Atlas Messenger iOS

This repository contains the source code of Atlas Messenger, an example application built by Layer to showcase the capabilities of Atlas, a library of robust communications user interface components integrated with the Layer platform.

For Demo Purposes Only

You may be tempted to directly integrate Atlas Messenger code straight into your app as a shortcut, but this is not recommended. Developers that have tried to directly integrate Atlas Messenger code into existing apps without fully understanding how Layer concepts work end up frustrated and confused. Three important things to note about Atlas Messenger:

1. Atlas Messenger uses an Layer identity server and token provider designed to only be used with this project. You must use your own identity server and token provider when integrating Atlas into your application. For more information, check out our Authentication Guide.
2. Atlas Messenger has a cap of only 20 users.
3. The Layer identity server does not work with production app ids.

If you're interested in learning more about how Atlas works and how best to incorporate it into your application then please read the Atlas Documentation.

Getting Started

Building Atlas Messenger requires that you obtain a Layer App ID. You can obtain an App ID by registering for a Layer account on the Experience Atlas page. Alternately, a pre-built version is available for immediate testing at the same location.

Building Atlas Messenger

To build Atlas Messenger, you need a few a few standard iOS Development Tools:

1. Xcode - Apple's suite of iOS and OS X development tools. Available on the App Store.
2. CocoaPods - The dependency manager for Cocoa projects. CocoaPods is used to automate the build and configuration of Atlas Messenger. Available by executing $ sudo gem install cocoapods in your terminal.

Cloning & Preparing the Project

Once you have installed the prerequisites, you can proceed with cloning and configuring the project by executing the following commands in your terminal:

$ git clone https://github.com/layerhq/Atlas-Messenger-iOS.git
$ cd Atlas-Messenger-iOS
$ pod install

These commands will clone Atlas Messenger from Github, configure the Atlas submodule in the Libraries sub-directory, and then install all library dependencies via CocoaPods. Once these steps have completed without error, you can open the workspace by executing:

$ open "Atlas Messenger.xcworkspace"

Setting the App ID

Before running Atlas Messenger from source code you must configure the Layer App ID. To do so, switch to the Project Navigator by selecting the View menu > Navigators > Show Project Navigator (or type ⌘1) and expand the items Atlas Messenger and Code. Tap on ATLMAppDelegate.m to open the application delegate code and locate the following code near the top of the file:

// TODO: Configure a Layer appID from https://developer.layer.com/dashboard
static NSString *const ATLMLayerAppID = nil;

Replace the nil with the appID you previously obtained from the Atlas build page. Be sure to enclose it in standard Objective-C string quotes (@""). Once configured your code should now look something like:

static NSString *const ATLMLayerAppID = @"035c3b96-ecb5-4642-b6b1-ff49ea2dd5db";

Note: The current Atlas Messenger project is designed to only work with a special Atlas Messenger project. To create this special App ID you must go to the Atlas build  page. If you use a different App ID you will see a "Request failed: forbidden" error when you launch the app.

You can now proceed with building and running Atlas Messenger. Select Run from the Product menu (or type ⌘R). After the build completes, Atlas Messenger will launch launch in your iOS Simulator.

Getting Oriented

Atlas Messenger was designed to strike a balance between being simple enough to quickly peruse the project, but full-featured enough to fully demonstrate the power of Atlas and Layer. As you begin working with the example code, keep the following things in mind:

• Layer is a hosted communications platform. All communications services leveraged by Atlas Messenger utilize the backend services hosted by Layer.
• LayerKit is the native iOS SDK for accessing the Layer communications platform. LayerKit handles the networking, persistence, security and synchronization necessary to implement robust native messaging. LayerKit also presents a programming model for accessing the Conversations and Messages that are transmitted through Layer.
• Atlas is a library of user interface components developed by Layer that provide fully integrated user interface experiences on top of LayerKit. Atlas has a direct dependency on LayerKit and is not usable standalone.

When working with the Atlas Messenger codebase you will encounter code coming from LayerKit (prefixed by LYR), Atlas (prefixed by ATL), and Atlas Messenger itself (prefixed by ATLM).

Navigating the Project

The project is organized as detailed in the table below:

Path	Type	Contains
Code	Directory	Source code organized by type
Gemfile	Ruby code	Ruby Gem dependency declarations for Bundler
Gemfile.lock	ASCII text	Exact Gem dependency manifest (generated by Bundler)
LICENSE	ASCII text	Licensing details for the project
Libraries	Directory	Submodules and external project dependencies
Podfile	Ruby code	CocoaPods library dependencies for the project
Podfile.lock	ASCII text	Exact Pod dependency manifest (generated by CocoaPods)
Pods	Directory	CocoaPods generated artifacts. Ignored by Git.
README.md	Markdown text	This comprehensive README file
Rakefile	Ruby source	Rake automation tasks
Resources	Directory	Assets such images
Atlas Messenger.xcodeproj	Xcode Project	The Xcode project for Atlas Messenger. Use the workspace instead.
Atlas Messenger.xcworkspace	Xcode Workspace	The Xcode workspace for Atlas Messenger. Used for day to day development.
Tests	Directory	Test code for the application.
.ruby-version	rbenv configuration	Specifies the version of Ruby that rbenv will bind to
xcodebuild.log	Log file	Log out xcodebuild output generated by test Rake tasks. Under .gitignore

Because Atlas Messenger is designed to showcase the capabilities of Atlas, most of the interesting code lives in Code/Controllers and Code/Views.

License

Atlas Messenger is licensed under the terms of the Apache License, version 2.0. Please see the LICENSE file for full details.

Contact

Atlas Messenger was developed in San Francisco by the Layer team. If you have any technical questions or concerns about this project feel free to reach out to Layer Support.

Credits

• Kevin Coleman
• Klemen Verdnik
• Blake Watters