Azure Communication Chat Package client library for Python

This package contains a Python SDK for Azure Communication Services for Chat. Read more about Azure Communication Services here

Getting started

Prerequisites

• Python 2.7, or 3.5 or later is required to use this package.
• A deployed Communication Services resource. You can use the Azure Portal or the Azure PowerShell to set it up.

Install the package

Install the Azure Communication Service Chat SDK.

pip install --pre azure-communication-chat

User Access Tokens

User access tokens enable you to build client applications that directly authenticate to Azure Communication Services. You can generate these tokens with azure.communication.identity module, and then use them to initialize the Communication Services SDKs. Example of using azure.communication.identity:

pip install --pre azure-communication-identity

from azure.communication.identity import CommunicationIdentityClient
identity_client = CommunicationIdentityClient.from_connection_string("<connection string of your Communication service>")
user = identity_client.create_user()
tokenresponse = identity_client.issue_token(user, scopes=["chat"])
token = tokenresponse.token

The user created above will be used later, because that user should be added as a participant of new chat thread when you creating it with this token. It is because the initiator of the create request must be in the list of the participants of the chat thread.

Create the Chat Client

This will allow you to create, get, list or delete chat threads.

from azure.communication.chat import ChatClient, CommunicationTokenCredential
# Your unique Azure Communication service endpoint
endpoint = "https://<RESOURCE_NAME>.communcationservices.azure.com"
token = "<token>"
refresh_options = CommunicationTokenRefreshOptions(token)
chat_client = ChatClient(endpoint, CommunicationTokenCredential(refresh_options))

Create Chat Thread Client

The ChatThreadClient will allow you to perform operations specific to a chat thread, like send message, get message, update the chat thread topic, add participants to chat thread, etc.

You can get it by creating a new chat thread using ChatClient:

chat_thread_client = chat_client.create_chat_thread(topic, thread_participants)

Additionally, the client can also direct so that the request is repeatable; that is, if the client makes the request multiple times with the same Repeatability-Request-ID and it will get back an appropriate response without the server executing the request multiple times. The value of the Repeatability-Request-ID is an opaque string representing a client-generated, globally unique for all time, identifier for the request.

chat_thread_client = chat_client.create_chat_thread(topic, thread_participants, repeatability_request_id)

Alternatively, if you have created a chat thread before and you have its thread_id, you can create it by:

chat_thread_client = chat_client.get_chat_thread_client(thread_id)

Key concepts

A chat conversation is represented by a chat thread. Each user in the thread is called a thread participant. Thread participants can chat with one another privately in a 1:1 chat or huddle up in a 1:N group chat. Users also get near real-time updates for when others are typing and when they have read the messages.

Once you initialized a ChatClient class, you can do the following chat operations:

Create, get, update, and delete threads

create_chat_thread(topic, thread_participants, **kwargs)
get_chat_thread(thread_id, **kwargs)
list_chat_threads(**kwargs)
delete_chat_thread(thread_id, **kwargs)

Once you initialized a ChatThreadClient class, you can do the following chat operations:

Update thread

update_topic(topic, **kwargs)

Send, get, update, and delete messages

send_message(content, **kwargs)
get_message(message_id, **kwargs)
list_messages(**kwargs)
update_message(message_id, content, **kwargs)
delete_message(message_id, **kwargs)

Get, add, and remove participants

list_participants(**kwargs)
add_participants(thread_participants, **kwargs)
remove_participant(participant_id, **kwargs)

Send typing notification

send_typing_notification(**kwargs)

Send and get read receipt

Notify the service that a message is read and get list of read messages.

send_read_receipt(message_id, **kwargs)
list_read_receipts(**kwargs)

Examples

The following sections provide several code snippets covering some of the most common tasks, including:

Thread Operations

Create a thread

Use the create_chat_thread method to create a chat thread client object.

• Use topic to give a thread topic;
• Use thread_participants to list the ChatThreadParticipant to be added to the thread;
• Use repeatability_request_id to specify the unique identifier for the request.
• user, required, it is the CommunicationUserIdentifier you created by CommunicationIdentityClient.create_user() from User Access Tokens

• display_name, optional, is the display name for the thread participant.
• share_history_time, optional, time from which the chat history is shared with the participant.

ChatThreadClient is the result returned from creating a thread, you can use it to perform other chat operations to this chat thread

# Without repeatability_request_id

from azure.communication.chat import ChatThreadParticipant
topic = "test topic"
thread_participants = [ChatThreadParticipant(
    user='<user>',
    display_name='name',
    share_history_time=datetime.utcnow()
)]

chat_thread_client = chat_client.create_chat_thread(topic, thread_participants)
thread_id = chat_thread_client.thread_id

# With repeatability_request_id

from azure.communication.chat import ChatThreadParticipant
import uuid

# modify function to implement customer logic
def get_unique_identifier_for_request(**kwargs):
    res = None
    # implement custom logic here
    res = uuid.uuid4()
    return res

topic = "test topic"
thread_participants = [ChatThreadParticipant(
    user='<user>',
    display_name='name',
    share_history_time=datetime.utcnow()
)]

chat_thread_client = chat_client.create_chat_thread(topic, thread_participants, repeatability_request_id)
thread_id = chat_thread_client.thread_id

Get a thread

The get_chat_thread method retrieves a thread from the service. thread_id is the unique ID of the thread.

thread = chat_client.get_chat_thread(thread_id)

List chat threads

The list_chat_threads method retrieves the list of created chat threads

• results_per_page, optional, The maximum number of messages to be returned per page.
• start_time, optional, The start time where the range query.

An iterator of [ChatThreadInfo] is the response returned from listing threads

from datetime import datetime, timedelta
chat_client = ChatClient(self.endpoint, self.token)
start_time = datetime.utcnow() - timedelta(days=2)
start_time = start_time.replace(tzinfo=pytz.utc)
chat_thread_infos = chat_client.list_chat_threads(results_per_page=5, start_time=start_time)

Update a thread

Use update_chat_thread method to update a thread's properties thread_id is the unique ID of the thread. topic is used to describe the change of the thread topic

• Use topic to give thread a new topic;

topic="new topic"
chat_thread_client.update_chat_thread(topic=topic)

Delete a thread

Use delete_chat_thread method to delete a thread thread_id is the unique ID of the thread.

chat_client.delete_chat_thread(thread_id)

Message Operations

Send a message

Use send_message method to sends a message to a thread identified by threadId.

• Use content to provide the chat message content, it is required
• Use chat_message_type to provide the chat message type. Possible values include: ChatMessageType.TEXT, ChatMessageType.HTML, ChatMessageType.TOPIC_UPDATED, ChatMessageType.PARTICIPANT_ADDED, ChatMessageType.PARTICIPANT_REMOVED
• Use sender_display_name to specify the display name of the sender, if not specified, empty name will be set

SendChatMessageResult is the response returned from sending a message, it contains an id, which is the unique ID of the message.

from azure.communication.chat import ChatMessagePriority

content='hello world'
sender_display_name='sender name'

send_message_result = chat_thread_client.send_message(content, sender_display_name=sender_display_name)

Get a message

The get_message method retrieves a message from the service. message_id is the unique ID of the message.

ChatMessage is the response returned from getting a message, it contains an id, which is the unique ID of the message, and other fields please refer to azure.communication.chat.ChatMessage

chat_message = chat_thread_client.get_message(message_id)

Get messages

The list_messages method retrieves messages from the service.

• results_per_page, optional, The maximum number of messages to be returned per page.
• start_time, optional, The start time where the range query.

An iterator of [ChatMessage] is the response returned from listing messages

from datetime import datetime, timedelta
start_time = datetime.utcnow() - timedelta(days=1)
start_time = start_time.replace(tzinfo=pytz.utc)
chat_messages = chat_thread_client.list_messages(results_per_page=1, start_time=start_time)
for chat_message_page in chat_messages.by_page():
    l = list(chat_message_page)
    print("page size: ", len(l))

Update a message

Use update_message to update a message identified by threadId and messageId. message_id is the unique ID of the message. content is the message content to be updated.

• Use content to provide a new chat message content;

content = "updated message content"
chat_thread_client.update_message(message_id, content=content)

Delete a message

Use delete_message to delete a message. message_Id is the unique ID of the message.

chat_thread_client.delete_message(message_id)

Thread Participant Operations

Get thread participants

Use list_participants to retrieve the participants of the thread.

An iterator of [ChatThreadParticipant] is the response returned from listing participants

chat_thread_participants = chat_thread_client.list_participants(results_per_page=5, skip=5)
for chat_thread_participant in chat_thread_participants:
    print(chat_thread_participant)

Add thread participants

Use add_participants method to add thread participants to the thread.

• Use thread_participants to list the ChatThreadParticipant to be added to the thread;
• user, required, it is the CommunicationUserIdentifier you created by CommunicationIdentityClient.create_user() from User Access Tokens

• display_name, optional, is the display name for the thread participant.
• share_history_time, optional, time from which the chat history is shared with the participant.

from azure.communication.chat import ChatThreadParticipant
from datetime import datetime
participant = ChatThreadParticipant(
    user='<user>',
    display_name='name',
    share_history_time=datetime.utcnow())
thread_participants = [participant]
chat_thread_client.add_participants(thread_participants)

Remove thread participant

Use remove_participant method to remove thread participant from the thread identified by threadId. user is the CommunicationUserIdentifier you created by CommunicationIdentityClient.create_user() from User Access Tokens

and was added into this chat thread.

chat_thread_client.remove_participant(user)

Events Operations

Send typing notification

Use send_typing_notification method to post a typing notification event to a thread, on behalf of a user.

chat_thread_client.send_typing_notification()

Send read receipt

Use send_read_receipt method to post a read receipt event to a thread, on behalf of a user.

chat_thread_client.send_read_receipt(message_id)

Get read receipts

list_read_receipts method retrieves read receipts for a thread.

An iterator of [ChatMessageReadReceipt] is the response returned from listing read receipts

read_receipts = chat_thread_client.list_read_receipts(results_per_page=5, skip=5)
for read_receipt in read_receipts:
    print(read_receipt)
    print(read_receipt.sender)
    print(read_receipt.chat_message_id)
    print(read_receipt.read_on)

Sample Code

These are code samples that show common scenario operations with the Azure Communication Chat client library. The async versions of the samples (the python sample files appended with _async) show asynchronous operations, and require Python 3.5 or later. Before run the sample code, refer to Prerequisites

to create a resource, then set some Environment Variables

set AZURE_COMMUNICATION_SERVICE_ENDPOINT="https://<RESOURCE_NAME>.communcationservices.azure.com"
set AZURE_COMMUNICATION_SERVICE_CONNECTION_STRING="<connection string of your Communication service>"

pip install azure-communication-identity

python samples\chat_client_sample.py
python samples\chat_client_sample_async.py
python samples\chat_thread_client_sample.py
python samples\chat_thread_client_sample_async.py

Troubleshooting

Running into issues? This section should contain details as to what to do there.

Next steps

More sample code should go here, along with links out to the appropriate example tests.

Contributing

If you encounter any bugs or have suggestions, please file an issue in the Issues section of the project.