Codes to improve firebase chatting app in sketchware

Here are a few codes which can be used in the chat application created using Firebase in Sketchware.

1. Remove divider​ height of ListView

To remove the divider height of ListView displaying messages, put following code in onCreate, in an add source directly block.

listview1.setDivider(null);

listview1.setDividerHeight(0);

2. Display end of ListView on refresh

To make the ListView scroll to display the last element of list when updated, put following code in onCreate, in an add source directly block.

listview1.setTranscriptMode(ListView.TRANSCRIPT_MODE_ALWAYS_SCROLL);

listview1.setStackFromBottom(true);

3. Set width of ListView items to 3/4 of screen width

Firstly, in CustomView, insert a LinearH linear1, and inside that insert a LinearV linear2. Put all contents to be displayed in linear2.

Now, in event onBindCustomView, add a number variable width. Set width to getDisplayWidthPixels * 0.75, and set it as width of linear2 using following code.

LinearLayout.LayoutParams lp = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams((int)width, LinearLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT);

linear2.setLayoutParams(lp);

4. Rounded corners and Custom background color

In onBindCustomView event, add a add source directly block and put code to create a GradientDrawable with custom background color and rounded corners, as given below, and set it as background of linear2.

android.graphics.drawable.GradientDrawable gd = new android.graphics.drawable.GradientDrawable();

gd.setColor(Color.parseColor("#ffffff"));

gd.setCornerRadius(60);

linear2.setBackground(gd);

5. Display messages of device user on right and those of others on left.

To display messages of user on right and those of others on left, in onBindCustomView event, use blocks as shown in image above. The code used is:

If File user getData key username equals (get value at position key name of List Map map1) then,

linear1.setGravity(Gravity.RIGHT);

else,

linear1.setGravity(Gravity.LEFT);

6. Hide Keyboard on button click

Add following code in on button click event.

android.view.inputmethod.InputMethodManager imm = (android.view.inputmethod.InputMethodManager)getSystemService(INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);

imm.hideSoftInputFromWindow(getCurrentFocus().getWindowToken(), 0);

To understand more watch the video below.