Novatech Chat

A modern real-time chat application built with Flutter and Firebase, featuring a clean architecture, robust authentication, and real-time messaging capabilities.

Overview

Novatech Chat is a full-featured chat application that demonstrates modern Flutter development practices and architectural patterns. The app includes:

Real-time messaging with Firebase Firestore
Authentication with both Google Sign-in and Email/Password
User presence system (online/offline status)
Clean and modern UI using shadcn_ui
Form validation using Formz
Comprehensive test coverage

Architecture 🏗️

The project follows Clean Architecture principles, separated into distinct layers:

lib/
├── app/                  # App initialization and configuration
├── authentication/       # Authentication feature
│   ├── bloc/            # Authentication business logic
│   ├── view/            # Authentication UI components
│   └── models/          # Authentication-related models
├── core/                # Core functionality and shared code
│   ├── data/           
│   │   ├── datasource/  # Remote data sources
│   │   └── repository/  # Repository implementations
│   └── domain/
│       ├── models/      # Domain entities
│       └── usecase/     # Business logic use cases
├── chats/               # Chat feature
│   ├── bloc/           
│   ├── view/           
│   └── models/         
└── register/            # User registration feature
    ├── bloc/           
    ├── view/           
    └── models/

Architecture Diagram

┌─────────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐     ┌────────────────┐
│     UI Layer    │     │  BLoC Layer  │     │ Repository     │
│  (Flutter Views)│────▶│(Business     │────▶│   Layer        │
│                 │     │   Logic)     │     │                │
└─────────────────┘     └──────────────┘     └────────────────┘
                                                     │
                                                     ▼
                                            ┌────────────────┐
                                            │  Data Sources  │
                                            │   (Firebase)   │
                                            └────────────────┘

Technical Decisions and Trade-offs 🤔

State Management

BLoC Pattern: Chosen for its clear separation of concerns and excellent testability
Formz: Used for form validation to maintain consistent validation logic across the app

Authentication

Dual authentication methods (Google & Email/Password) for flexibility
Firebase Auth for secure user management
User profiles stored in Firestore to maintain additional user data

Real-time Features

Firebase Firestore for real-time messages and user presence
Optimistic UI updates for better user experience
Batch operations for efficient database access

Testing Strategy

Comprehensive unit tests for business logic
Integration tests for critical user flows
Mock repositories for isolated testing

Firebase Emulator Setup 🔥

To run the app with Firebase Emulator Suite:

Install Firebase CLI:
```
npm install -g firebase-tools
```
Login to Firebase:
```
firebase login
```
Initialize Firebase project:
```
firebase init emulators
```

Start the emulators with data persistence:

firebase emulators:start --import=./firebase-data --export-on-exit=./firebase-data

This will:

Start Authentication and Firestore emulators
Import existing data from ./firebase-data (if it exists)
Export data to ./firebase-data when stopping

Emulator Configuration

The emulators will run on these default ports:

Authentication: 9099
Firestore: 8080
UI: 4000

You can configure these in firebase.json:

{
  "emulators": {
    "auth": {
      "port": 9099
    },
    "firestore": {
      "port": 8080
    },
    "ui": {
      "port": 4000
    }
  }
}

Getting Started 🚀

This project contains 3 flavors:

development (uses emulators)
staging
production

To run the desired flavor:

# Development (with emulators)
flutter run --flavor development --target lib/main_development.dart

# Staging
flutter run --flavor staging --target lib/main_staging.dart

# Production
flutter run --flavor production --target lib/main_production.dart

Running Tests 🧪

Run all tests with coverage:

flutter test --coverage --test-randomize-ordering-seed random

View coverage report:

genhtml coverage/lcov.info -o coverage/

License 📝

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

enzoftware/firebase_real_time_chat