Chatopia

A real-time text chat platform

You can check the live site here

Overview

Welcome to Chatopia – a project designed for me to learn the MERN stack (MongoDB, Express.js, React.js, Node.js). This application serves as a practical learning experience, allowing me to delve into the world of real-time chat applications while mastering the core technologies of the MERN stack.

• Also, if you want to follow how I approached building this from scratch, you can check out Learnings file. I tend to update this every time I make any progress.

Features

• Account Creation: Users can create accounts to personalize their chat experience.
• Chat Rooms: Join different chat rooms for diverse conversations.
• Real-time Messaging: Utilizes web sockets for instant communication.
• Data Storage: MongoDB is employed for efficient and scalable data storage.

Tech Stack

• Frontend: Built with React.js for a dynamic and responsive user interface. And utilizing React's Context API for state management.
• Backend: Developed using Node.js and Express.js to handle server-side logic.
• Database: MongoDB serves as the database for storing user accounts and chat data.
• Websockets: Enables real-time communication for a seamless chatting experience.

Getting Started

1. Clone the Repository:

   git clone https://github.com/MonalBarse/chat-app.git
   

2. Install Dependencies:

   cd Chatopia
   npm install
   cd frontend
   npm install

   3 Run the Application:

   cd Chatopia/frontend
   npm run dev

   This will start the frontend

3. Run the Backend:

   cd Chatopia
   npm start

   This will start the backend

   (You might not have .env file in the root directory, so you can create one and add the following code)

       PORT = 3000
       MONGO_URI=your_mongo_uri
       JWT_SECRET=your_secret_key
       NODE_ENV=production

4. Open the Application: Open http://localhost:5713 to view it in the browser.

Note:

• Register for an account by providing a username and password. Once registered, you can log in to access the chat rooms.

• This is a begginer project, so you can chat with any person in the database by just entering their username in the chat room. Please do not use or share any sensitive information.

• You can also create a new chat room by entering the name of the chat room in the chat room input field.

  Contributing

  Feel free to contribute by:

Reporting issues Adding new features Improving existing code