Flag Message

Overview

Flagging messages allows users to report inappropriate content to moderators or administrators. When a message is flagged, it appears in the CometChat Dashboard under Moderation > Flagged Messages for review.

For a complete understanding of how flagged messages are reviewed and managed, see the Flagged Messages documentation.

Prerequisites

Before using the flag message feature:

1. Moderation must be enabled for your app in the CometChat Dashboard
2. Flag reasons should be configured under Moderation > Advanced Settings

How It Works

Get Flag Reasons

Before flagging a message, retrieve the list of available flag reasons configured in your Dashboard:

Dart

CometChat.getFlagReasons(
  onSuccess: (List<FlagReason> reasons) {
    print("Flag reasons fetched: $reasons");
    // Use reasons to populate your report dialog UI
    for (var reason in reasons) {
      print("Reason ID: ${reason.id}, Title: ${reason.title}");
    }
  },
  onError: (CometChatException e) {
    print("Error fetching flag reasons: ${e.message}");
  },
);

Response

The response is a list of FlagReason objects containing:

Property	Type	Description
id	String	Unique identifier for the reason
title	String	Display text for the reason

Flag a Message

To flag a message, use the flagMessage() method with the message ID and a FlagDetail object:

Dart

int messageId = 123;  // ID of the message to flag

FlagDetail flagDetail = FlagDetail()
  ..reasonId = "spam"  // Required: ID from getFlagReasons()
  ..remark = "This message contains promotional content";  // Optional

CometChat.flagMessage(
  messageId,
  flagDetail,
  onSuccess: (String response) {
    print("Message flagged successfully: $response");
  },
  onError: (CometChatException e) {
    print("Message flagging failed: ${e.message}");
  },
);

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
messageId	int	Yes	The ID of the message to flag
flagDetail	FlagDetail	Yes	Contains flagging details
flagDetail.reasonId	String	Yes	ID of the flag reason (from getFlagReasons())
flagDetail.remark	String	No	Additional context or explanation from the user

Response

{
  "message": "Message {id} has been flagged successfully."
}

Complete Example

Here’s a complete implementation showing how to build a report message flow:

Dart

class ReportMessageHandler {
  List<FlagReason> _flagReasons = [];

  // Load flag reasons (call this on app init or when needed)
  Future<List<FlagReason>> loadFlagReasons() async {
    final completer = Completer<List<FlagReason>>();
    
    CometChat.getFlagReasons(
      onSuccess: (List<FlagReason> reasons) {
        _flagReasons = reasons;
        completer.complete(reasons);
      },
      onError: (CometChatException e) {
        print("Failed to load flag reasons: ${e.message}");
        completer.complete([]);
      },
    );
    
    return completer.future;
  }

  // Get reasons for UI display
  List<FlagReason> getReasons() => _flagReasons;

  // Flag a message with selected reason
  Future<bool> flagMessage(
    int messageId,
    String reasonId, {
    String? remark,
  }) async {
    final completer = Completer<bool>();
    
    FlagDetail flagDetail = FlagDetail()
      ..reasonId = reasonId;
    
    if (remark != null) {
      flagDetail.remark = remark;
    }

    CometChat.flagMessage(
      messageId,
      flagDetail,
      onSuccess: (String response) {
        print("Message flagged successfully");
        completer.complete(true);
      },
      onError: (CometChatException e) {
        print("Failed to flag message: ${e.message}");
        completer.complete(false);
      },
    );
    
    return completer.future;
  }
}

// Usage
final reportHandler = ReportMessageHandler();

// Load reasons when app initializes
await reportHandler.loadFlagReasons();

// When user submits the report
final success = await reportHandler.flagMessage(
  123,
  "spam",
  remark: "User is sending promotional links",
);

if (success) {
  showToast("Message reported successfully");
}