Message Flow

Overview

Once the WebSocket connection is established by ClientManager, message exchange and routing is handled by an internal pipeline composed of:

WebsocketManager — Maintains a persistent WebSocket connection
MessageBroker — Parses JSON messages and emits typed signals or model updates
ChatMessageModel and PrivateMessageModel — Store parsed public and private messages
ChannelMessageProxyModel and PrivateMessageProxyModel — Expose filtered views to QML

These components are automatically connected inside ClientManager when it is constructed or when connectToServer() is called.

Internally, when a ClientManager instance is created:

WebsocketManager is initialized and connected to the following signals:
- connected, disconnected, connectionError
- textMessageReceived → MessageBroker::processMessage()
MessageBroker parses incoming JSON messages. Depending on the payload type, it appends to one of its two internal models:
- ChatMessageModel — for public channel messages
- PrivateMessageModel — for direct/private messages
ClientManager exposes filtered proxy models:
- Each channel has its own ChannelMessageProxyModel, created from the full message model
- Each private conversation has its own PrivateMessageProxyModel, created from the private model

These proxies can be retrieved using:

chatClientManager.proxyForChannel("general");
chatClientManager.proxyForPrivateUser("user-id-1234");

- Models are populated only by the MessageBroker, based on server input.

- Proxies are created on-demand by ClientManager and cached internally.

- Each active chat window owns its own ClientManager, ensuring isolated message routing.