🛠️ Temporary Group Chat Backend

This is the Flask backend for the Temporary Group Chat App.
Handles group creation, messaging, and auto-deletion of messages after 10 minutes.

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🚀 Tech Stack

Category	Technology
Backend	Flask (Python)
Database	Redis
Hosting	Koyeb
Redis Client	redis

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📦 Features

• 🔑 Join/Leave groups using passwords.
• 🗨️ Send and receive messages.
• 🕑 Messages automatically delete after 10 minutes.
• 🚀 Fast backend with Redis caching.
• 🔒 Secure, environment variable-based config.

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🛠️ Developer Guide

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/aarontoms/Chat-app-backend.git
cd group-chat-backend

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2. Install Dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

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3. Create Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the project root:

REDIS_HOST = <'redis-host-url'>
REDIS_PORT = <your_redis_port>
REDIS_PASSWORD = <redis_password>

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4. Run the Server

python app.py

The server will start on http://localhost:5000 by default.

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📜 Important Notes

• Redis must be running and reachable for message expiry to work.
• Environment variables are mandatory for the app to run.

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📄 Endpoints Overview

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/create	Create a group
POST	/postpassword	Join a group
POST	/send	Send a message to a group
GET	/getmessages	Get all messages in a group

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🧩 Folder Structure

/backend
  ├── app.py
  ├── requirements.txt
  └── .env (not committed)

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📣 Contributing

Feel free to fork, open issues, and submit PRs!

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