Message Input for PubNub Chat Components for React

Migrate to Chat SDK

PubNub will stop supporting Chat Components on January 1, 2025 but you are welcome to contribute. Learn how to migrate to the Chat SDK here.

Allows users to compose messages using text and emojis and automatically publish them on PubNub channels upon sending.

Component

This section shows the preview of a sample Message Input component and its source code.

Preview

Source Code

<Chat currentChannel="test-channel">
<MessageInput />
</Chat>

Try it out

Test the component as Sue Flores (default user):

1. Type in a message in the input field and send it.

2. Go to the Message List component to see your message at the bottom of the list.

Parameters

You can configure the component using these parameters:

Parameter	Type	Default value	Description
placeholder?	string	"Send message"	Option to set a placeholder message to display in the text window.
draftMessage?	string	n/a	Option to set a draft message to display in the text window.
senderInfo?	boolean	false	Option to attach sender data directly to each message. Enable it for high-throughput environments. This is an alternative to providing a full list of users directly into the Chat provider.
typingIndicator?	boolean	false	Option to enable/disable firing the typing events when a user is typing a message.
fileUpload?	"image" | "all"	n/a	Option to enable/disable the internal file upload capability. It lets you send both text and file in one message.
filePreviewRenderer?	(file: File | UriFileInput) => JSX.Element | null	n/a	Callback to render the preview of the attached file.
disabled?	boolean	false	Option to disable the input from composing and sending messages.
hideSendButton?	boolean	false	Option to hide the Send button.
sendButton?	JSX.Element | string	<AirplaneIcon />	Custom UI component to override default display for the Send button.
emojiPicker?	ReactElement<EmojiPickerElementProps>	n/a	Option to pass in an emoji picker if you want it to be rendered in the input. For more details, refer to the Emoji Pickers section in the docs.
actionsAfterInput?	boolean	false	Option to move action buttons (eg. file upload icon) to the right of the text input.
onChange?	(event: ChangeEvent<HTMLTextAreaElement>) => void	n/a	Callback to handle an event when the input value changes.
onKeyPress?	(event: KeyboardEvent<HTMLTextAreaElement>) => void	n/a	Callback to handle an event when a key is pressed in the input area.
onBeforeSend?	(value: MessagePayload) => MessagePayload	n/a	Callback to modify message content before sending it. This only works for text messages, not files.
onSend?	(value: MessagePayload | File | UriFileInput) => void	n/a	Callback for extra actions after sending a message.
extraActionsRenderer?	() => JSX.Element	n/a	Option to provide an extra actions renderer to add custom action buttons to the input.
Selected textarea attributes	various	n/a	Chat Components for React let you configure all the default React textarea attributes except for className, data-testid, disabled, onChange, onKeyPress, placeholder, ref, rows, and value. For example, you can set a limit to the maximum number of characters that can be entered in the input field using the maxLength parameter, like <MessageInput maxLength={120} />.

Offline message behavior

When you send a message and the network connection is lost, the message will still be visible in the message input upon tapping the Send button, and other chat users won’t see it on the message list. The message won't reach the server (the publish method from the JavaScript SDK will fail), returning the PubNub call failed, check status for details error.

You can handle these incoming errors using the onError property of the Chat Provider component and pass it to a custom callback function.

import "./styles.css";
import PubNub from "pubnub";
import { PubNubProvider } from "pubnub-react";
import { Chat, MessageList, MessageInput } from "@pubnub/react-chat-components";

const pubnub = new PubNub({
publishKey: "demo",
subscribeKey: "demo",
userId: "test-user"
});

export default function App() {
function handleError(e) {
    console.log("Error handler: ", e);
}

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