Relay: Send. Receive. Connect.

Full-stack messaging application built using the PERN stack (PostgreSQL, Express, React, and Node).

Table of Contents

• Getting Started
• Development and Testing
• Development Plan and Improvements
• Project Structure
• Contributing
• License
• Support

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Before getting started, ensure you have the following installed:

• Node.js
• npm

Installation

Follow these steps to set up the application locally:

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/imseanconroy/relay.git
cd relay

2. Frontend Setup:

   1. Navigate to the frontend directory and install dependencies:

   cd frontend
   npm install

   2. Configure environment variables by creating a .env file in the frontend directory:

   NODE_ENV=development

   3. Start the frontend development server:

   npm run dev

3. Backend Setup:

   1. Navigate to the backend directory and install dependencies:

   cd backend
   npm install

   2. Configure environment variables by creating a .env file in the backend directory:

   DATABASE_URL=<your_database_url>
   JWT_SECRET=<your_jwt_secret>
   NODE_ENV=development
   PORT=3000

   3. Start the backend development server:

   npm run dev

Development and Testing

Run all tests with the following command:

npm run test

Development Plan and Improvements

This section outlines upcoming features and improvements:

1. User Features:

   • Integrate email validation and forgotten password functionality.
   • Add functionality to update and delete messages.
   • Enable replying to messages and creating message threads.
   • Improve search functionality with optimized API calls and enhanced UI.
   • Implement avatars customization and image uploads.

2. UI/UX Enhancements:

   • Redesign the chat interface for better usability, particularly on mobile devices.
   • Integrate animations and transitions to enhance user interaction.

3. Testing and Quality Assurance:

   • Expand test coverage for both frontend and backend components.
   • Automate integration tests using CI/CD pipelines for streamlined deployment.
   • Introduce comprehensive logging for error tracking and debugging.

4. Documentation:

   • Create a detailed API reference.

Feel free to suggest additional improvements by opening an issue.

Project Structure

relay/
├── frontend/    # React application
├── backend/     # Express.js server and PostgreSQL integration
└── README.md    # Project documentation

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please open an issue or submit a pull request for any enhancements or bug fixes.

License

This project is Distributed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for information.

Support

If you are having problems, please let me know by raising a new issue.