Casey Largent, Kevin Nicklen, and Erik Shafer
"Develop a simple chat client in the language of your choice." - Gregory Gelfond (2017)
Using the NodeJS JavaScript runtime, we developed a chatroom reminiscent of an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) application. The chat process works on a client/server networking model. Clients are required to obtain the ClientSocket.js application, as it comes pre-configured to connect to the ServerSocket.js application.
- NodeJS: Node is a runtime environment for JavaScript. It must be downloaded (
https://nodejs.org/en/, latest stable is8.9.1) to run the application.
- To start the server application:
/node ServerSocket.js - Enter the maximum amount of chat clients allowed.
- You're now good to begin running clients!
- To start the client application:
/node ClientSocket.js - Enter your nickname
- Begin chatting!
-
Commands: /nick and /help: There is an issue that once a client types in either
/nickand/help, they will need to hit enter (return carriage) one more time. This is due to the chat submission implementation that begins with the>arrow, and how the last command submitted it overwritten with a timestamp, nickname, and chat message.- Help command
/help - Blank line.
- Hit enter to dispaly arrow
> - User types message:
> hello - Processed message:
[23:59:59] Erik: hello
- Help command
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Entering the Server
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Users already connected are displayed in a list for the newly connected client. If no one is connected, the client is encouraged to invite friends.
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Help Command
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/help -
Brings up commands to help users understand the client application better.
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Away From Keyboard
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/afk -
Inbound messages are not shown to the client. A notification for going or coming back from AFK is broadcasted to the server.
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Exiting the Server
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/exitProperly exits the server. -
Broadcasts across chat.
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Changing Nickname
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/nick [arg] -
Replace [arg] with your new nickname.
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Broadcasts change to chat.