Links

Encode URLs (www, http, https) as clickable links or create hyperlinks with custom text.

Generic referencing

Channel references, user mentions, and links share the same MessageElement structure with different MentionTarget values.

Add links

addMention() adds a link to a draft message.

Method signature

Call addMention() with target set to MentionTarget.Url. See addMention() for details.

Sample code

Create the Hello Alex! I have sent you this link on the #offtopic channel. message where link is a URL.

1// create an empty message draft
2val messageDraft = channel.createMessageDraft(isTypingIndicatorTriggered = channel.type != ChannelType.PUBLIC)
3

4// add the text
5messageDraft.update(text = "Hello Alex! I have sent you this link on the #offtopic channel.")
6

7// add a link to the string 'link'
8messageDraft.addMention(offset = 33, length = 4, target = MentionTarget.Url(url = "www.pubnub.com"))

Remove links

removeMention() removes a link from a draft message.

Method signature

Call removeMention() at the exact offset where the link starts. See removeMention() for details.

Offset value

If you don't provide the position of the first character of the message element to remove, it isn't removed.

Sample code

Remove the link from the Hello Alex! I have sent you this link on the #offtopic channel. message where link is a URL.

1// assume the message reads
2// Hello Alex! I have sent you this link on the #offtopic channel.`
3

4// remove the link mention
5messageDraft.removeMention(offset = 33)

Get link suggestions

The message elements listener returns link suggestions that match the 3-letter string in the draft.

Single listener

The message elements listener returns suggested mentions for channel references, user mentions, and links.

Method signature

Add a message elements listener to receive link suggestions. See addChangeListener() for details.

Sample code

1// create a message draft
2val messageDraft = channel.createMessageDraft(isTypingIndicatorTriggered = channel.type != ChannelType.PUBLIC)
3

4// add the listener
5val listener = { elements: List<MessageElement>, suggestedMentions: PNFuture<List<SuggestedMention>> ->
6        updateUI(elements) // updateUI is your own function for updating UI
7        suggestedMentions.async { result ->
8            result.onSuccess { updateSuggestions(it) } // updateSuggestions is your own function for displaying suggestions
9        }
10    }
11messageDraft.addChangeListener(listener)

Get text links

getMessageElements() returns URLs as link elements in published messages. Customize rendering with your own functions. This method also handles mention rendering.

Method signature

This method has the following signature:

1message.getMessageElements(): List<MessageElement>

Input

This method doesn't take any parameters.

Output

Type	Description
List<MessageElement>	A list of message elements representing parsed components of the input text, including processed user mentions, links, and referenced channels based on the available data.

Each MessageElement on the returned list can be of one of these types:

• data class PlainText(override val text: String) : MessageElement
• data class Link(override val text: String, val target: MentionTarget) : MessageElement

If a MessageElement is of type Link, its target depends on the returned item:

// Mentioned user identified by [userId].
data class User(val userId: String) : MentionTarget


// Referenced channel identified by [channelId].
data class Channel(val channelId: String) : MentionTarget


// Link to [url].
data class Url(val url: String) : MentionTarget

MessageElement details

Sample code

Get all text links included in the message with the 16200000000000000 timetoken.

1chat.getChannel("incident-management").async { channelResult ->
2    channelResult.onSuccess { channel ->
3        // Successfully retrieved the channel
4        channel?.getMessage(16200000000000000L)?.async { messageResult ->
5            messageResult.onSuccess { message ->
6                // Handle success
7                val elements = message?.getMessageElements()
8

9                // Find and print all text links in the message elements
10                val textLinks = elements?.filter { it is Link && it.target is Url }
11                
12                if (textLinks.isNotEmpty()) {
13                    println("Text links in the message:")
14                    textLinks.forEach { link ->
15                        println(link) // Print or process each text link as required
16                    }
17                } else {
18                    println("No text links found in the message.")
19                }
20            }.onFailure { error ->
21                // Handle failure
22                println("Failed to retrieve the message: ${error.message}")
23            }
24        }
25    }.onFailure { error ->
26        // Failed to retrieve the channel
27        println("Failed to retrieve the channel: ${error.message}")
28    }
29}

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Get text links (deprecated)

textLinks returns all text links in a message.

Method signature

This is how you can access the property:

1message.textLinks

Sample code

Get all text links included in the message with the 16200000000000000 timetoken.

1val channel = chat.getChannel("your-channel")
2

3channel.getMessage(16200000000000000).async { result ->
4    result.onSuccess { message: Message? ->
5        if (message != null) {
6            // Access the textLinks property
7            val textLinks = message.textLinks
8            
9            if (textLinks != null && textLinks.isNotEmpty()) {
10                println("The message contains the following text links:")
11                textLinks.forEach { textLink ->
12                    println("Link: ${textLink.link}, Start Index: ${textLink.startIndex}, End Index: ${textLink.endIndex}")
13                }
14            } else {
15                println("The message does not contain any text links.")
16            }
17        } else {
18            println("Message does not exist")
19        }
20    }.onFailure { exception: PubNubException ->
21        println("Exception occurred: ${exception.message}")
22    }
23}

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