Chat

A real-time chat application with direct messaging support, built with Go and WebSocket.

You can see a live demo at https://deiu-chat.onrender.com but you may have to wait up to a minutefor the server to restart after a long period of inactivity.

Features

• Real-time messaging using WebSocket
• Direct user-to-user messaging
• Case-insensitive unique usernames
• Unread message notifications
• Online users list
• Docker support
• Clean disconnection handling
• Message history per conversation

Usage

1. Open the application in your browser (default: http://localhost:8080)
2. Enter a username to login
3. Select a user from the online users list to start chatting
4. Messages are delivered in real-time
5. Unread messages are indicated with (*)
6. Use the logout button to disconnect

Development

Prerequisites

• Go 1.21 or later
• Docker (optional)

Building the application

go build -o chat main.go

Running the application

./chat

Using Docker

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/deiu/chat.git
cd chat

2. Build and run the application:

docker build -t chat .
docker run -p 8080:8080 chat

3. Access the application in your browser at http://localhost:8080.

Using Docker Compose

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/deiu/chat.git
cd chat

2. Build and run the application:

docker-compose up --build

3. Access the application in your browser at http://localhost:8080.

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

License

Apache License 2.0 - see LICENSE for details