This is documentation for Stream Chat Angular SDK v4, which is nolonger actively maintained. For up-to-date documentation, see the latest version (v5).

AttachmentListComponent

The AttachmentList component displays the attachments of a message. The following attachments are supported:

  • Images (including GIFs) are displayed inline
  • Videos are displayed inline
  • Voice recordings are displayed inline (the Angular SDK doesn’t support recording, only playback)
  • Other files can be downloaded
  • Links in a message are enriched with built-in open graph URL scraping

Example 1 - different type of attachments:

Attachments Screenshot

Example 2 - voice recording:

Voice Recording Screenshot

Basic Usage

A typical use case for the AttachmentList component would be to use in your custom components that will completely override the message component.

Example 1 - a basic example:

@Component({
  selector: "app-custom-message",
  template: `
    <stream-attachment-list
      *ngIf="hasAttachment"
      [attachments]="message.attachments"
    ></stream-attachment-list>
    <!-- Other parts of the custom message component -->
  `,
})
export class CustomMessageComponent {
  @Input() message: StreamMessage;
  hasAttachment: boolean;
}

Customization

You can use the AttachmentConfigurationService to override certain attributes of attachments.

You can provide your own attachment list component by the CustomTemplatesService

You can override attachment display by attachment types, here are the available options for this:

  • Single image: this template is used if a message has only one image attachment. Please note that your template is responsible for proper image sizing (see below).
  • Gallery image: this template is used if a message has multiple image attachments, the template will receive all image attachments. Please note that your template is responsible for proper image sizing (see below).
  • Video attachment: this template is used to display video attachments. Please note that your template is responsible for proper image sizing (see below).
  • File attachment: this template is used to display file type attachments
  • Voice recording: this template is used to display voice recordings
  • Card attachment: this template is used to display GIFs or open graph URL data
  • Attachment actions: this template is used to display attachment actions

Image and video sizing

The following section details how the width and height of images and videos uploaded from files are computed.

Maximum size

You can control the maximum size of images and videos with the --str-chat__attachment-max-width CSS variable (available only in theme-v2). The value of this variable must be a value that can be computed to a valid pixel value using the getComputedStyle method (for example: 300px, 10rem, calc(300px - var(--margin)), but not 100%). If you provide an invalid value, the image and video sizing can break, which can lead to scrolling issues inside the message list (for example the message list isn’t scrolled to the bottom when you open a channel).

If you set an invalid value to the variable, you’ll see a warning on the browser’s console:

Attachment Size Warning

File size optimization

Based on the CSS settings provided for images and videos, the SDK will load an image (or thumbnail image in case of a video file) with a reduced file size while still providing sufficient image quality for the given dimensions. This will result in less network traffic and faster image load for users.

Aspect ratio

The following description is applicable for theme-v2.

The SDK will try to display images and videos with their original aspect ratio, however this isn’t always guaranteed (in those cases a cropped image will be displayed). Three notable exceptions are:

  1. if a message contains multiple lines of texts and/or multiple attachments, the image/video might be stretched to its max-width

Example 1 - message with one line of text

Image Sizing Screenshot 1

Example 2 - message with multiple lines of text

Image Sizing Screenshot 2

  1. in Safari, images/videos with portrait orientation are stretched to max-width

Example 3 - portrait images in Safari

Image Sizing Screenshot 3

  1. if the image/video can’t be rendered with the original aspect ratio given the max-width and max-height constraints of the host HTML element

File size optimization and maintaining aspect ratio uses features provided by Stream’s CDN. If you’re using your own CDN you’ll likely have to provide your own implementation for this. You can do this using the AttachmentConfigurationService.

If you’re planning to rewrite attachment sizing with your own CSS code it’s important to note that:

The sizing logic for images and videos inside the AttachmentConfigurationService requires that host elements of images and videos (usually img and video elements) have max-height/height and max-width properties defined and that these values can be computed to a valid pixel value using the getComputedStyle (for more information refer to the Maximum size section).

Inputs and outputs

messageId

messageId: undefined | string

The id of the message the attachments belong to

Defined in

lib/attachment-list/attachment-list.component.ts:40


parentMessageId

parentMessageId: undefined | string

The parent id of the message the attachments belong to

Defined in

lib/attachment-list/attachment-list.component.ts:44


attachments

attachments: Attachment<DefaultStreamChatGenerics>[] = []

The attachments to display

Defined in

lib/attachment-list/attachment-list.component.ts:48


imageModalStateChange

Readonly imageModalStateChange: EventEmitter<"opened" | "closed">

Emits the state of the image carousel window

Defined in

lib/attachment-list/attachment-list.component.ts:52

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