Welcome to the Chat Application! This application allows users to sign up, log in, and engage in real-time conversations with other users. You can easily see who is online or offline and initiate a chat by clicking on the avatar icon.

• Features
• Getting Started
• Technologies Used
• Installation
• Usage
• Contributing
• License

• User Registration: Sign up and create a new account to access the chat features.
• User Login: Existing users can log in with their credentials.
• Online/Offline Status: Users can see the online or offline status of other users.
• Avatar Icon: Click on the avatar icon to initiate a chat with a user.
• Real-time Chat: Engage in real-time conversations with other users.
• User-friendly Interface: Intuitive and responsive design for a seamless chatting experience.

To use this Chat Application, you need to follow these steps:

1. Sign Up: Create a new account by providing your username, email, and password.
2. Login: After signing up, log in with your credentials to access the application.
3. Chat: Once logged in, you can see the list of users and their online/offline status. Click on the avatar icon of the person you want to chat with, and the chat window will open.

This Chat Application is built using the following technologies:

• Frontend:

  • React.js: A JavaScript library for building user interfaces.
  • Redux: A predictable state container for managing application state.
  • HTML5 and CSS3: For structuring and styling the user interface.
  • WebSocket: For real-time communication between users.

• Backend:

  • Node.js: A JavaScript runtime environment for the server-side.
  • Express.js: A web application framework for Node.js.
  • MongoDB: A NoSQL database for storing user information and chat messages.

Follow these steps to set up the Chat Application:

1. Clone the repository to your local machine.
2. Install Node.js and npm if you haven't already.
3. Navigate to the project directory and run the following commands:

npm install       // Install dependencies for the backend
cd client
npm install       // Install dependencies for the frontend
cd ..

To start the Chat Application, run the following command:

npm start

This command will concurrently start the backend server and the frontend development server.

Access the application by opening your browser and navigating to http://localhost:3000/.

We welcome contributions from the community to improve this Chat Application. If you encounter any issues or have ideas for enhancements, please submit a pull request.

This project is licensed under the MIT License. Feel free to use, modify, and distribute it for personal or commercial purposes.