Chatty - Real-time MERN Chat Application (Backend)

A modern real-time chat application built with MERN stack (MongoDB, Express.js, React, Node.js) and enhanced with NestJS framework. This repository contains the backend codebase.

🌟 Features

• Real-time Messaging: Instant message delivery using Socket.IO
• User Authentication: Secure JWT-based authentication with cookie sessions
• Image Sharing: Support for image uploads in chat using Cloudinary
• User Profiles: Customizable user profiles with avatars
• Responsive Design: Works seamlessly across all devices
• Role-based Access: Support for user roles (user, admin)

🛠 Tech Stack

• Framework: NestJS
• Database: MongoDB with Mongoose
• Real-time Communication: Socket.IO
• Authentication: Passport.js with JWT
• File Storage: Cloudinary
• API Documentation: Built-in Swagger/OpenAPI
• Deployment: Vercel

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 20.0.0
• npm >= 10.0.0
• MongoDB instance
• Cloudinary account

Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the root directory:

PORT=3000
MONGODB_URI=your_mongodb_connection_string
JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret
JWT_EXPIRE=7d
CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=your_cloudinary_cloud_name
CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=your_cloudinary_api_key
CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=your_cloudinary_api_secret

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/itzSerag/realtime_MERN_chatty-backend.git
cd realtime_MERN_chatty-backend

2. Install dependencies:

npm install

3. Start the development server:

npm run start:dev

The server will start on http://localhost:3000

�� API Documentation

Authentication Endpoints

• POST /api/v1/auth/signup: Register a new user
• POST /api/v1/auth/login: Login user
• POST /api/v1/auth/logout: Logout user

User Endpoints

• GET /api/v1/users: Get all users
• GET /api/v1/users/:id: Get user by ID
• PATCH /api/v1/users/:id: Update user
• DELETE /api/v1/users/:id: Delete user
• PATCH /api/v1/users/profile/updateImg: Update profile image

Message Endpoints

• GET /api/v1/messages/history/:userId: Get chat history with a user
• POST /api/v1/messages: Send a new message

🔌 WebSocket Events

• connection: Client connects to WebSocket server
• newMessage: New message event
• disconnect: Client disconnects from WebSocket server

🔗 Related Repositories

• Frontend Repository: realtime_MERN_chatty-frontend
• Live Demo: Chatty App

📝 License

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

👨‍💻 Author

• @itzSerag

🤝 Contributing

Contributions, issues, and feature requests are welcome! Feel free to check the issues page.

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