node-chat

Web chat powered by Node.js and socket.io.

Installation

Install all required Node.js modules and update GeoIP databases:

npm install

Server configuration

For server-side you only need to set server port and admin credentials. You can do it by setting port property in config.json:

{
  // Chat application server will listen on this port
  "port": 1337,

  // When you access /admin, HTTP basic authentication will ask to login
  "admin": {
    "user": "admin",
    "password": "admin"
  },

  // ... other settings which can be managed from chat admin panel
}

Client configuration

Client-side application comes minified, so you can call it following way:

 <!-- your cool HTML goes here -->
 
 <script src="http://my-chat-app.myhost.com:1337/chat.min.js" type="application/javascript"></script>

 <!-- You choose ID of chat depending on settings in chat/js/config.js -->
 <div id="chat"></div>
 
 <!-- your cool HTML goes here again -->

In given example chat.min.js is minified version of chat application. To build chat application you should edit chat/js/config.js first:

{
    /**
     * Base URL is the URL of your chat application server.
     * You have to specify it because client-side app should
     * know where to get images and stylesheets. Make
     * sure you have trailing slash character.
     */
    baseUrl: 'http://my-chat-app.myhost.com:1337/',

    /**
     * This is CSS selector which is used by client
     * to get block where chat will be rendered. So
     * if you set it to '#my-cool-chat' you should
     * have empty <div id='my-cool-chat'></div>
     * somewhere on the page
     */
    chatRootSelector: '#chat'
}

Once you've edited this file you can build minified client application:

npm run-script build-client

Now you can start your app.

Private messages only mode

You can start client-side chat application in private messages only mode. To do this you have to add class chat-app-private to chat container as follows:

<div class="chat-app-private" id="chat"></div>

This mode means that guest will be logged into chat, but will be able to receive & send private messages only. If someone sends him a message guest will see pop-up block in right bottom corner of the screen.

Start

Usually you start with following command:

node app.js

If you like to override HTTP port setting, just add PORT environment variable before node:

PORT=8080 node app.js

Development

Debugging client application

To test the chat you can access it using http://CHAT-HOST:PORT/. This will load not minified version of chat client, so you can debug it.

Minified client compilation

Minified app version is built by r.js. Build configuration is located at chat/js/main.js. When you run npm run-script build-client, following commands are performed:

node scripts/gen-template.js # same as 'npm run-script build-template'
cd chat/js
../../node_modules/.bin/r.js -o baseUrl=. name=../lib/require.js/almond include=main mainConfigFile=main.js

Working with template

Layout template is located at chat/index.html. There is npm task build-template which creates chat/js/template.js from this file. To say it just minifies HTML and wraps result string into AMD module.

Also npm run-script build-client runs build-template, so minified client gets all the layout updates.

CSS

All the CSS is located at chat/css/. If you see CSS is messed up on your external page where you run chat, you should edit chat CSS files somehow, so they only reflect elements which are under .chat-app (I did not found a way to insert .chat-app prefix to every CSS rule).

Administration panel

Chat admin panel is located at http://CHAT-APP-HOST:PORT/admin.