julson / scuttlebutt

A simple chat server in node.js

Scuttlebutt

A basic chat server in node.js with a RESTful API.

Project Notes

I've used node.js a few years ago for building microservices and it's a very good candidate for building fast event-based services (like a chat server!). It's nice to finally learn and play around with ES6 and some newer libraries (pg-promise is particularly nice). Postgres is good enough to be the go-to DB since I don't have any specific requirements (chat servers are write-heavy by nature, but it won't be a problem till it hits crazy scale).

Local Setup (Mac OSX)

This project needs node.js and a Postgresql database. Using homebrew is a good way to set these up.

• brew install node
• brew install postgresql

In the project directory, do:

• npm install
• psql postgres -f ./api/db/schema.sql
• npm start

The server will be accessible through port 3000. We can test it out like this:

curl http://localhost:3000/api/v1/users -X POST -d '{"username": "julson"}' -H 'Content-Type: application/json'

Running Tests

npm test

This project only has request-level integration testing for now, which requires a running Postgres database. Important note: It will wipe out your local DB until the tests set up their own database.

API

GET /api/v1/users

Retrieves a list of users in the system

Example Response:

[{"id": 1,
  "username": "john_doe",
  "date_created": "2018-01-01T00:00:24.239Z" }]

GET /api/v1/users/<userId>

Retrieves a user with the given userId

Example Route:

/api/v1/users/1

Example Response:

{"id": 1,
 "username": "john_doe",
 "date_created": "2018-01-01T00:00:24.239Z"}

POST /api/v1/users

Creates a new user with the given username in the system

Example Route and Payload:

/api/v1/users

{"username": "john_doe"}

GET /api/v1/users/<receiverId>/convos/<senderId>

Retrieves the chat log between the 2 users

Example Route:

/api/v1/users/1/convos/2

Example Response:

[ { "username": "john_doe",
    "text": "Hello",
    "date_created": "2018-01-01T00:00:00.152Z" },
  { "username": "jane_smith",
    "text": "Waddup",
    "date_created": "2018-01-01T00:00:00.153Z" },
  { "username": "john_doe",
    "text": "Fine",
    "date_created": "2018-01-01T00:00:00.154Z" } ]

POST /api/v1/users/<receiverId>/convos/<senderId>

Sends a message between 2 users

Example Route and Payload:

/api/v1/users/1/convos/2

{"message": "Hello!"}