micburks / chat

for chatting

chat

for chatting

Screen.Recording.2022-04-03.at.12.18.16.PM.mov

Peer to peer chat app

Node server does the following:

• Serves a few static assets
• Server-renders a single root path
• Upgrades to a websocket server
• Serves as a signaling server for initiating p2p connections

Browser:

• Manages a websocket connection to the signaling server
• Creates or joins an existing chat session via websocket
• Connects to peer to send text messages

to run

git clone micburks/chat micburks-chat
cd micburks-chat
yarn
yarn start
# cross fingers you don't hit a race condition

what is next

TURN/STUN server

• obviously this only works on a local network, would need NAT traversal for public use

tests

• the signaling server is a critical user flow, needs integration tests

data

• Use a proper database - lots of race conditions with current approach
• Ideally chats and users would have a one-to-many in the data model
• Destroy chats when all users disconnect
• It doesn't make much sense to create new instances of Database class
• Better tracking of connected users

errors

• More robust error handling for sockets/p2p

user flow

• Design a UI that isn't hideous
• Ask creator when another user tries to enter the chat, only share chatId when approved
• There are race conditions in the UI where you can send a message before p2p is established

chats can have multiple users

• This is possible but requires keeping track of all peers, connecting to each, and sending messages to all

offline usage

• messages should be batched in case websocket/p2p is temporarily lost
• service worker may also be able to store outgoing messages queue when offline