Chat Room

Real-time, ephemeral chat room application built with Node.js, Express, Socket.IO, React, MinIO and MongoDB.

Features

• Ephemeral Rooms: Rooms (and their messages) are soft-deleted from the user's perspective when the last user leaves.
• No Accounts Required: Users are identified by their chosen display name and IP address for the session.
• Role Management:
  • Owner: The creator of the room. Can manage admins, change the room name, and configure settings.
  • Admins: Designated by the owner with specific rights (kick, ban, lock, set bad words, change password).
• Hidden Status: Owners and Admins can choose to hide their status badge from other users while retaining their permissions.
• File Sharing: Upload and share files, images, and audio up to 100MB.
• Message Filtering: Toggle a default bad-words filter or specify custom filtered words for a room.
• Search: Search through the room's message history and shared files.
• UI: A modern, dark-themed, glass-morphism UI.

Installation & Setup

Requirements

• Node.js (v18+ recommended)
• MongoDB (Running locally or accessible via connection string - edit in backend/.env)
• MinIO

Setup

In each of the backend and frontend directories, run:

npm install

Configure environment variables in backend/.env or backend/src/config/index.js:

PORT=3000
MONGODB_URI=mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/chat_room
MINIO_ENDPOINT=localhost
MINIO_PORT=9000
MINIO_USE_SSL=false
MINIO_ACCESS_KEY=minioadmin
MINIO_SECRET_KEY=minioadmin
MINIO_BUCKET=chat-room

Configure environment variables in frontend/.env:

PORT=3001
REACT_APP_BACKEND_URL=http://localhost:3000

Start the server and client in separate terminal windows:

npm start

Soft Delete: The backend uses soft-delete.

• When the last user leaves a room, the Room and its Messages are marked with a deletedAt timestamp.
• Handlers filter queries with deletedAt: null to hide closed rooms from users.

Project Architecture

Backend

Implements a RESTful API with WebSocket support for real-time communication. The backend is built with Node.js, Express, Socket.IO, MongoDB for data storage and MinIO for object storage.

└── backend
    └── src
        └── config
            ├── index.js
        └── handlers
            └── admin
                ├── ban.js
                ├── changePassword.js
                ├── index.js
                ├── kick.js
                ├── makeAdmin.js
                ├── removeAdmin.js
                ├── setFilter.js
                ├── setRights.js
                ├── transferOwnership.js
            └── message
                ├── index.js
                ├── search.js
                ├── send.js
            └── room
                ├── create.js
                ├── index.js
                ├── join.js
                ├── leave.js
            ├── index.js
        └── models
            ├── BannedIP.js
            ├── Message.js
            ├── Room.js
            ├── User.js
        └── utils
            ├── socketHelpers.js
            ├── storage.js
            ├── verifyAdmin.js
        ├── database.js
        ├── index.js
    ├── package-lock.json
    └── package.json

REST Endpoints

• POST /upload: Handles multipart/form-data file uploads.
  • Parameters:
    • file: The file buffer to upload.
    • roomId: The destination room database ID.
    • socketId: Active socket ID of the uploading user.
  • Response: 200 OK with JSON { success: true, message: { ... } } or error code.
• GET /uploads/:roomId/:fileName: Streams the requested file from MinIO with proper headers (Content-Type, Content-Disposition: inline).
• GET /health: Simple health check returning { status: "ok" }.

Socket.IO API

Client-to-Server (Emit)

• createRoom { roomName, username, roomPassword } -> Returns room details (ID, name) or error.
• joinRoom { roomId, username, roomPassword } -> Adds the user to the room, returns room details.
• leaveRoom -> Leaves the active room.
• sendMessage { messageText } -> Sends a text message to the room.
• searchMessages { query } -> Searches room history (messages/files/usernames).
• kickUser { socketIdToKick, reason } -> Kicks a user from the room.
• adminBanIP { ipToBan, reason } -> Bans a user's IP address.
• adminUnbanIP { ipToUnban } -> Unbans an IP address.
• toggleLockRoom -> Locks or unlocks a room.
• adminMakeAdmin { targetUserSocketId } -> Promotes an active user to Admin.
• removeAdmin { targetSocketId } -> Demotes an Admin.
• setAdminRights { targetSocketId, newRights } -> Configures rights for an Admin.
• adminChangePassword { newPassword } -> Changes or removes the room password.
• adminSetFilteredWords { filteredWords } -> Configures custom filtered words.
• adminToggleDefaultFilter -> Toggles the default library word filter.
• changeRoomName { newName } -> Renames the room.
• toggleStatusVisibility -> Toggles whether Admin/Owner badges are visible.
• transferOwnership { targetUserSocketId } -> Transfers ownership of the room.

Server-to-Client (Listen)

• loadMessages -> Emits last 50 messages/files upon joining a room.
• newMessage -> Broadcasts any new incoming message or file.
• roomDetailsUpdated -> Broadcasts public room info and user roles (with hidden status masked).
• adminRoomDetailsUpdated -> Broadcasts detailed room configuration and raw IP addresses to authorized admins.
• personalStatus -> Sends current user their true role state and available action rights.
• kicked -> Sent to a user when they are kicked or banned.

Frontend

Uses React, Socket.IO client, TailwindCSS.

└── frontend
    └── src
        └── components
            ├── ChatRoom.js
            ├── MessageForm.js
            ├── MessageItem.js
            ├── MessageList.js
            ├── Sidebar.js
        └── pages
            ├── Home.js
        └── services
            ├── socket.js
        ├── App.css
        ├── App.js
        ├── index.js
        ├── logo.svg
    ├── .env
    ├── package-lock.json
    └── package.json