DESCRIPTION: online messaging service using Flask, similar in spirit to Slack. Users are able to sign into the site with a display name, create channels (i.e. chatrooms) to communicate in, as well as see and join existing channels. Once a channel is selected, users are be able to send and receive messages with one another in real time.
INSTRUCTIONS: set the environment variable FLASK_APP to be application.py. On a Mac or on Linux, the command to do this is export FLASK_APP=application.py. On Windows, the command is instead set FLASK_APP=application.py. Run "flask run" or "python application.py" to start up the application.