Skinning & Customization
Customize the Helpshift SDK to completely match the look and feel of your app.
Using UIAppearance
UIAppearance customisations are applied to Helpshift SDK by default. However if there is a conflicting property, then the value in HelpshiftConfig.plist will take precedence.
For example: If the app uses UIAppearance to change the colour of Navigation Bar title and also specifies a colour for the same property in the HelpshiftConfig.plist file, then the value in plist will be used. In order to use the UIAppearance value, the app must leave the corresponding entry in the plist blank.
Introduction
Head over to Theming and Skinning if you want to customize your SDK integration's typeface, colors or background images. It is done via simple key-value pairs in a plist file.
If you want to change strings used in the SDK's UI or want to translate them as per device language, see String Customization.
Theming and Skinning
To skin your app, make sure you add HSThemes/HelpshiftConfig.plist into your XCode project and set values for attributes in HelpshiftConfig.plist
- Colors
- Colors are specified in hexadecimal format, e.g.
FF0000is Red - Images
- Images should be included in your project and can be specified by their filename. Helpshift supports iOS image naming convention (i.e. @2x images, if found are utilized on retina displays)
- Fonts
- Font names should be specified by their family name & style. For example, Futura-Medium refers to Futura family of medium style.
Checkout iosfonts.com for fonts available on SDK supported iOS versions. You can also use fonts other than these if they're used by your project. See using custom fonts section for more details.
Font size & Font name must go together
Setting Font size attribute should always be accompanied by a relevant Font name, otherwise fonts may appear odd.
Default Skinning Configurations
Helpshift comes with three default skinning configurations -
- Light -
HSThemes/HelpshiftConfig.plist - Dark -
HSThemes/HelpshiftConfigDark.plist - High Contrast -
HSThemes/HelpshiftConfigHighContrast.plist
You may want to begin with a dark theme as base. To do so, in your XCode project, rename the file HelpshiftConfigDark.plist to HelpshiftConfig.plist and use that instead.
Customized Skinning Configurations
If you want to customize the skinning attributes of the Helpshift SDK, there are 2 options:
- Change the values in the
HelpshiftConfig.plistorHelpshiftConfigDark.plist. - Copy the
HelpshiftConfig.plistfile asHelpshiftCustomConfig.plistand add this file to your application's main bundle.
Helpshift SDK will first look for the HelpshiftCustomConfig.plist file in the Application's main bundle.
If it fails to find such a file, it will look for the HelpshiftConfig.plist file in the Helpshift SDK's bundle.
We'll now walk through each group of customizations -
Global Attributes
These attributes control the looks of in-app support over many screens.
- Font name
- Global font face - applies to texts for sections list, FAQ list, FAQ answer, search results.
- Bold font name
- Applies to FAQ section headers on support screen and FAQ question
- Background color
- Applies to regions with no UI elements or content. E.g. spaces around table views, FAQ section headers.
- Content background color
- Background color for content - table cells, single FAQ screen, conversation screen.
- Separator line color
- Separator color for table views - search results, section & faq lists.
- Text color
- Applies to text color for table cells, FAQ answer & search results.
- Secondary text color
- Applies to text color of footers, attachment info, conversation ended message and ratings.
- Placeholder text color
- Applies to text color of all the place holders like Name, email fields etc in the SDK.
- Contact us button color
- Applies to "contact us" button below search results
- Cell selection color
- Applies to tableview cells. Sets the cell selection color.
- Search highlight color
- Highlight the search result with specified colour.
- Status bar light content
- Specify wether the status bar needs to use light content mode. Use only if you have ViewController based StatusBar appearance.
- Table view cell extra vertical padding
- Provide custom padding for cell row height. Valid values are between 0 and 100 (included).
- Hide back button label
- Hides the text for back button.
- Table view max lines
- Sets the max number of lines to be shown in a section, an FAQ and or search lists. If the text exceeds this value, the last line will be ellipsized.
- Font file name
- The file name of the font to be used for displaying the FAQ body.
- Bold font file name
- The file name of the font to be used for displaying the FAQ title.
- Table view disclosure color
- The color of the disclosure indicator in the inbox table view.
Association of "Global Attributes" to UI elements -
Header background and layering
Background for section headers is transparent, hence it inherits from Background color in Global Attributes -
Support UI Overview
Navigation Bar
- Font name
- Font face used for navigation bar title
- Font size
- Font size of navigation bar title. It's a unitless number, e.g. 20.
- Title color
- Color for navigation bar title
- Bar button text color
- Text color for navigation bar buttons
- Background color
- Applies to navigation bar's background
- Bar button font name
- Font name for navigation bar button.
- Bar button font size
- Font size navigation bar button.
- Set Translucent
- Translucent property for navigation bar. It's a boolean value.
Search Bar
- Background color
- Background color for search bar.
While iOS allows developers to set a background color on search bars, it forbids one from controlling the Cancel button's color. While Apple may fix this soon, we're aware of this and are working on ways around this issue. You should avoid complete white (FFFFFF), and lighter shades for the "Background color" attribute so that Cancel button remains easily visible.
Starting from iOS 11, search bar is part of the navigation bar. So this attribute has no effect on iOS 11 and later. The color of the whole navigation bar, including the search bar, can be changed using the "Background color" attribute of navigation bar
FAQ and Chat
- Chat send button color
- Color for send button on conversation chat screen.
- Timestamp text color
- Applies to the chat Timestamps in the SDK.
- FAQ yes button color
- Color for FAQ helpfulness choice "YES"
- FAQ no button color
- Color for FAQ helpfulness choice "NO"
- Screenshot tutorial button color
- Color for screenshot request tutorial button and back button in screenshot tutorial
- Screenshot attach button color
- Color for screenshot request attach button and take screenshot button in screenshot tutorial
- Media message background color
- Color of the background shown in the attachment message or QuickSearch Bot FAQs message bubble.
- Media message border color
- Color of the border shown in the attachment message bubble.
- Media message action color
- Color for the action button in the media message.
- Message error color
- Color of the error thrown for a message.
- User message text color
- Color for the text in the user chat bubble
- Agent message text color
- Color for the text in the agent chat bubble
- User message background color
- Color for background of the user chat bubble.
- Agent message background color
- Color for background of the admin chat bubble.
- Typing indicator color
- Color for the dots shown in the typing indicator
- Selectable Option Text Color
- The color of the text in option pills of the QuickSearch Bot or skip button.
- Selectable Option Background Color
- The background color of the option pills of the QuickSearch Bot or skip button.
- Selectable Option Border Color
- The border color of the option pills of the QuickSearch Bot or skip button.
- Field Background color
- The background color of the reply field.
- Field border color
- The border color of the reply field.
- Notification color
- Color of the dot indicator on the 'jump' button to indicate there are new messages.
Message Retry Badge
A retry badge is shown on messages in conversation screen, that fail to reach customers.
- Text color
- Color for the exclamation mark (!) on message retry badge.
- Background color
- Retry badge's background color
Conversation Resolution
- Background color
- Background color for conversation resolution footer
- Text color
- Color for labels on conversation resolution footer
- Rating star color
- Color for rating stars when customer satisfaction survey is enabled
- Yes button color
- Color for confirmation button "YES"
- No button color
- Color for confirmation button NO"
Using Custom Fonts
Add the font to your project. Edit your app's plist file "Fonts provided by application" to it. Under the key, list out file names of all the fonts you want to use in your app and in support. If you've already listed such fonts, skip this step.
Copy the font's full name. To do this, select the font in Finder and hit Command ⌘+I (Get Info).
Paste the font name into HelpshiftConfig.plist, wherever necesary
Starting 5.10.0, if you need to apply font name and bold font name to Single FAQ screen, you need to add the font file name and bold font file name in HelpshiftConfig.plist
Test the font in simulator. Errors in font names are ignored by the SDK —
Orientation support
The iOS SDK will follow the orientation, that the application supports in plist file.
Troubleshooting
If you are having issues with skinning the SDK, head over to the Troubleshooting section for further information.