jonpedigo / pb2-spies

Project Description

A chat application that provides real-time function using websockets.

What You Will Learn

• How to setup a simple Node.js Express server
• How to setup and use socket.io
• How to use socket.io-client
• Emit events through websockets

Installing and Running

Before running the following commands, make sure you have navigated into the project root directory first:

$ cd react-sockchat

Install the npm modules:

$ [sudo] npm install

Run the backend with node:

$ node server.js

Run on a local server with webpack-dev-server:

$ webpack-dev-server --port 8080     # feel free to modify

The above command is the recommended way to run the application locally, since the repo does not contain the actual public/js/main.js file.

That being said, you can run it using npm's http-server, but make sure that:

• you have actually transpiled the public/js/main.js file and have it written into the directory (instead of the files temporarily stored on the webpack-dev-server):

  $ webpack
  

• and the server is run from the root directory, not the public directory (by default):

  $ npm install http-server        # if it isn't installed yet
                                   # (add -g parameter for global installation)
  
  $ http-server . -p 8080          # feel free to modify options as appropriate
  

In either cases, your application will now then be available at http://localhost:8080/public.