socket-chat-api

socket-chat-api is a backend API for a real-time one-to-one chat system built with Node.js, Express, and Socket.IO. It uses WebSockets for bidirectional messaging and MongoDB for data persistence. The system is secured with JWT authentication, Helmet, and rate limiting. It is ready for local development, testing, and Docker deployment.

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🚀 Features

• Real-time one-to-one chat via WebSockets (Socket.IO)
• REST API for user management and authentication
• Secure authentication with JWT
• Input validation using express-validator
• HTTP security with helmet and express-rate-limit
• Structured logging with pino
• MongoDB integration using mongoose
• Unit testing with jest and supertest
• Ready-to-use Docker environment

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📦 Requirements

Make sure you have installed:

• Node.js >=18
• pnpm
• Docker (optional)

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⚙️ Environment Configuration

Create a .env file based on .env.example. Required variables:

NODE_ENV=development
PORT=3030

# JWT
JWT_SECRET_KEY=yourStrongSecretKey

# MongoDB
DB_MONGO=mongodb://localhost:27017/socket-chat
TEST_DB_MONGO=mongodb://localhost:27017/socket-chat-test

# Rate Limiting
RATE_LIMIT_MAX_MINUTES=1
RATE_LIMIT_MAX_REQUESTS=300

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🛠️ Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/your-user/socket-chat-api.git
cd socket-chat-api

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Run in development mode
pnpm dev

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🐳 Running with Docker

# Start services
pnpm run docker:up

# Stop and remove services
pnpm run docker:down

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📜 Available Scripts

Script	Description
pnpm dev	Starts the server in development mode with nodemon
pnpm build	Compiles TypeScript files to the dist directory
pnpm start	Builds and runs the app in production
pnpm lint	Runs ESLint and auto-fixes issues
pnpm test	Runs unit tests using Jest
pnpm test:cov	Runs tests with code coverage report
pnpm docker:up	Launches Docker containers in detached mode
pnpm docker:down	Stops and removes the Docker containers

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🧪 Testing

The test environment uses a separate MongoDB instance defined by the TEST_DB_MONGO variable.

pnpm test

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🧱 Tech Stack

• Node.js + TypeScript
• Express
• Socket.IO
• MongoDB + Mongoose
• JWT for authentication
• Pino for logging
• Helmet, CORS, Rate limiting for security
• Jest, Supertest for testing
• Docker for containerization

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🧑‍💻 Author

Developed by Diegoipaez