🎲 Realtime Chat API

⚡ Welcome to the Realtime Chat API, a web service designed to support a simple yet engaging chat application. This document will guide you through the application features, API functionalities, and the usage.

🎯 Application Features

The Realtime Chat application is built with a real-time communication feature using Socket.IO. It allows users to send and receive messages instantly. The application also supports user authentication and message history.

🤖 API Functionalities

In order to use the chat, you must register as a user with a unique email, name, and password. Each user can see a list of all the messages they've sent and received.

The API supports the following operations:

• User registration: A user can register with a unique email, name, and password. On creation, a unique identifier and registration date is assigned.

• User login: A user can log in with their registered email and password. On successful login, a JWT token is generated for the user.

• Send a message: A registered user can send a message. Each message will be recorded with the sender's name, the message content, and the time it was sent.

• List messages: A user can view a list of all the messages they've sent and received, along with the time each message was sent.

• List users: The API allows to list all the registered users.

The API follows the main design patterns and respects a clean architecture structure. The persistence is achieved through Mysql database using Sequelize as an ORM.

📑 Available Endpoints

Please refer to the /documentation directory to view the full specification of the available endpoints.

📥 Installation for the Backend

To get started with the backend of this application, you first need to navigate to the server directory:

cd server

Then, install the project dependencies:

npm install

🏁 How To Start the Backend

To start the server in development mode, run the following script:

npm run dev

Then, open http://localhost:8000 to access the server.

🚀 Production for the Backend

To run the server in production mode, first build the TypeScript code into JavaScript by running:

npm run build

This will generate the dist directory with the compiled JavaScript files.

Then, start the server by running:

npm start

This will start the server and make it available at http://localhost:8000.

🏗️ Scripts for the Backend

This project comes with several predefined scripts in the package.json file:

lint: Runs ESLint to check code quality.

lint:fix: Runs ESLint to fix code style issues.

dev: Starts the development server with ts-node-dev and allows debugging

build: Removes the ./dist folder and compiles the TypeScript code intoJavaScript in the ./dist folder.

start: Starts the server in production using the compiled files in the dist/ folder.

📥 Installation for the Frontend

To get started with the frontend of this application, you first need to navigate to the client directory:

cd client

Then, install the project dependencies:

npm install

🏁 How To Start the Frontend

To start the client in development mode, run the following script:

npm run dev

Then, open http://localhost:3000 to access the client.

🚀 Production for the Frontend

To run the client in production mode, first build the Next.js code by running:

npm run build

This will generate the .next directory with the compiled JavaScript files.

Then, start the client by running:

npm start

This will start the client and make it available at http://localhost:3000.

🏗️ Scripts for the Frontend

This project comes with several predefined scripts in the package.json file:

dev: Starts the development server.

build: Builds the application for production.

start: Starts the application in production mode.

lint: Runs ESLint to check code quality.

🌍 Environment Variables

The application uses environment variables for configuration. You can find a template for these variables in the .env-template file in the root directory of both the server and client.

Server .env-template

PORT: The port number where the server will run.

NODE_ENV: The current environment (development, production, etc.).

SECRET: The secret key used for JWT authentication.

FRONT_URL: The URL of the frontend application.

DATABASE_NAME: The name of the database for the application.

DATABASE_NAME_TEST: The name of the database for testing.

MYSQL_HOST: The host of the MySQL database.

MYSQL_USER: The user for the MySQL database.

MYSQL_PASSWORD: The password for the MySQL database user.

Client .env-template

NEXTAUTH_SECRET: The secret key used for NextAuth.

NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL: The URL of the backend server.