This project is a real-time chat application built using the MERN stack (MongoDB, Express.js, React.js, Node.js) with TypeScript. It features user authentication, real-time messaging with Socket.IO, and multimedia support including image and GIF sharing via Cloudinary and Giphy.

• User authentication (register, login, logout)
• Real-time messaging with Socket.IO
• Create group chats
• Multimedia support (images, GIFs)
• File attachment support
• Emoji support

• Node.js
• Express.js
• MongoDB
• Mongoose
• TypeScript
• JSON Web Tokens (JWT)
• Cloudinary

• React.js
• TypeScript
• Vite
• Ant Design
• Tailwind CSS
• Socket.IO Client
• Giphy API

• Node.js
• npm or yarn
• MongoDB

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/priyanshum003/mern-chat-app.git
cd mern-chat-app/server

2. Install dependencies:

npm install

3. Create a .env file in the server directory and add the following:

PORT=
MONGO_URI=
MONGO_DB_NAME=mern-chat-app
JWT_SECRET=
JWT_REFRESH_SECRET=
ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRY=
REFRESH_TOKEN_EXPIRY=
CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=
CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=
CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=

4. Start the server :

npm run dev

1. Navigate to the client directory:

cd ../client

2. Install dependencies:

npm install

3. Create a .env file in the client directory and add the following:

VITE_GIPHY_API_KEY=

4. Start the client:

npm run dev

1. Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:3000 for the frontend.
2. Register a new user or login with an existing account.
3. Start chatting by selecting an existing chat or creating a new group chat.

bash

Copy code

mern-chat-app/
├── client/         # Frontend application
│   ├── public/     # Public assets
│   ├── src/        # Source files
│   ├── .env        # Environment variables for the client
│   └── ...
├── server/         # Backend application
│   ├── src/        # Source files
│   ├── .env        # Environment variables for the server
│   └── ...
├── README.md       # Project documentation
└── ...

Contributions are welcome! Please fork the repository and create a pull request.