How to Build Chat Application Plugin Using Node js?

Hello Friends,

In this tutorial, we will use the Node.js platform to build a real-time chat application that sends and shows messages to a recipient instantly without any page refresh. We will use the JavaScript framework Express.js and the libraries Mongoose and Socket.io to achieve this.

It includes surveying the server for changes and staying informed concerning timestamps, and it is considerably measuring slower than it ought to be. Before moving further let’s discuss the technology stack used in it to build chat application development.

Let’s start :

Node.js as a Web Server

The HTTP module can create an HTTP server that listens to server ports and gives a response back to the client.

Use the createServer() method to create an HTTP server:

var http = require('http');

//create a server object:
http.createServer(function (req, res) {
    res.write('Hello World!'); //write a response to the client
    res.end(); //end the response
}).listen(8080); //the server object listens on port 8080

Getting started with rs-chat plugin

You can install it through npm.

 npm install rs-chat

Setup for nodejs

Open index.js or server.js or main.js file and put the below code and start nodejs server

var app = require('http')
var chat = require('chat')

chat.init({
    host     : 'localhost', // DB host
    user     : 'user', // DB User
    password : 'password', // DB Password
    database : 'database' // DB Name
});

Create table

CREATE TABLE `messages` ( 
    `id` int(11) NOT NULL,
    `userId` int(11) NOT NULL,
    `toId` int(11) NOT NULL,
    `msg` text NOT NULL,
    `created_at` datetime NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
    `read_at` datetime DEFAULT NULL
) 
ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;

Load the required files

Inside the page’s head tag include the CSS file.

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://unpkg.com/rs-chat@1.0.7/dist/rs-chat.min.css">

In the page’s footer, just before , include the required JavaScript files.

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/socket.io/2.2.0/socket.io.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript" href="https://unpkg.com/rs-chat@1.0.7/dist/rs-chat.min.js"></script>

Instantiate the chat plugin

<script type="text/javascript"> 
    RSChat.init({
        socketUrl: 'http://localhost:8080/' // server url,
        userId: '1', // logged in user id
        name: 'ravi shukla', // logged in user name
    });
</script>

Call the below function to open chat box

RSChat.start('user_id', 'username')

if you have any errors in the installation nodejs chat plugin. Please go to the git hub link and download.

Npm Package : https://www.npmjs.com/package/rs-chat

github : https://github.com/ravishukla007/chat

I hope it can help you...