Posted on 25 Feb 2024
Wanna be brilliant ?
A real-time chat application is a software application that enables users to exchange messages and communicate with each other in real-time. It allows individuals or groups to have conversations, share information, and collaborate instantly over the Internet.
Real-time chat applications are designed to provide a responsive and interactive experience, where messages are delivered and displayed immediately as they are sent. This means that users can engage in conversations and receive updates in real-time, without significant delays.
Let’s have an interactive look at what our final project will look like:
Real-Time Chat Application
To overcome these issues, consider using WebSocket or a WebSocket library (such as Socket.IO) for the real-time communication aspects of your chat application. WebSocket provides a more efficient and scalable solution compared to traditional HTTP-based approaches.
About Socket.io :
Socket.io is a popular JavaScript library that enables real-time, bidirectional communication between a client (usually a web browser) and a server. It is commonly used in the development of real-time applications, including chat applications.
Role of Socket.io :
It allows for instant updates and eliminates the need for the client to continuously poll the server for new information.
Uses an event-driven architecture, where both the client and the server can emit and listen for events. This allows for a flexible and decoupled communication model.
Provides mechanisms for broadcasting events to multiple clients or specific groups of clients. It also supports the concept of rooms, where clients can join or leave specific rooms to enable targeted messaging.
Handles automatic reconnection in case of network disruptions or server unavailability. It tries various strategies to reconnect and resume the connection seamlessly.
Can be used with JavaScript on the client side and various server-side technologies, including Node.js, Python, and PHP. It is compatible with different browsers and operating systems.
Socket.io can be scaled horizontally by deploying multiple instances of the server and utilizing a load balancer. It also integrates well with other technologies for handling scalability, such as Redis or message queues.
Prerequisites:
Basic knowledge of HTML, CSS
JavaScript
Node.js
Socket.io
Project Structure :
Steps to create the application:
Step 1: Create a new directory for your project and navigate to it using the command line.
mkdir real-time-chat-app
Step 2: Navigate to the project directory.
cd real-time-chat-app
Step 3: Initialize a new Node.js project: Run the following command in the project directory to create a new package.json file:
npm init -y
Step 4: Install the required dependencies: Install Socket.IO packages by running the following command:
npm install socket.io
Step 5: Create the following files index.js, index.html, style.css
package.json:
{ "name": "real-time-chat-app", "version": "1.0.0", "description": "", "main": "index.js", "scripts": { "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1" }, "keywords": [], "author": "", "license": "ISC"}
Example: Write the following code in respective files
index.js file: This file is responsible for handling the server-side operations of a web application. It receives HTTP requests from clients and processes them using the appropriate logic and algorithms.
index.html file: This file is responsible for defining the structure and content of the user interface.This HTML file contains HTML code & client-side JavaScript code
style.css file: This file contains the styling of the application
CSS