Chat with ALL

Chat with ALL is a simple chat application built using :

• React - to create the front end.
• Redux - used for client side state management.
• Node - to handle the server stuff.
• Express - as the web framework, and for RESTApi.
• Redis - used for server side session management, data storage and pub-sub for messages.
• Socket.io - used for realtime messaging.
• Live app hosted on Heroku and RedisLabs.

Try it out:

https://chat-with-all.herokuapp.com/

Setup

• git clone https://gitlab.com/mario-christopher/chat-with-all.git
• cd chat-with-all
• npm install
• Edit the file source\server\redis\config.js to add your redis server url (REDIS_URL) and password (REDIS_DB_PWD), or, alternatively, edit the package.json scripts to send them in as env variables. The app will not work without Redis configured.
• npm run server - runs server on port 3000.
• npm run client - runs client on port 3001 (on another terminal).
• Browse to http://localhost:3001 ( tested on Chrome and IE.11 ).

Note : To simulate multiple clients chatting on the same computer, open the client (http://localhost:3001) in different browsers ( eg.: Client1 on Chrome, Client2 on IE etc ).

Application features:

• User-name to identify the user in the chat session.
• Broadcast a message to connected users when someone connects or disconnects.
• After joing the chat, see who else is on the chat.
• Rejoin the chat from where you left off automatically, if server crashes and/or restarts.
• Rejoin the chat from where you left off automatically, if browser crashes and/or refreshes.
• User is remembered (messages) until they explicitly leave the chat.
• User sessions and app data are stored externally, on a Redis server, to allow for recoveries on crashes, multiple servers, load balancing, scaling etc.
• Use of socket.io-express-session to share session with socket.io, so user information is safe in single source within session.
• Use of ES6 features and Promises on Server and Client.

License

Shared under MIT License.