Getting started

To make the most of this guide, you will need:

• A TalkJS account
• An Angular app to which you'd like to add TalkJS chat

To get started, install @talkjs/web-components:

1npm install @talkjs/web-components

To view an existing sample conversation, import the components and theme into an Angular component, and add the chatbox and styling.

1import '@talkjs/web-components';
2import '@talkjs/web-components/default.css';

JavaScript
1import { Component, CUSTOM_ELEMENTS_SCHEMA } from '@angular/core'; // Import the custom elements schema
2import '@talkjs/web-components';
3import '@talkjs/web-components/default.css';
4
5@Component({
6  selector: 'app-root',
7  standalone: true,
8  templateUrl: './app.component.html',
9  styleUrl: './app.component.css',
10  schemas: [CUSTOM_ELEMENTS_SCHEMA] // Add the custom elements schema to 'schemas'
11})
12export class AppComponent {
13  title = 'angular';
14
15  appId = '<APP_ID>';
16}

1<div class="wrapper">
2  <t-chatbox
3    [app-id]="appId"
4    user-id="sample_user_alice"
5    conversation-id="sample_conversation"
6  />
7</div>

1.wrapper {
2  width: 400px;
3  height: 600px;
4}

1ng serve

So far in this guide we've used a sample user and conversation. Next, we'll create new users and a conversation between them, and sync them with the TalkJS servers. To do this, we'll use the JavaScript Data API.

Install the @talkjs/core package:

1npm install @talkjs/core

Then import getTalkSession from the package into your component:

1<script setup>
2  import '@talkjs/web-components';
3  import '@talkjs/web-components/default.css';
4  import { getTalkSession, type TalkSession } from '@talkjs/core';
5</script>

Add the following code to your component:

1@Component({
2  selector: 'app-root',
3  standalone: true,
4  templateUrl: './app.component.html',
5  styleUrl: './app.component.css',
6  schemas: [CUSTOM_ELEMENTS_SCHEMA], // Add the custom elements schema to 'schemas'
7})
8export class AppComponent {
9  title = 'angular';
10
11  appId = '<APP_ID>';
12  userId = 'frank';
13  otherUserId = 'nina';
14  conversationId = 'my_conversation';
15  session: TalkSession | null = null;
16
17  ngOnInit() {
18    this.session = getTalkSession({
19      appId: this.appId,
20      userId: this.userId,
21    });
22    this.session.currentUser.createIfNotExists({ name: 'Frank' });
23    this.session.user(this.otherUserId).createIfNotExists({ name: 'Nina' });
24    const conversation = this.session.conversation(this.conversationId);
25    conversation.createIfNotExists();
26    conversation.participant(this.otherUserId).createIfNotExists();
27  }
28}

As before, replace <APP_ID> with your TalkJS app ID.

This code creates a new TalkJS session, which provides access to a continuous, up-to-date flow of your TalkJS data. It then creates two new users and a conversation between them.

Update the t-chatbox component in your HTML template file to use the new variables:

1<t-chatbox
2  [app-id]="appId"
3  [user-id]="userId"
4  [conversation-id]="conversationId"
5/>

Here's the code so far, so that you can see how it all fits together:

1import { Component, CUSTOM_ELEMENTS_SCHEMA } from '@angular/core';
2import '@talkjs/web-components';
3import '@talkjs/web-components/default.css';
4import { getTalkSession, type TalkSession } from '@talkjs/core';
5
6@Component({
7  selector: 'app-root',
8  standalone: true,
9  templateUrl: './app.component.html',
10  styleUrl: './app.component.css',
11  schemas: [CUSTOM_ELEMENTS_SCHEMA],
12})
13export class AppComponent {
14  title = 'angular';
15
16  appId = '<APP_ID>';
17  userId = 'frank';
18  otherUserId = 'nina';
19  conversationId = 'my_conversation';
20  session: TalkSession | null = null;
21
22  ngOnInit() {
23    this.session = getTalkSession({
24      appId: this.appId,
25      userId: this.userId,
26    });
27    this.session.currentUser.createIfNotExists({ name: 'Frank' });
28    this.session.user(this.otherUserId).createIfNotExists({ name: 'Nina' });
29    const conversation = this.session.conversation(this.conversationId);
30    conversation.createIfNotExists();
31    conversation.participant(this.otherUserId).createIfNotExists();
32  }
33}

The easiest way to customize TalkJS's components, is using the props and events that the components expose. See each component’s reference documentation for a list of available props.

As an example if you want to hide the built-in chat header, because it doesn't work well with the rest of your UI, you'd render the chatbox like this:

1<t-chatbox
2    [app-id]="appId"
3    [user-id]="userId"
4    [conversation-id]="conversationId"
5    [chat-header-visible]="false"
6  />

If you need even more flexibility, TalkJS has an extensive theme system, which lets you adapt the styles, markup and behavior of the entire chat UI. See the Customization guide for more details.

Once you're using TalkJS in production you'll need to enable authentication, so that only legitimate users can connect to your chat. You'll need a backend server that can generate tokens for your users to authenticate with. See our Authentication docs for more detail on how to set this up.

To pass the token to your chatbox, add the token property:

1<t-chatbox
2  app-id="<APP_ID>"
3  user-id="sample_user_alice"
4  conversation-id="sample_conversation"
5  [theme]="theme"
6  [token]="token
7/>

You also need to pass the token to your session:

1this.session = getTalkSession({
2  appId: this.appId,
3  userId: this.userId,
4  token: this.token,
5});

The token is different each time you connect to TalkJS, so you'll need to call your backend to generate it.

Once you are happy that your chat is loading without errors when you provide a token, go the the Settings page of your dashboard and enable the Authentication (identity verification) option in the Security settings section. When authentication is enabled, only users with a valid token can connect to your chat.

For more ways to customize your chat, see our Chatbox reference docs.