Real-time2024
YASHCHAT
One-to-one chat over WebSockets
The problem
I wanted to understand how a real-time application moves messages between clients while retaining accounts, conversations, and message history.
My contribution
Built the application independently, covering registration and login, one-to-one conversation creation, the responsive chat interface, Socket.io messaging, MongoDB persistence, and light and dark themes.
Key decisions
- 01Scoped Socket.io traffic to conversation rooms so messages are sent to the relevant one-to-one chat.
- 02Authenticated socket connections with JWT before allowing a client to join a room or send a message.
- 03Persisted messages through Mongoose and loaded recent conversation history when a client joins a chat.
Outcome
Completed the application and developed a practical understanding of real-time communication with WebSockets and Socket.io.