grugchat

super simple minimal chat app for learning

how to run

• be on linux (for now)
• ensure dependencies are installed, here for archlinux:
• go
• sqlite
• git (for cloning the repo, sorry no binary releases yet)
• clone the repo
• cd into the repo
• initialize the sqlite db file:
• sqlite3 messages.sqlite < sqlite-create-tables.sql
• go mod tidy
• go build
• ./grugchat
• open browser to localhost:8080 or whatever port you configure

Initial scope:

frontend:

• 1 page, html/css/js. Rooms on the left sidebar, Chatwindow for the rest, chatwindow features a textbox + send button on the bottom.
• onload: get rooms, populate sidebar. get messages for the first room, populate chatbox.
• subscribe to sse.
• on changing room: new page, get that rooms messages, subscribe to that sse

backend:

• no auth, every user is "anonymous".

GET:

• /api/rooms to get a list of rooms (can even be hardcoded at first)
• /api/rooms/:roomID/messages to get the message history of a room
• /api/rooms/:roomID/sse to "subscribe" to a rooms messages per server-sent events

POST:

• /api/rooms/:roomID/messages with super simple "content" to send a chat message

database:

• rooms with id (index) and name
• messages, proper relation to rooms so each message is matched to the room its in:

id - primary key
room_id - foreign key
content - the text
tiestamp - needed for ordering

Notes on the "backend":
try to keep "business logic" seperated from the communications and storage layers.
We'll try to have a "handler" that converts HTTP requests into the proper Go structs and passes them on.
then we'll have a "service" that implements the actual logic - go structs go in, go structs come out (either to the client or the storage layer).
third, the storage layer accepts Go and saves/loads SQL.