Node.js Backend Development Bootcamp · Lesson

Building a Real-time Chat Application

Develop a fully functional real-time chat application to solidify your understanding of WebSockets and Socket.IO.

Build a Real-time Chat App

Welcome! In this lesson, we'll bring together your knowledge of WebSockets and Socket.IO to build a practical real-time chat application.

This hands-on project will solidify your understanding of how clients and servers communicate instantly, making live interactions possible.

Server Setup: Express & Socket.IO

First, let's set up our Node.js server using Express and integrate Socket.IO. This foundation will handle our HTTP requests for serving the HTML page and establish real-time WebSocket connections.

Remember to install dependencies: npm install express socket.io

const express = require('express');
const http = require('http');
const { Server } = require('socket.io');

const app = express();
const server = http.createServer(app);
const io = new Server(server);

// Serve our HTML file
app.get('/', (req, res) => {
  res.sendFile(__dirname + '/index.html');
});

// Listen for new Socket.IO connections
io.on('connection', (socket) => {
  console.log('A user connected');
});

// Start the server
server.listen(3000, () => {
  console.log('Listening on *:3000');
});

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