Real-Time Chat App

A real-time chat application showcasing full-stack development with React, Go, PostgreSQL, and WebSockets, containerized with Docker. Messages are sent and received instantly and stored persistently, with planned Auth0 JWT authentication.

Chat App Setup

Features

• Go Backend: Built with Gin and GORM, handles WebSocket (/ws) connections for real-time messaging and HTTP POST (/api/messages) for compatibility, plus a /health endpoint for monitoring.
• PostgreSQL Database: Stores messages persistently using GORM with automatic schema migration for the Message model.
• WebSocket Communication: Uses gorilla/websocket for instant message broadcasting to all connected clients.
• React Frontend: A responsive UI for sending and displaying messages in real time, served via Nginx.
• Dockerized Setup: Docker Compose orchestrates the React client, Go server, and PostgreSQL database in a single network.
• Planned Authentication: Auth0 JWT for user authentication (in progress).

Running Locally

1. Clone the repo: git clone https://github.com/m-mfp/chat-app
2. Run docker-compose up --build to start the server and database
3. Create client/.env file REACT_APP_API_URL=http://server:8000 and server/.env file
4. Access the server at http://localhost:8000/health and the client at http://localhost:3000.
5. Test messages: curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/messages -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"userid": "testuser", "msgid": "123", "text": "Hello, world!"}''
6. Stop the app docker-compose down

Dockerfile Highlights

• Server: Multi-stage Go build for a minimal image, exposing port 8000, with gorilla/websocket and GORM dependencies.
• Client: Multi-stage Node.js build with Nginx to serve the React app on port 80, using a custom nginx.conf for optimized static file delivery and SPA routing support.
• Docker Compose: Configures networking and loads environment variables from client/.env and server/.env for seamless deployment.