💬 TMchat

🔗 📁DOCUMENTATION

🔗 🌐Live Demo

TMchat is a modern, real-time messaging application built with the MERN stack (MongoDB, Express, React, Node.js). It features secure authentication, real-time chat capabilities using Socket.io, and a sleek, responsive UI powered by TailwindCSS and DaisyUI.

🚀 Features

• Real-time Messaging: Instant message delivery and updates using Socket.io.
• Secure Authentication: User signup, login, and logout with JWT and secure cookies.
• Profile Management: Update user profiles, including avatar uploads via Cloudinary.
• Online Status: See who is currently online.
• Security: Protected routes, rate limiting, and bot protection using Arcjet.
• Responsive Design: A beautiful, dark-themed UI that works seamlessly on desktop and mobile.
• Email Notifications: Integrated email handling (Resend/Nodemailer).

🛠️ Tech Stack

Backend

• Node.js & Express.js: Server-side runtime and framework.
• MongoDB & Mongoose: Database and object modeling.
• Socket.io: Real-time, bidirectional communication.
• JWT (JSON Web Tokens): Secure authentication.
• Cloudinary: Cloud storage for image uploads.
• Arcjet: Security middleware for rate limiting and bot detection.
• Resend/Nodemailer: Email services.

Frontend

• React: UI library.
• Vite: Fast build tool and development server.
• TailwindCSS: Utility-first CSS framework.
• DaisyUI: Component library for TailwindCSS.
• Zustand: Lightweight state management.
• Axios: HTTP client for API requests.
• React Hot Toast: Toast notifications.

📂 Project Structure

TMchat/
├── backend/                 # Backend server code
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── controllers/     # Request handlers
│   │   ├── emails/          # Email templates and handlers
│   │   ├── lib/             # Utility libraries (DB, Cloudinary, Socket, etc.)
│   │   ├── middleware/      # Express middleware (Auth, Arcjet)
│   │   ├── models/          # Mongoose models
│   │   ├── routes/          # API routes
│   │   └── server.js        # Entry point
│   └── package.json
├── frontend/                # Frontend React application
│   ├── public/              # Static assets
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── components/      # Reusable UI components
│   │   ├── hooks/           # Custom React hooks
│   │   ├── lib/             # Frontend utilities (Axios)
│   │   ├── pages/           # Application pages
│   │   ├── store/           # Zustand state stores
│   │   └── App.jsx          # Main component
│   └── package.json
├── package.json             # Root configuration
└── README.md                # Project documentation

⚙️ Installation & Setup

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v20.x recommended)
• MongoDB installed locally or a MongoDB Atlas URI.
• Cloudinary account for image storage.
• Arcjet account for security features.

Steps

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/ItsME-TM/TMchat.git
   cd TMchat

2. Install dependencies:

   # Install root dependencies
   npm install
   
   # Install backend dependencies
   cd backend
   npm install
   
   # Install frontend dependencies
   cd ../frontend
   npm install

3. Environment Configuration: Create a .env file in the backend/ directory with the following variables:

   PORT=5001
   MONGO_URL=your_mongodb_connection_string
   NODE_ENV=development
   JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret_key
   CLIENT_URL=http://localhost:5173
   
   # Email Configuration
   SMTP_HOST=smtp.example.com
   SMTP_PORT=587
   SMTP_SECURE=false
   SMTP_USER=your_email_user
   SMTP_PASS=your_email_password
   EMAIL_FROM=noreply@example.com
   EMAIL_FROM_NAME="Chat App"
   
   # Cloudinary Configuration
   CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=your_cloud_name
   CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=your_api_key
   CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=your_api_secret
   
   # Arcjet Configuration
   ARCJET_KEY=your_arcjet_key
   ARCJET_ENV=development

4. Run the Application:

   You can run the backend and frontend separately or concurrently (if scripts are set up).

   Backend:

   cd backend
   npm run dev

   Frontend:

   cd frontend
   npm run dev

   Access the app at http://localhost:5173.

🚀 Deployment

The project is configured for deployment on platforms like Heroku.

• Build Script: The heroku-postbuild script in the root package.json handles installing dependencies for both backend and frontend, and building the frontend for production.
• Static Files: In production (NODE_ENV=production), the backend is set up to serve the static files from the frontend/dist directory.

📡 API Documentation

Authentication (/api/auth)

Method	Endpoint	Description	Protected
POST	/signup	Register a new user	No
POST	/login	Login an existing user	No
POST	/logout	Logout the current user	No
PUT	/update-profile	Update user profile (avatar, etc.)	Yes
GET	/check	Check current authentication status	Yes

Messages (/api/messages)

Method	Endpoint	Description	Protected
GET	/contacts	Get all available contacts	Yes
GET	/chats	Get users with active chat history	Yes
GET	/:id	Get messages between user and :id	Yes
POST	/send/:id	Send a message to user :id	Yes

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please follow these steps:

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

📄 License

This project is licensed under the ISC License.