MERN Real-Time Chat App

• A real-time chat application built using the MERN stack and Socket.IO. Features include user authentication, one-to-one messaging, online status tracking, message seen indicators, image sharing, and real-time updates. The application follows RESTful API architecture and uses JWT for secure authentication.

✨ Features :

• 🔐 User authentication using JWT
• 💬 Real-time one-to-one messaging
• 🟢 Online / Offline user status
• 👁️ Message seen indicators
• 🖼️ Image sharing in chat
• ⏰ Message timestamps
• 📱 Responsive UI
• 🔄 Real-time updates without page refresh

------ Tech Stack -----

Frontend

• React.js
• Context API
• Axios
• Tailwind CSS

Backend

• Node.js
• Express.js
• MongoDB & Mongoose
• Socket.IO
• JWT Authentication

🏗️ Project Structure :

├── client │ ├── src │ │ ├── components │ │ ├── context │ │ ├── pages │ │ ├── utils │ │ └── App.jsx │ ├── server │ ├── controllers │ ├── middleware │ ├── models │ ├── routes │ ├── socket │ └── server.js │ └── README.md

⚙️ Installation & Setup :

1️⃣ Clone the repository -- git clone https://github.com/Vikashh78/Quick-Chat-.git cd Quick-Chat-

2️⃣ Setup Backend --

cd server npm install

Create a .env file in the server folder: PORT=8000 MONGO_URI=your_mongodb_connection_string JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret

Start the backend server: npm run start

3️⃣ Setup Frontend --

cd client npm install npm run dev

🔁 Real-Time Communication --

Socket.IO is used to handle: Live message delivery Online/offline user tracking Real-time UI updates