Report offensive messages

Chat SDK provides a mechanism for users to report offensive content in messages directly from their applications.

In each case, a user must provide a reason for flagging a given message. As a result of flagging, a reported message gets published on the dedicated administrative channel (with the ID of PUBNUB_INTERNAL_MODERATION_{channel_id}) and an event of the Report type gets created.

As a developer, you can add custom logic that uses the emitted events and defines what an admin can later do with such reported messages. For example, an admin can delete an inappropriate message.

Message Persistence

To work with stored message data, make sure you have Message Persistence enabled for your app's keyset in the Admin Portal.

Flag/Report messages

report() lets you flag and report an inappropriate message to the admin.

All messages (events of type Report) reported on a given channel are sent to a PUBNUB_INTERNAL_MODERATION_{channel_id} channel which is a child channel for the main one where a reported message was published. For example, an event on a message reported on the support channel will be sent to the PUBNUB_INTERNAL_MODERATION_support channel.

Method signature

This method takes the following parameters:

message.report(
    reason: String
) async throws -> Timetoken

Input

* required

Parameter	Description
reason * Type: String Default: n/a	Reason for reporting/flagging a given message.

Output

Parameter	Description
Timetoken	The Timetoken value of the reported message.

Basic usage

Sample code

The code samples in Swift Chat SDK focus on asynchronous code execution.

You can also write synchronous code as the parameters are shared between the async and sync methods but we don't provide usage examples of such.

Report the last message on the support channel as offensive.

// Assuming you have a reference of type "ChatImpl" named "chat"
Task {
  if let channel = try await chat.getChannel(channelId: "support") {
    if let message = try await channel.getHistory(count: 1).messages.first {
      let timetoken = try await message.report(reason: "Offensive Content")
      debugPrint("Reported message successfully: \(timetoken)")
    } else {
      debugPrint("No messages found in the \"support\" channel")
    }
  } else {
    debugPrint("Channel not found")
  }
}

Get historical reported messages

getMessageReportsHistory() fetches a list of reported message events for a specified channel within optional time and count constraints, returning the events and a boolean indicating if there are more events to fetch.

This method prefixes the internal channel ID with a predefined string (PUBNUB_INTERNAL_MODERATION_) and calls the getEventsHistory method of the chat instance, passing along the constructed channel ID and any additional parameters.

Method signature

This method takes the following parameters:

channel.getMessageReportsHistory(
    startTimetoken: Timetoken? = nil,
    endTimetoken: Timetoken? = nil,
    count: Int = 25
) async throws -> (events: [EventWrapper<EventContent>], isMore: Bool)

Input

* required

Parameter	Description
startTimetoken Type: Timetoken Default: n/a	The start timetoken for fetching the history of reported messages, which allows specifying the point in time where the history retrieval should begin.
endTimetoken Type: Timetoken Default: n/a	The end time token for fetching the history of reported messages, which allows specifying the point in time where the history retrieval should end.
count Type: Int Default: 25	The number of reported message events to fetch from the history.

Output

Parameter	Description
(events: [EventWrapper<EventContent>], isMore: Bool)	Returned tuple containing these fields: events and isMore.

Basic usage

Sample code

The code samples in Swift Chat SDK focus on asynchronous code execution.

You can also write synchronous code as the parameters are shared between the async and sync methods but we don't provide usage examples of such.

Fetch historical messages reported on the support channel between the 1725100800000 (July 1, 2024, 00:00:00 UTC) and 1726780799000 (July 21, 2024, 23:59:59 UTC) timetokens.

// Define timetokens for the message history period
let startTimetoken: Timetoken = 1725100800000 // July 1, 2024, 00:00:00 UTC
let endTimetoken: Timetoken = 1726780799000 // July 21, 2024, 23:59:59 UTC

// Assuming you have a reference of type "ChatImpl" named "chat"
Task {
  if let channel = try await chat.getChannel(channelId: "support") {
    let historyResponse = try await channel.getMessageReportsHistory(
      startTimetoken: startTimetoken,
      endTimetoken: endTimetoken,
      count: 25
    )
    historyResponse.events.forEach { eventWrapper in
      print("Payload: \(eventWrapper.event.payload)")
    }

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Listen to Report events

As an admin of your chat app, you can monitor all events emitted when someone reports an offensive message using the streamMessageReports() method.

You can use this method to create moderation dashboard alerts.

Events documentation

To read more about the events of type Report, refer to the Chat events documentation.

Method signature

This method has the following parameters:

channel.streamMessageReports() -> AsyncStream<EventWrapper<EventContent.Report>>

Input

This method doesn't take any parameters.

Output

Parameter	Description
AsyncStream<EventWrapper<EventContent.Report>>	An asynchronous stream that emits a new value whenever a message is reported.

Basic usage

Sample code

The code samples in Swift Chat SDK focus on asynchronous code execution.

You can also write synchronous code as the parameters are shared between the async and sync methods but we don't provide usage examples of such.

Print a notification for an offensive message reported on the support channel.

// Assuming you have a reference of type "ChatImpl" named "chat"
Task {
  if let channel = try await chat.getChannel(channelId: "support") {
    for await event in channel.streamMessageReports() {
      // Access the report details from the event's payload
      let reportPayload = event.event.payload
      let reportReason = reportPayload.reason
      // Print the notification
      if reportReason.lowercased() == "offensive" {
        print("Notification: An offensive message was reported on the 'support' channel by user \(event.event.userId). Reason: \(reportReason)")
      }
    }
  } else {
    debugPrint("Channel not found")
  }

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