chat-api

The chat-api is an API with send_message and read_messages endpoints. send_message requests the user to specify a unique chatroom identifier (chat_id), sender name, and the message in order to save it in the database. read_messages requests a chat_id and optionally the sender's name in order to fetch the messages contained in the unique chatroom.

Pre-requisistes

Node.js with npm
MongoDB Atlas Account

Database Setup

Log into your Atlas account
Create a new cluster
1. Choose allowed IPs
2. Create a database account
3. Choose Connect your application
4. Copy the provided uri

Local Setup

Download this project
Run npm install in the project directory
Create a .env file in your project directory
Add URI=your_uri_here to the .env file and save it
Run npm start in project terminal

Heroku

You can try the API by interacting with https://acm-chat-api.herokuapp.com/

Apps on Heroku tend to sleep after being idle for some time which means it may take a while to initially process an API request.

API Usage

POST /send_message
Eg. http://localhost:3000/send_message

{
    "chat_id": "chatroom1"
    "sender": "adam",
    "message": "This is just a test message..."
}

=>

db_object_id

GET /read_messages
Eg. http://localhost:3000/read_messages

{
    "chat_id": "chatroom1"
    "sender": "adam" // optional
}

=>

[{
    "sender": "adam",
    "message": "This is just a test message..."
}]

API Test Snippet (node.js)

const http = require('http');

var data = JSON.stringify({
    chat_id: 'chatroom1',
    sender: 'anonymous',
    message: 'This is a test message...'
});

var options = {
    hostname: 'acm-chat-api.herokuapp.com',
    path: '/send_message',
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        'Content-Length': data.length
    }
}

var req = http.request(options, res => {
    res.on('data', d => {
        console.log(`${d}`)
    });
});

req.write(data);
req.end();