Real time chat CLI

About

A Node CLI for real time chat communication with Socket.io.

Demo

Chat between two users

Error connecting to the server

Features

• Real time message exchange.
• Notifications when another user either joins or leaves the chat room.
• Message timestamp.
• Setting a remote server for communication (see Remote connections).
• Different prompt depending whether the user is logged in or not.

Running

Server

Clone the repo and run either npm start (or npm run dev for using nodemon) for starting the server.

Client

Run npm run client for running a client instance. You can also create a symlink with npm link. This brings the chat-cli command to the PATH. Run npm unlink chat-cli for unlinking.

Remote connections

In order to chat with remote clients, first deploy the code (e.g.: Heroku). The server runs with node server.js.

Then, grab the URL of your deployed application and connect your client to that server (it's important to always surround your command inputs with quotes, either simple or double):

$ chat-cli
<-- set-server "<YOUR_HEROKU_APP_URL>"
Established server as <YOUR_HEROKU_APP_URL>
<-- login "<USERNAME>" "<ROOM_NAME>"
Successfully logged in!

Welcome to the <ROOM> chat <USERNAME>!

Note: in order to chat with another user, both must set the same server and login to the same room.