Cometchat Android V6 Extensions

Companion skills: cometchat-android-v6-features (feature catalog), cometchat-android-v6-kotlin-customization, cometchat-android-v6-compose-customization

Purpose

Extend the CometChat UIKit v6 data layer using the clean architecture DataSource/Repository pattern. Create custom DataSource implementations, override repository behavior, and register custom message types.

Use this skill when

• Creating a custom DataSource implementation to change how data is fetched
• Overriding default repository behavior
• Registering custom message types
• Understanding the data flow from DataSource → Repository → ViewModel

Do not use this skill when

• Customizing UI/bubble rendering (use cometchat-*-customization — that's the BubbleFactory layer)
• Working with component APIs (use cometchat-*-components)

1. Clean Architecture Overview

The chatuikit-core module follows clean architecture with three layers:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  UI Layer (chatuikit-kotlin / compose)  │
│  Components observe ViewModel state     │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  ViewModel Layer (core/viewmodel/)      │
│  Calls use cases / repositories         │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Domain Layer (core/domain/)            │
│  Repository interfaces, Use cases       │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Data Layer (core/data/)                │
│  DataSource interfaces + impls          │
│  Repository implementations            │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘

2. DataSource Pattern

Each feature area has a DataSource interface and default implementation:

core/data/datasource/
├── ConversationListDataSource.kt       (interface)
├── ConversationListDataSourceImpl.kt   (default implementation)
├── MessageListDataSource.kt
├── MessageListDataSourceImpl.kt
├── ...

2.1 All DataSource Types

2.2 Additional DataSource

3. Repository Pattern

Repositories in core/data/repository/ implement domain interfaces from core/domain/repository/:

core/data/repository/
├── CallButtonsRepositoryImpl.kt
├── CallLogsRepositoryImpl.kt
├── ConversationListRepositoryImpl.kt
├── GroupMembersRepositoryImpl.kt
├── GroupsRepositoryImpl.kt
├── MessageComposerRepositoryImpl.kt
├── MessageHeaderRepositoryImpl.kt
├── MessageInformationRepositoryImpl.kt
├── MessageListRepositoryImpl.kt
├── PollRepositoryImpl.kt
├── ReactionListRepositoryImpl.kt
├── SearchRepositoryImpl.kt
├── StickerRepositoryImpl.kt
├── UsersRepositoryImpl.kt

Each repository wraps a DataSource and adds business logic, caching, or transformation.

4. ViewModel Layer

ViewModels in core/viewmodel/ consume repositories and expose UI state:

// Example: CometChatConversationsViewModel
// - Injected via CometChatConversationsViewModelFactory
// - Exposes StateFlow<ConversationListUIState>
// - Calls ConversationListRepositoryImpl internally

ViewModel factories in core/factory/ handle dependency injection:

5. UI State Classes

Each ViewModel exposes a sealed UI state from core/state/:

6. Data Flow

User Action → Component → ViewModel → Repository → DataSource → CometChat SDK
                                                                      ↓
UI Update  ← Component ← ViewModel ← StateFlow ← Repository ← SDK Response

Hard rules

• DataSources are the DATA layer — they fetch and mutate data. Do NOT confuse with BubbleFactory which is the UI rendering layer
• The v5 DataSource decorator / ChatConfigurator pattern for bubble customization does NOT exist in v6 — use BubbleFactory instead (see cometchat-*-customization)
• ViewModels are shared across both UI stacks (Kotlin Views and Compose) — they live in chatuikit-core
• Always use the provided ViewModel factories — do not instantiate ViewModels directly