreamActivityFeed.Activity>()
detailViewController.activityPresenter = activityPresenter(in: indexPath.section)
detailViewController.sections = [.activity, .comments]
present(UINavigationController(rootViewController: detailViewController), animated: true)
}
func setupTextToolBar() {
textToolBar.addToSuperview(view, placeholderText: "Share something...")
// Enable image picker
textToolBar.enableImagePicking(with: self)
// Enable URL unfurling
textToolBar.linksDetectorEnabled = true
textToolBar.sendButton.addTarget(self,
action: #selector(save(_:)),
for: .touchUpInside)
textToolBar.updatePlaceholder()
}
#objc func save(_ sender: UIButton) {
// Hide the keyboard.
view.endEditing(true)
if textToolBar.isValidContent, let presenter = presenter {
// print("Message validated!")
textToolBar.addActivity(to: presenter.flatFeed) { result in
// print("From textToolBar: \(result)")
}
}
}
}
UPDATE:
I updated the AppDelegate as suggested in the answer below, but avatar image still does not update even though rest of the feed does load properly. Set a breakpoint at the following line and found that avatarURL property of createdUser is nil even though streamUser.avatarURL is set correctly.
print("createdUser: \(createdUser)")
Updated AppDelegate code (had to comment out
initialViewController?.reloadData() to address a "Value of type 'UIViewController' has no member 'reloadData'" error -- not sure whether is contributing to the avatar issue.)
import UIKit
import Firebase
import GetStream
import GetStreamActivityFeed
import GoogleSignIn
#UIApplicationMain
class AppDelegate: UIResponder, UIApplicationDelegate {
var window: UIWindow?
func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
FirebaseApp.configure()
GIDSignIn.sharedInstance()?.clientID = FirebaseApp.app()?.options.clientID
Database.database().isPersistenceEnabled = true
configureInitialRootViewController(for: window)
return true
}
}
extension AppDelegate {
func configureInitialRootViewController(for window: UIWindow?) {
let defaults = UserDefaults.standard
let initialViewController: UIViewController
if let _ = Auth.auth().currentUser, let userData = defaults.object(forKey: Constants.UserDefaults.currentUser) as? Data, let user = try? JSONDecoder().decode(AppUser.self, from: userData) {
initialViewController = UIStoryboard.initialViewController(for: .main)
AppUser.setCurrent(user)
Client.config = .init(apiKey: Constants.Stream.apiKey, appId: Constants.Stream.appId, token: AppUser.current.userToken)
let streamUser = GetStreamActivityFeed.User(name: user.name, id: user.id)
let avatarURL = URL(string: user.profileImageURL)
streamUser.avatarURL = avatarURL
Client.shared.create(user: streamUser) { [weak initialViewController] result in
if let createdUser = try? result.get() {
print("createdUser: \(createdUser)")
// Refresh from here your view controller.
// Reload data in your timeline feed:
// initialViewController?.reloadData()
}
}
} else {
initialViewController = UIStoryboard.initialViewController(for: .login)
}
window?.rootViewController = initialViewController
window?.makeKeyAndVisible()
}
}

Answer 1

The recommended approach is to ensure the user exists on Stream's side in AppDelegate.
extension AppDelegate {
func configureInitialRootViewController(for window: UIWindow?) {
let defaults = UserDefaults.standard
let initialViewController: UIViewController
if let _ = Auth.auth().currentUser, let userData = defaults.object(forKey: Constants.UserDefaults.currentUser) as? Data, let user = try? JSONDecoder().decode(AppUser.self, from: userData) {
initialViewController = UIStoryboard.initialViewController(for: .main)
AppUser.setCurrent(user)
Client.config = .init(apiKey: Constants.Stream.apiKey,
appId: Constants.Stream.appId,
token: AppUser.current.userToken,
logsEnabled: true)
let streamUser = GetStreamActivityFeed.User(name: user.name, id: user.id)
streamUser.avatarURL = user.avatarURL
// ensures that the user exists on Stream (if not it will create it)
Client.shared.create(user: streamUser) { [weak initialViewController] result in
if let createdUser = try? result.get() {
Client.shared.currentUser = createdUser
// Refresh from here your view controller.
// Reload data in your timeline feed:
// flatFeedViewController?.reloadData()
}
}
} else {
initialViewController = UIStoryboard.initialViewController(for: .login)
}
window?.rootViewController = initialViewController
window?.makeKeyAndVisible()
}
}