anonroom

A website for creating anonymous chat rooms. Written entirely in typescript.

WORKING DEMO: https://anonroom-test.glitch.me/

Built with

• node.js as a backend
  • Typescript is used to ensure type-safety and bug-free code.
  • The express npm package provides the web server.
  • The ws npm package helps with creating a websocket server.
  • The mongodb npm package is used to interact with the mongoDB database.
• On the client-side:
  • Webpack is used to bundle all the files
  • Typescript is used to compile JSX to normal JS
  • React is used to make the user interface
  • React-Router is used to make the website a SPA
  • Bootstrap is used to make the page responsive
• The MongoDB database is used

Features

• Create chat rooms, with an unlimited amount of participants
• To become an "admin" of the room, type in the room password. Anyone can become an admin, they just need the password.
• The only way users can connect is via a link
• Different colors for each user
• Room can get locked, preventing people from joining
• Chat can get locked, preventing people from sending messages
• Room can be deleted easily
• Rooms automatically get deleted after 72 hours of inactivity (no messages).
• Message history
• If a discord webhook link is provided, all messages will also be sent via the webhook
• Ability to download message history
• Completely free and open source

How to run

Requirements:

• node.js version 10+ (Latest LTS recommended)
• npm
• A mongoDB cloud database (free tier works just fine)

Setup:

• Create the mongoDB cloud database
• Clone the latest version of this repository
• Execute the command npm i in the root directory
• Create a config.json file in the root directory, it should look like this:

{
     "dbUsername": "user mongoDB cloud username",
     "dbPassword": "user mongoDB cloud password",
     "websiteURL": "The URL to your anonroom instace (http://localhost:port if running locally)",
     "websocketPath": "/gateway",
     "port": 4000,
     "heartbeatInterval": 60000
}

• Execute the commands npm run f and npm run b in the root directory
• Start the server with the command npm run start
• Open up your browser and go to the website url you gave in the config.json file.

Future plans

• Make a non SPA version (SPA is very overkill here)