Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
71 lines (42 loc) · 3.55 KB

PROVIDERS.md

File metadata and controls

71 lines (42 loc) · 3.55 KB
Raw

Chat providers

The goal of this extension is to open up support for other chat providers, in addition to Slack and Discord. Chat providers can be added by implementing the IChatProvider interface. Providers will use a common set of types for User, Channel, Message.

For reference, see the implementation for Slack and for Discord.

Supported features

The extension supports the following features for Slack. Other chat providers can implement one or more features, depending on their API.

  1. Authentication: Users can sign in with chat provider's OAuth
  2. Messaging: Users can open a chat channel in a webview, and then send and receive messages
  3. Channels list: Users can see the list of public channels, direct messages and private groups (with unread counts) in the tree view
  4. Unreads: Users can see the unread count in the status bar
  5. Presence: Users can see other online users in the Live Share tree view (requires VS Live Share)
  6. Collaboration invites: Users can invite users or channels for a Live Share collaboration session (requires VS Live Share)

Authentication

Slack uses OAuth with client scope. The result of a successful auth flow is a token string which is saved in the keychain. The other features are dependent on a successful authentication.

Requirements for providers

  • Provide a "Sign in with X" link to launch OAuth flow
  • Auth flow should return a token string that can be saved to system keychain

Messaging

In addition to normal send/receive of messages in real-time, the Slack integration also supports threaded message replies, message reactions and file attachments. These are incorporated in the Message data type.

Requirements for providers

  • API support to receive messages in real-time (Slack uses websocket)
  • API support to send messages, as the authenticated user (not a bot)
  • Optionally: thread replies, emoji reactions, file attachments

Channels list

Slack supports three channel types: channel (public channels), im (direct messages), and group (private groups). These are fetched (from API, and then onwards from local storage) when the extension is activated.

Requirements for providers

  • API support to fetch channels and users

Unreads

The unread count can be historical (unread messages before user comes online) and in real-time (new messages when the user is online).

Requirements for providers

  • Historical unreads: API support to return unread count for every channel
  • Real-time unreads: The real-time messaging API can be used to update a running unread count for new messages
  • API support to mark messages as read (which takes the count to 0)
  • If the provider has other clients, then the API should support real-time updates to maintain unread count consistent with the other clients.

Presence

User presence (online/offline status) shows green dots next to direct messaging channels in the tree view. When VS Live Share is available, a list of online users is shown in the Live Share activity bar, to send one-click collaboration invites.

Requirements for providers

  • API support for real-time support for user presence updates

Collaboration invites

To start a VS Live Share collaboration session, the extension supports one-click collaboration invites. The requirements for this are similar to the messaging feature.

Requirements for providers

  • API support to receive real-time messages in the background
  • API support to send messages