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Messaging / Chat

What this is:

You want your users to be able to have a back-and-forth conversation in your app.

How I do it:

Create an “Conversation” data type with these fields:

Field Name

Field Type

DT/OS

List

Notes

Users

All users in the conversation

Related [Data Type]

If the conversation is regarding something specific like a project. (Many apps don’t need this field.)

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And then create a “Message” data type with these fields:

Field Name

Field Type

DT/OS

List

Notes

Body

User (Sender)

Will be empty if it’s a “system” message

Seen By

The sender is automatically added to this field.

Date Sent

Files

If you’re allowing users to send files or photos, you’ll need a field for that.

Sender Type

Allows for “system” messages like “Invoice paid”

Related [Data Type]

If you want users to be able to attach specific things from the database (like, for example, an invoice).

Conversation

🔒 Users in Conversation

This is for the purpose of Privacy Rules

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Notes:

About the “Seen By” field: c

Where the relationship lives: It’s important that the relationship between the messages and the conversation lives on the message field, rather than having a list of messages on the conversation field. This is because there is a limit to the number of records that can go in a list field, and if a conversation gets very long, you could max it out.

The “🔒 Users in Conversation” field: This field is not used for any purpose other than privacy rules. It allows you to lock down the “Messages” data type so that only people who are in the conversation can view the conversation’s messages. The privacy rule would look like this: This message’s “🔒Users in Conversation” contains Current User .

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