💬 Real-Time Chat App – Backend

This is a full-featured backend for a scalable real-time chat application under development, currently supporting:

• ✅ 1-to-1 and group chats
• 📩 Real-time messaging using Socket.IO
• ✏️ Edit/Delete messages
• ✅ Delivered/Seen indicators
• 🔔 Typing indicators, archiving, muting
• 🔐 JWT authentication
• 📁 MongoDB database with Mongoose
• 📦 Postman collections for API testing

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🚀 Tech Stack

• Node.js + Express
• MongoDB + Mongoose
• Socket.IO
• JWT for Auth
• Postman for API Testing

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🛠️ Local Setup

1. 📥 Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/your-username/chat-backend.git
cd chat-backend

2. 📦 Install Dependencies

npm install

3. 🔐 Configure Environment

Create a .env file in the root directory:

PORT=5001
MONGO_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/chatapp
JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret
CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=xxx
CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=xxx
CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=xxx
EMAIL_USER=xxx
EMAIL_PASS=xxx

You can also connect to MongoDB Atlas if you prefer a cloud database.

4. ▶️ Start the Server

For development

npm run dev

The backend should be running at:

http://localhost:5001

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🧪 API Testing with Postman

📂 Collection Overview

Collection Name	Description
postman-collection_.json	User registration and login endpoints
postman-collection_Chats.json	Create, fetch, update, mute, archive, and delete chats
postman-collection_Message.json	Send, edit, delete, and mark messages as seen

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📁 Step 1: Import All Collections

Instead of importing files one by one, you can import the entire postman/ folder:

1. In Postman, go to File > Import
2. Drag & drop the postman/ folder
3. Postman will auto-import all 4 files:
   • postman-collection_Authentication.json
   • postman-collection_Chats.json
   • postman-collection_Message.json
   • postman_environment.json

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🌍 Step 2: Activate Environment

1. Postman auto-imports postman_environment.json
2. Set it as the active environment
3. Edit and add your actual values if needed:

{
  "base_url": "http://localhost:5001/api",
  "token": "your_token_here",
  "user_id": "your_user_id_here",
  "user_id_2": "another_user_id",
  "user_id_3": "third_user_id",
  "user_id_4": "fourth_user_id",
  "chat_id": "your_chat_or_group_id_here",
  "message_id": "your_message_id_here"
}

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✅ Step 3: Run Your APIs

1. Register/Login using the Authentication collection
2. Use the token received in register/login to populate {{token}}
3. Continue with:
   • Chats (create, update, mute, archive, delete, leave)
   • Messages (send, edit, delete, mark seen)

Each request is pre-filled with placeholders like {{base_url}}, {{token}}, {{chat_id}}, etc.

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🛡️ Security Notes

1. All IDs and tokens in Postman collections are replaced with environment variables.
2. Never expose real credentials or tokens in public repositories.
3. Use .env for managing secrets in code.