Chat App

A basic real-time chat platform (think Rocket.Chat or Discord) built on Laravel and React.

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Containers

This project is built to work exclusively with containerization. Compatible with Docker and Podman.

The dev environment includes a "cli" container to development tools (PHP, Composer, etc.).

Two scripts help interact with this.

• compose.sh wraps either podman compose or docker compose (control engine executable with CONTAINER_ENGINE env var) injecting environment specific compose configuration. Usage: ./compose.sh {dev|prod} ....
• dev-cli is a shortcut for ./compose.sh dev exec cli bash

The laravel directory is the one mounted into the containers. All container configuration files are inaccessible within the containers.

NOTE: prod environment has not been prepared yet. Non-functional.

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Setup & run

1. Clone the repo

2. Prepare secrets

   The containers feed secrets from three files, db_password, db_root_password, and laravel_app_key, within containers/<env>/secrets. Set appropriate passwords, and create an empty laravel_app_key

   mkdir containers/dev/secrets
   echo -n "secretpassword" > containers/dev/secrets/db_password
   echo -n "othersecretpassword" > containers/dev/secrets/db_root_password
   touch containers/dev/secrets/laravel_app_key
   

3. Start the containers: ./compose.sh dev up --build -d

4. Drop into the dev-cli shell: ./dev-cli

5. Run composer install

6. Run the DB migrations: php artisan migrate

7. While still in the dev-cli, generate a new laravel_app_key into a file, exit the dev-cli, move it into place, and restart the containers

   php artisan key:generate --show > laravel_app_key
   exit
   mv laravel/laravel_app_key containers/dev/secrets
   ./compose.sh dev stop
   ./compose.sh dev start
   

8. Navigate to http://localhost:8080

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Internals

Core components

• Laravel-powered REST API backend
• MariaDB for persistent storage
• Docker compatible containerization
  • Helper scripts compose.sh and dev-cli to simplify use

Roadmap

• Authentication w/ Laravel Sanctum
• SPA front-end built with React and Vite(?)
  • Tailwind CSS
• Real-time communication
  • Redis(?) for transient state
  • Laravel Echo & Reverb
• Flesh out "prod" container config