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jQuery Chat Templates

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var notificationWidget = $("#notification").kendoNotification({ templates: [{ type: "actionNote", template: '<span>#= message #</span>', }], width: 250, height: 54, appendTo: ".k-d-flex" }).data("kendoNotification"); var messagesData = [ { id: 1, authorId: 2, authorName: "Support Agent", authorImageUrl: "https://demos.telerik.com/kendo-ui/content/web/Customers/GOURL.jpg", authorImageAltText: "Support Agent's profile picture", text: "Welcome to our support chat! I've attached some useful resources below. Feel free to ask any questions.", timestamp: new Date(2025, 7, 15, 9, 0), isPinned: true, files: [ { name: "Getting_Started_Guide.pdf", size: 245760, extension: "pdf" }, { name: "FAQ_Document.pdf", size: 128000, extension: "pdf" } ] }, { id: 2, authorId: 1, authorName: "John Doe", authorImageUrl: "https://demos.telerik.com/kendo-ui/content/web/Customers/RICSU.jpg", authorImageAltText: "John's profile picture", text: "Thanks! I have a question about the authentication module. The documentation mentions token-based auth but I'm not sure how to implement refresh tokens correctly. Can you help with that? I've been trying different approaches but keep running into issues with token expiration and race conditions when multiple requests fire simultaneously.", timestamp: new Date(2025, 7, 15, 9, 5), status: "seen" }, { id: 3, authorId: 2, authorName: "Support Agent", authorImageUrl: "https://demos.telerik.com/kendo-ui/content/web/Customers/GOURL.jpg", authorImageAltText: "Support Agent's profile picture", text: "Great question! I'd recommend using an interceptor pattern for token refresh. Here's a document that covers the implementation details.", timestamp: new Date(2025, 7, 16, 10, 30), files: [ { name: "Auth_Implementation.pdf", size: 512000, extension: "pdf" } ] }, { id: 4, authorId: 1, authorName: "John Doe", authorImageUrl: "https://demos.telerik.com/kendo-ui/content/web/Customers/RICSU.jpg", authorImageAltText: "John's profile picture", text: "That's very helpful! I'll review the document and get back to you.", timestamp: new Date(2025, 7, 16, 14, 15), status: "delivered" }, { id: 5, authorId: 1, authorName: "John Doe", authorImageUrl: "https://demos.telerik.com/kendo-ui/content/web/Customers/RICSU.jpg", authorImageAltText: "John's profile picture", text: "Great, I'll incorporate those changes. Should be ready for final review by tomorrow.", timestamp: new Date(2025, 7, 16, 14, 20), status: "sent" } ]; var templateConfigs = { default: { dataSource: { data: messagesData } }, messageContent: { dataSource: { data: messagesData }, messageContentTemplate: function(message) { return '<div style="border-left:3px solid #1a73e8;padding-left:8px;">' + '<em>' + kendo.htmlEncode(message.text) + '</em>' + '</div>'; } }, perUserContent: { dataSource: { data: messagesData }, authorMessageContentTemplate: function(message) { return '<div style="background:#e3f2fd;padding:8px;border-radius:12px;">' + kendo.htmlEncode(message.text) + '</div>'; }, receiverMessageContentTemplate: function(message) { return '<div style="background:#f3e5f5;padding:8px;border-radius:12px;border-left:3px solid #9c27b0;">' + kendo.htmlEncode(message.text) + '</div>'; } }, messageStatus: { dataSource: { data: messagesData }, messageStatusTemplate: function(ctx) { var colors = { sent: "#999", delivered: "#4CAF50", seen: "#2196F3", failed: "#f44336" }; var color = colors[ctx.status] || "#999"; return '<span style="color:' + color + ';font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;">' + '[' + ctx.status.toUpperCase() + ']' + '</span>'; } }, timestamp: { dataSource: { data: messagesData }, timestampTemplate: function(data) { var date = data.date; var dayNames = ['Sunday', 'Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday', 'Friday', 'Saturday']; var monthNames = ['Jan', 'Feb', 'Mar', 'Apr', 'May', 'Jun', 'Jul', 'Aug', 'Sep', 'Oct', 'Nov', 'Dec']; return "<div class='custom-timestamp'>" + "<span>" + dayNames[date.getDay()] + ", " + monthNames[date.getMonth()] + " " + date.getDate() + "</span></div>"; } }, noData: { dataSource: { data: [] }, noDataTemplate: function() { return '<div style="display:flex;flex-direction:column;align-items:center;justify-content:center;height:100%;color:#999;">' + '<p style="font-size:18px;margin:0;">No messages yet</p>' + '<p style="font-size:14px;margin:4px 0 0;">Start a conversation by typing below</p>' + '</div>'; } }, header: { dataSource: { data: messagesData }, headerTemplate: function() { return '<div style="display:flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;padding:8px 16px;">' + '<img src="https://demos.telerik.com/kendo-ui/content/web/Customers/GOURL.jpg" ' + 'style="width:32px;height:32px;border-radius:50%;" alt="Support Agent">' + '<div>' + '<strong>Support Agent</strong>' + '<div style="font-size:12px;opacity:0.7;">Online</div>' + '</div>' + '</div>'; } } }; var chat = $("#chat").kendoChat({ height: 600, authorId: 1, headerItems: [{ type: "contentItem", template: () => "<strong>Chat Templates & Actions</strong>" }], allowMessageCollapse: true, filesLayoutMode: "vertical", messageStatusSettings: { sent: { icon: "check", text: "Sent" }, delivered: { icon: "check-circle", text: "Delivered" }, seen: { icon: "eye", text: "Seen", cssClass: "k-text-primary" }, failed: { icon: "x-circle", text: "Failed", cssClass: "k-text-error" } }, messageActions: [ { name: "reply", text: "Reply", icon: "undo" }, { name: "copy", text: "Copy", icon: "copy" }, { name: "pin", text: "Pin", icon: "pin" }, { name: "delete", text: "Delete", icon: "trash" } ], messageToolbarActions: [ { name: "thumb-up", icon: "thumb-up" }, { name: "thumb-down", icon: "thumb-down" } ], fileActions: [ { name: "download", text: "Download", icon: "download" }, { name: "preview", text: "Preview", icon: "eye" } ], fileAttachment: { restrictions: { allowedExtensions: ['.jpg', '.pdf', '.docx'] } }, dataSource: { data: messagesData }, sendMessage: function(e) { if (e.generating) { e.sender.loading(false); return; } e.message.authorId = 1; e.message.authorName = "John Doe"; e.message.authorImageUrl = "https://demos.telerik.com/kendo-ui/content/web/Customers/RICSU.jpg"; e.message.authorImageAltText = "John's profile picture"; var sender = e.sender; setTimeout(function() { var ds = sender.dataSource; var lastItem = ds.at(ds.total() - 1); if (lastItem && lastItem.authorId === 1) { sender.updateMessage(lastItem, { status: "sent" }); } }, 500); setTimeout(function() { var ds = sender.dataSource; var lastItem = ds.at(ds.total() - 1); if (lastItem && lastItem.authorId === 1) { sender.updateMessage(lastItem, { status: "delivered" }); } }, 1500); setTimeout(function() { var ds = sender.dataSource; var lastItem = ds.at(ds.total() - 1); if (lastItem && lastItem.authorId === 1) { sender.updateMessage(lastItem, { status: "seen" }); } sender.postMessage({ authorId: 2, authorName: "Support Agent", authorImageUrl: "https://demos.telerik.com/kendo-ui/content/web/Customers/GOURL.jpg", authorImageAltText: "Support Agent's profile picture", text: "Thanks for your message! I'm looking into that for you.", timestamp: new Date() }); }, 2500); }, resendMessage: function(e) { var item = e.message; var sender = e.sender; sender.updateMessage(item, { failed: false, status: "sent" }); setTimeout(function() { sender.updateMessage(item, { status: "delivered" }); }, 1000); }, contextMenuAction: function(e) { notificationWidget.show({ message: "Context menu action: " + e.type }, "actionNote"); }, toolbarAction: function(e) { notificationWidget.show({ message: "Toolbar action: " + e.type }, "actionNote"); }, fileMenuAction: function(e) { notificationWidget.show({ message: "File action: " + e.type + " — " + e.file.name }, "actionNote"); }, download: function(e) { if (e.files) { notificationWidget.show({ message: "Downloading " + e.files.length + " file(s)" }, "actionNote"); } else if (e.file) { notificationWidget.show({ message: "Downloading: " + e.file.name }, "actionNote"); } }, unpin: function(e) { notificationWidget.show({ message: "Message unpinned" }, "actionNote"); } }).data("kendoChat"); $("#templateSelect").kendoDropDownList({ change: function(e) { var value = this.value(); var config = templateConfigs[value] || {}; var baseOptions = { messageContentTemplate: null, authorMessageContentTemplate: null, receiverMessageContentTemplate: null, messageStatusTemplate: null, timestampTemplate: null, noDataTemplate: null, headerTemplate: null }; chat.setOptions($.extend(baseOptions, config)); } }); $("#filesLayout").kendoDropDownList({ change: function() { chat.setOptions({ filesLayoutMode: this.value() }); } }); $("#allowCollapse").on("change", function() { chat.setOptions({ allowMessageCollapse: this.checked }); }); $("#toggleLoading").kendoButton({ click: function(e) { chat.loading(!chat.loading()); } }); $("#addFailed").kendoButton({ click: function() { chat.postMessage({ authorId: 1, authorName: "John Doe", authorImageUrl: "https://demos.telerik.com/kendo-ui/content/web/Customers/RICSU.jpg", authorImageAltText: "John's profile picture", text: "This is a simulated failed message — click retry to resend.", timestamp: new Date(), failed: true }); } }); .k-notification { position: absolute; z-index: 9999; top: 90%; left: 50%; transform: translate(-50%, -50%); } .k-chat { max-width: 440px; } .custom-timestamp { text-align: center; color: #999; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; } .configurator .k-dropdownlist { margin-top: 12px; margin-left: 6px; }

Description

The Kendo UI for jQuery Chat component exposes a rich set of templates that let you fully customize how messages, statuses, timestamps, the empty state, and the header are rendered. For a complete reference of all available template options, refer to the Templates documentation article.

This demo uses the configurator to switch between the supported templates and observe how each one affects the rendering:

messageContentTemplate - overrides the content of every message bubble regardless of the author.
authorMessageContentTemplate and receiverMessageContentTemplate - render the messages of the current user and the other participants with distinct markup.
messageStatusTemplate - customizes the status indicator displayed under each outgoing message.
timestampTemplate - controls how the date separators between messages are formatted.
noDataTemplate - renders a custom empty-state view when the Chat has no messages.
headerTemplate - replaces the default header with arbitrary markup.

The demo also showcases additional customization APIs that work alongside the templates - messageStatusSettings with custom icons and CSS classes per status (sent, delivered, seen, failed), messageActions (context menu), messageToolbarActions (inline toolbar), fileActions, filesLayoutMode, allowMessageCollapse, and the loading() method. Send a message to see the status progression from sent to delivered to seen, or use the configurator buttons to add a failed message and toggle the loading indicator.

This Chat example is part of a unique collection of hundreds of jQuery demos, with which you can see all Kendo UI for jQuery components and their features in action. View the source code of the demos from the library or directly adapt, and edit them and their theme appearance in Kendo UI for jQuery Dojo or ThemeBuilder.

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