Real-Time Group Chat Application

This project is a real-time group chat application using Express, Socket.IO, JWT for user authentication, and EJS as the template engine. Users can create and join rooms, and the app tracks the user count for each room.

Features

• Room Creation: Users can create unique rooms, generating a unique room ID.
• Real-time Messaging: Messages are broadcasted to all users in a room using WebSockets.
• User Count Tracking: The app keeps track of the number of users in each room and notifies everyone in the room when someone joins or leaves.
• JWT Authentication: Users are authenticated via JSON Web Tokens (JWT), allowing only verified users to join rooms.

Project Structure

• app.js: Main server file handling API routes, WebSocket connections, and room management.
• public/: Directory for static files (e.g., CSS, JavaScript for the front-end).
• views/: EJS templates for rendering pages.

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/devmilon923/group-chat.git
   cd <repo-directory>
   

2. Install dependencies::

   npm install
   

3. Install dependencies::

   node app.js
   

Configuration Note:

• JWT Secret Key: Located within the main file (app.js), set as JWT_SECRET. Update it for production environments to enhance security.

4. Access the application: Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser.

Some others information about this project:

Dependencies Used

• express: Web framework for handling routes and middleware.
• jsonwebtoken: For generating and verifying JWTs.
• uuid: Generates unique room IDs.
• socket.io: Enables real-time, bidirectional communication for chat.
• body-parser: Parses incoming JSON requests.
• ejs: Renders HTML templates on the server.

API Endpoints

• GET /: Renders the home page.
• POST /create-room: Creates a new room with a unique room ID.
• GET /chat/:roomId: Joins an existing room with a specific room ID.
• POST /join-room: Authenticates the user and returns a JWT for room access.

WebSocket Events

• joinRoom: Allows a user to join a specified room with a valid JWT. Sends a notification to other room users with the updated user count.
• chatMessage: Broadcasts a message to all users in the room.
• disconnect: Decreases the user count and notifies remaining users when someone leaves the room.

Live URL

• Please Note This: Sometimes, it may take up to 60 seconds or more to load because this project is hosted on Render's free plan. The free plan automatically puts the site to sleep when inactive, so please be patient if there's a delay.

https://group-chat-gbli.onrender.com

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.