💬 Sd Realtime Chat App

A modern real-time chat application built with React, Node.js, Socket.IO, and MongoDB.
It supports instant messaging, online user status, authentication, and a clean responsive UI.

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Live Link

Sd Realtime Chat App

📸 Screenshots

🚀 Features

• 🔐 User authentication (Signup / Login / Logout)
• 💬 Real-time messaging using Socket.IO
• 🟢 Online / Offline user status
• 🖼️ Image & text messages
• 🕒 Message timestamps (12-hour format)
• 📅 Smart date labels (Today / Day name / Full date)
• 👤 Profile update with image upload (Cloudinary)
• 🍪 JWT authentication with HTTP-only cookies
• 📱 Responsive and modern UI (Tailwind CSS + DaisyUI)

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🛠️ Tech Stack

Frontend

• React (Vite)
• Tailwind CSS + DaisyUI
• Zustand (State Management)
• Axios

Backend

• Node.js
• Express.js
• Socket.IO
• MongoDB + Mongoose
• JWT Authentication
• Cloudinary (Image Uploads)

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⚙️ Run Locally

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/danielace1/realtime-chat-app.git
    cd realtime-chat-app

2. Install dependencies for both frontend and backend:

   # Frontend
   cd client
   npm install
   
   # Backend
   cd ../server
   npm install

3. Create a .env file in the server directory and add the following environment variables:

   PORT =
   MONGO_URI =
   NODE_ENV =
   JWT_SECRET =
   CLIENT_URL =
   RESEND_API_KEY =
   EMAIL_FROM =
   EMAIL_FROM_NAME =
   CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME =
   CLOUDINARY_API_KEY =
   CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET =
   ARCJET_KEY =
   ARCJET_ENV =

4. Start the development servers:

    # Start Backend
    cd server
    npm run dev
   
    # Start Frontend
    cd ../client
    npm run dev

5. Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:5173 to access the application.

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🤝 Contributing

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

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

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Author

• Sudharsan A