bradpsheehan/squawk

Welcome to Squawk - A realtime messaging application

Squawk is a simple realtime messaging application built with Rails 5 ActionCable.

Running the app locally

Install Ruby 2.5.1 using your ruby manager of choice

Install gems: bundle install

Initialize development database: export RAILS_ENV=development; bundle exec rake db:create && bundle exec rake db:migrate && bundle exec rake db:seed; unset RAILS_ENV

Initialize test database: export RAILS_ENV=test; bundle exec rake db:create && bundle exec rake db:migrate && bundle exec rake db:seed; unset RAILS_ENV

Start rails server: rails s

Using the app

Visit: localhost:3000

Create a new user or use seeded user accounts with the following credentials:

• email: jdoe22@example.com | pw: Testtest123

Open a new incognito browser window and create or login as a different user

• email: jdoe44@example.com | pw: Testtest123

Enter the same chatroom in both windows (either General or Random)

Start chatting!

A Few Notes on Testing Action Cable

I marked one feature test as pending because I had a capybara driver configuration issue. That test uses capybara's window api to test sending and receiving messages in different windows.

According to the conversation thread in this pull request, DHH and the Basecamp team recommend testing action cable via feature/system tests, using something like the capybara window approach that I attempted. The pull request itself is more related to unit testing channels, and has been packaged into the action-cable-testing gem. If I were to spend more time on this app I would explore this gem.

Development TODOs

• Fix capybara driver configuration issue so that I can run feature specs in headless browser

• Add CRUD functionality for chatrooms, currently the app is seeded with a set of chatrooms

• Build more robust user auth system using Devise

• Integrate Warden in tests

• Infinity scroll message pagination