Objective
To build a high-performance, real-time chat application that allows users to communicate instantly in both private and group settings, with features like user presence indicators and message history.
Technical Choices
- Socket.io was the core technology, chosen for its reliability and ease of use in establishing persistent, bidirectional WebSocket connections between the client and server.
- React was used to build a responsive user interface that could efficiently update in real-time as new messages and notifications arrived.
- Node.js provided the perfect non-blocking, event-driven backend environment to handle thousands of concurrent socket connections.
- A simple MongoDB schema was used to persist chat history, allowing users to view past conversations upon logging in.
Challenges & Solutions
Managing state on the client-side in a real-time environment was the biggest challenge. Ensuring the UI updated instantly for all users in a group chat without causing performance issues required careful state management. Another hurdle was efficiently handling socket connection and disconnection events to accurately track which users were online.
Lessons Learned
This project was an excellent lesson in event-driven architecture. I gained a strong understanding of the WebSocket protocol and the intricacies of a real-time communication. It taught me how to think about application state differently, focusing on broadcasting and listening for events rather than traditional request-response cycles.