Nodechat

a socket.io chatroom

demo user:alvin|password:pass

a quick hack to try out chat on nodejs, socketio, mongodb, backbonejs mvc with its todo list example.

inspired by

• socketio
• nodejs
• chat.nodejs.org
• backbonejs
• backbonejs-example-todos

current features

• todo list with local storage (originally implemented by Jérôme Gravel-Niquet
• user verification to enter a chat/broadcast message
• check in current location with web browser
• chatroom features with command: key in /help(command for help), /ding(play a ding sound), /whoishere(check login users), /get10(get last 10 messages), /crashnode(force restart server, for development)
• unfiltered message input, (e.g. place a youtube <iframe> to play music during chat), place image, audio, video tag in chatroom, or place a chatroom within a chatroom, etc

chatroom bot

• send http request - e.g.: "@lahbot request http://callapi.com:8080/api/getsomething" (action:send request and get response)
• remember command - e.g: "@lahbot $remember [$helloworld] [Hello world!]" (usage:@lahbot $helloworld)(action:send a message "Hello world!")

server requirement

• nodejs server
  : server setup: no.de or manual setup
  : nodejs packages via npm: expressjs, socket.io, googlemaps, mongoosejs
• mongodb
• (optional) php server, to display user location in map

setting up

• install the nodejs packages as stated in the requirement above
• copy and rename config.js.sample to config.js, enter the listening port used for server and chat app
• copy and rename public/chat/js/config.js.sample to public/chat/js/config.js, enter your server host and port as above
• (optional)copy public/chat/map.php to a php server if you want show location on map
• install mongodb, then insert at least a username, password in users collections
• run node!
• browse to http://yournodeserver.com/chat, type a random message, you should see "Please login to chat"

troubleshooting

• make sure all the required nodejs packages are installed
• make sure mongodb is installed and connected
• make sure the html page is connected to the nodejs server, you will see "client <random number> connected", when you type message in the chat box, you will see "Please login to chat"

links

check out @honcheng to get the iphone/ipad client