IM SDK Concepts
Conversation: there are two types of conversations in the IM SDK. One is the C2C conversation, which is a one-to-one chat between users with messages read and sent within the conversation. The other is the group conversation, which is a group chat where all group members can receive messages.
Message: a message in the IM SDK is the information to be sent to the recipient. A message includes properties such as whether it was read by yourself, whether it was sent successfully, the sender’s account, and the message generation time. A message consists of several Elems, which can be text, images, emojis, and others. A message can contain multiple Elems.
Group ID: a group ID uniquely identifies a group. It is generated by the backend and returned when a group is created.
Introduction to IM SDK Objects
iOS IM SDK objects include the communication manager, conversation, message, and group management. The following table describes them in detail.
| Object | Description | Features |
|---|---|---|
| TIMManager | Manager | Responsible for basic IM SDK operations such as initialization, login, logout, and creating conversations |
| TIMConversation | Conversation | Responsible for conversation-related operations such as sending messages, obtaining cached conversation messages, and obtaining the unread count |
| TIMMessage | Message | Support various message types including text and image messages |
| TIMGroupManager | Group manager | Responsible for creating groups, adding and deleting members, and modifying group profiles |
| TIMFriendshipManager | Friend relationship chain manager | Responsible for adding and deleting friends and managing friend profiles |
Calling Sequence
The IM SDK calls APIs in the following sequence, and other methods will be called after login succeeds.
| Step | Function | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Initialization | TIMManager:initSdk | Configure SDK settings |
| Initialization | TIMManager:setUserConfig | Configure user settings |
| Login | TIMManager:login | Log users in |
| Receiving and sending messages | TIMManager:getConversation | Obtain conversations |
| Receiving and sending messages | TIMConversation:sendMessage | Send messages |
| Group management | TIMGroupManager | Manage groups |
| Relationship chain management | TIMFriendshipManager | Manage relationship chains |
| Logout | TIMManager:logout | Log users out (optional for users) |
