Azure Communication Chat client library for .NET - version 1.3.1
This package contains a C# SDK for Azure Communication Services for chat.
Source code | Package (NuGet) | Product documentation
Getting started
Install the package
Install the Azure Communication Chat client library for .NET with NuGet:
dotnet add package Azure.Communication.Chat
Prerequisites
You need an Azure subscription and a Communication Service Resource to use this package.
To create a new Communication Service, you can use the Azure Portal, the Azure PowerShell, or the .NET management client library.
Authenticate the client
User Access Tokens
User access tokens enable you to build client applications that directly authenticate to Azure Communication Services. For the generation of user access tokens, refer to User Access Tokens.
Using statements
using Azure.Communication.Identity;
using Azure.Communication.Chat;
Create a ChatClient
This will allow you to create, get, or delete chat threads.
ChatClient chatClient = new ChatClient(
endpoint,
new CommunicationTokenCredential(userToken));
Create a ChatThreadClient
The ChatThreadClient will allow you to perform operations specific to a chat thread, like update the chat thread topic, send a message, add participants to the chat thread, etc.
You can instantiate a new ChatThreadClient using the GetChatThread operation of the ChatClient with an existing thread id:
ChatThreadClient chatThreadClient = chatClient.GetChatThreadClient(chatThread.Id);
Key concepts
A chat conversation is represented by a thread. Each user in the thread is called a thread participant. Thread participants can chat with one another privately in a 1:1 chat or huddle up in a 1:N group chat. Users also get near-real time updates for when others are typing and when they have read the messages.
Once you initialized a ChatClient
class, you can do the following chat operations:
Create a thread
CreateChatThreadResult createChatThreadResult = await chatClient.CreateChatThreadAsync(topic: "Hello world!", participants: new ChatParticipant[] { });
ChatThreadProperties chatThread = createChatThreadResult.ChatThread;
Get a thread
ChatThread chatThread = chatClient.GetChatThread(chatThread.Id);
Get all threads for the user
Pageable<ChatThreadItem> threads = chatClient.GetChatThreads();
Delete a thread
chatClient.DeleteChatThread(chatThread.Id);
Once you initialized a ChatThreadClient
class, you can do the following chat operations:
Update a thread
chatThreadClient.UpdateTopic(topic: "Launch meeting");
Send a message
SendChatMessageResult sendChatMessageResult = chatThreadClient.SendMessage("Let's meet at 11am");
Update a message
chatThreadClient.UpdateMessage(sendChatMessageResult.Id, content: "Instead of 11am, let's meet at 2pm");
Get a message
ChatMessage message = chatThreadClient.GetMessage(sendChatMessageResult.Id);
Delete a message
chatThreadClient.DeleteMessage(sendChatMessageResult.Id);
Get messages
Pageable<ChatMessage> messages = chatThreadClient.GetMessages();
Get a list of participants
Pageable<ChatParticipant> chatParticipants = chatThreadClient.GetParticipants();
Add participants
chatThreadClient.AddParticipants(participants: new[] { new ChatParticipant(participantIdentifier) });
Remove a participant
chatThreadClient.RemoveParticipant(identifier: participantIdentifier);
Send a typing notification
chatThreadClient.SendTypingNotification();
Get a list of read receipts
Pageable<ChatMessageReadReceipt> readReceipts = chatThreadClient.GetReadReceipts();
Send a read receipt
chatThreadClient.SendReadReceipt(sendChatMessageResult.Id);
Thread safety
We guarantee that all client instance methods are thread-safe and independent of each other (guideline). This ensures that the recommendation of reusing client instances is always safe, even across threads.
Additional concepts
Client options | Accessing the response | Long-running operations | Handling failures | Diagnostics | Mocking | Client lifetime
Examples
The following sections provide several code snippets covering some of the most common tasks, including:
Thread Operations
Create a thread
Use CreateChatThread
to create a chat thread client object.
- Use
topic
to give a thread topic. - The following are the supported attributes for each thread participant:
communicationUser
, required, it is the identification for the thread participant.displayName
, optional, is the display name for the thread participantshareHistoryTime
, optional, time from which the chat history is shared with the participant.
ChatThreadClient
is the result returned from creating a thread, you can use it to perform other operations on the chat thread.
ChatClient chatClient = new ChatClient(
endpoint,
new CommunicationTokenCredential(userToken));
var chatParticipant = new ChatParticipant(identifier: kimberly)
{
DisplayName = "Kim"
};
CreateChatThreadResult createChatThreadResult = await chatClient.CreateChatThreadAsync(topic: "Hello world!", participants: new[] { chatParticipant });
string threadId = createChatThreadResult.ChatThread.Id;
ChatThreadClient chatThreadClient = chatClient.GetChatThreadClient(threadId);
Get a thread
Use GetChatThread
to retrieve a chat thread from the service.
threadId
is the unique id of the thread.
ChatThreadProperties chatThread = await chatThreadClient.GetPropertiesAsync();
Get threads (for a participant)
Use GetChatThreads
to get the list of chat threads for the participant that instantiated the chatClient.
AsyncPageable<ChatThreadItem> chatThreadItems = chatClient.GetChatThreadsAsync();
await foreach (ChatThreadItem chatThreadItem in chatThreadItems)
{
Console.WriteLine($"{ chatThreadItem.Id}");
}
Delete a thread
Use DeleteChatThread
to delete a thread.
threadId
is the unique id of the thread.
await chatClient.DeleteChatThreadAsync(threadId);
Update a thread
Use UpdateTopic
to update the chat thread topic.
topic
is used to describe the updated topic for the thread.
await chatThreadClient.UpdateTopicAsync(topic: "new topic !");
Message Operations
Send a message
Use SendMessage
to send a message to a thread.
- Use
content
to provide the content for the message, it is required. - Use
type
for the content type of the message such as 'Text' or 'Html'. If not specified, 'Text' will be set. - Use
senderDisplayName
to specify the display name of the sender. If not specified, empty string will be set.
SendChatMessageResult sendChatMessageResult = await chatThreadClient.SendMessageAsync(content:"hello world");
var messageId = sendChatMessageResult.Id;
Get a message
Use GetMessage
to retrieve a message from the service.
messageId
is the unique id of the message.
ChatMessage
is the response returned from getting a message, it contains an id, which is the unique identifier of the message, among other fields. Please refer to Azure.Communication.Chat.ChatMessage
ChatMessage chatMessage = await chatThreadClient.GetMessageAsync(messageId);
Get messages
Use GetMessages
to retrieve all messages for the chat thread.
AsyncPageable<ChatMessage> allMessages = chatThreadClient.GetMessagesAsync();
await foreach (ChatMessage message in allMessages)
{
Console.WriteLine($"{message.Id}:{message.Content.Message}");
}
Update a message
Use UpdateMessage
to update a message.
messageId
is the unique identifier of the message.content
is the message content to be updated.
await chatThreadClient.UpdateMessageAsync(messageId, "updated message content");
Delete a message
Use DeleteMessage
to delete a message.
messageId
is the unique identifier of the message.
await chatThreadClient.DeleteMessageAsync(messageId);
Thread Participant Operations
Get thread participants
Use GetParticipants
to retrieve the participants of the chat thread.
AsyncPageable<ChatParticipant> allParticipants = chatThreadClient.GetParticipantsAsync();
await foreach (ChatParticipant participant in allParticipants)
{
Console.WriteLine($"{((CommunicationUserIdentifier)participant.User).Id}:{participant.DisplayName}:{participant.ShareHistoryTime}");
}
Add thread participants
Use AddParticipants
to add one or more participants to the chat thread. The following are the supported attributes for each thread participant(s):
communicationUser
, required, it is the identification for the thread participant.displayName
, optional, is the display name for the thread participant.shareHistoryTime
, optional, time from which the chat history is shared with the participant.
var participants = new[]
{
new ChatParticipant(josh) { DisplayName = "Josh" },
new ChatParticipant(gloria) { DisplayName = "Gloria" },
new ChatParticipant(amy) { DisplayName = "Amy" }
};
await chatThreadClient.AddParticipantsAsync(participants);
Remove thread participant
Use RemoveParticipant
to remove a thread participant from the thread.
communicationUser
is the identification of the chat participant.
await chatThreadClient.RemoveParticipantAsync(gloria);
Events Operations
Send typing notification
Use SendTypingNotification
to indicate that the user is typing a response in the thread.
await chatThreadClient.SendTypingNotificationAsync();
Send read receipt
Use SendReadReceipt
to notify other participants that the message is read by the user.
await chatThreadClient.SendReadReceiptAsync(messageId);
Get read receipts
Use GetReadReceipts
to check the status of messages to see which ones are read by other participants of a chat thread.
AsyncPageable<ChatMessageReadReceipt> allReadReceipts = chatThreadClient.GetReadReceiptsAsync();
await foreach (ChatMessageReadReceipt readReceipt in allReadReceipts)
{
Console.WriteLine($"{readReceipt.ChatMessageId}:{((CommunicationUserIdentifier)readReceipt.Sender).Id}:{readReceipt.ReadOn}");
}
Troubleshooting
Service Responses
A RequestFailedException
is thrown as a service response for any unsuccessful requests. The exception contains information about what response code was returned from the service.
try
{
CreateChatThreadResult createChatThreadErrorResult = await chatClient.CreateChatThreadAsync(topic: "Hello world!", participants: new[] { josh });
}
catch (RequestFailedException ex)
{
Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
}
Next steps
Read more about Chat in Azure Communication Services
Contributing
This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit cla.microsoft.com.
This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact opencode@microsoft.com with any additional questions or comments.