Easy Chat Socket 🚀

A comprehensive, enterprise-ready Flutter package that abstracts WebSocket connections specifically for real-time chat applications. Built to handle auto-reconnection, heartbeats, and strongly-typed messaging for both P2P and Group chats.

📖 Table of Contents

Features

  • ✅ Auto-Reconnection: Intelligent exponential backoff strategy for network drops.
  • ✅ Heartbeat (Ping/Pong): Background timer to prevent OS-level socket termination.
  • ✅ Strongly-Typed Models: Native models for Messages and Typing indicators.
  • ✅ P2P & Group Support: Native support for chatId and receiverIds.
  • ✅ Reactive UI: Dedicated broadcast streams for seamless StreamBuilder integration.
  • ✅ Lifecycle Management: Clean dispose() hooks for all timers and controllers.

Installation

Add this to your pubspec.yaml:

dependencies:
  easy_chat_socket:
    path: ./path/to/easy_chat_socket

Then run:

flutter pub get

Quick Start

import 'package:easy_chat_socket/easy_chat_socket.dart';

// 1. Initialize
final chatSocket = EasyChatSocket(
  uri: Uri.parse('wss://your-api.com/chat'),
  token: 'YOUR_JWT_TOKEN',
);

// 2. Connect
await chatSocket.connect();

// 3. Join a chat room
chatSocket.joinChat('room_123');

// 4. Send a message
chatSocket.sendMessage('Hello World!', chatId: 'room_123');

// 5. Listen to messages
chatSocket.onChatMessage.listen((msg) {
  print('Received: ${msg.content}');
});

API Reference

EasyChatSocket

The core class managing the connection and event dispatching.

Property Type Description
statusStream Stream<ChatSocketStatus> Broadcast stream of connection state updates.
onChatMessage Stream<ChatMessage> Stream of incoming chat messages (strongly typed).
onTypingEvent Stream<TypingEvent> Stream of typing status updates.
onReadReceipt Stream<Map> Stream of message read receipts.

Methods:

  • connect(): Initializes the connection.
  • disconnect(): Manually closes the connection and stops retries.
  • joinChat(chatId): Joins a specific room.
  • sendMessage(content, {chatId, receiverIds}): Sends a message.
  • sendTyping({chatId, isTyping}): Sends a typing status.
  • markAsRead(messageId, {chatId}): Sends a read receipt.
  • inConversation(id): Returns a filtered stream for a specific room or user.
  • dispose(): Completely cleans up all resources.

ChatMessage Model

Property Type Description
content String The text content of the message.
senderId String? The unique ID of the sender.
senderName String? The display name of the sender.
chatId String? The ID of the chat room (null for P2P).
timestamp DateTime When the message was created.
isGroup bool Getter: returns true if chatId != null.

TypingEvent Model

Property Type Description
isTyping bool True if user started typing, False if they stopped.
userId String? The ID of the user typing.
chatId String? The ID of the room where the typing is happening.

Advanced Usage

Authentication

Pass your JWT or Auth token in the constructor. The package uses this for secure handshaking.

EasyChatSocket(
  uri: Uri.parse('...'),
  token: 'my_secure_token',
);

Reconnection Logic

You can configure how the socket behaves during failures:

EasyChatSocket(
  uri: Uri.parse('...'),
  maxRetries: 10, // Max attempts before giving up
  initialRetryDelay: Duration(seconds: 1),
  maxRetryDelay: Duration(seconds: 60), // Cap for exponential backoff
);

Heartbeat / Keep-Alive

To prevent the OS from killing the socket during inactivity (especially on iOS/Android):

EasyChatSocket(
  uri: Uri.parse('...'),
  heartbeatInterval: Duration(seconds: 15),
  pingPayload: 'ping', // Custom payload if your server requires it
);

UI Integration

Use StreamBuilder for a fully reactive UI that updates automatically.

StreamBuilder<ChatMessage>(
  stream: chatSocket.onChatMessage,
  builder: (context, snapshot) {
    if (!snapshot.hasData) return LoadingWidget();
    return ListView(
      children: snapshot.data!.map((m) => Bubble(m)).toList(),
    );
  },
)

Example Application

A full-featured example is located in the example/ folder. It includes:

  • Reactive Connection Status Indicator.
  • Message History Simulation.
  • Typing Indicator UI.
  • Proper Dispose Lifecycle implementation.

To run it:

  1. cd example
  2. flutter run

License

MIT

easy_chat_socket

Libraries

easy_chat_socket
A comprehensive, enterprise-ready Flutter package that abstracts WebSocket connections specifically for real-time chat applications.