kisschat

README

KISS WebChat

A lightweight, minimalistic web chat application built with Go, designed to be simple, efficient, and easy to deploy. This project demonstrates basic web server functionality, message handling, and user interaction with a clean UI.

Features

• Real-time chat: Supports text and optional image sharing.
• Message history: Stores the last 100 messages in memory.
• System notifications: Automatically announces new users.
• Admin controls: Clear message history or shut down the server via simple commands.
• HTML-based interface: Accessible from any browser without additional software.
• Cookie-based username retention: Saves user names for convenience.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Go (Golang): Version 1.18 or later.
• A terminal/command prompt for running the server.
• Optionally, a valid SSL certificate for HTTPS support.

Installation

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/DmitryStrunevsky/kisschat.git
   cd kisschat
   

2. Build the server:

   go build -o kisschat
   

3. Run the server:

   ./kisschat [port] [token]
   

   • Replace [port] with the desired port (default is 8000).
   • Replace [token] with a custom token for admin actions (default is chat).

4. Open the chat interface in your browser:

   http://localhost:8000/chat
   

Admin Actions

• Clear Messages: /chat/clear
• Shutdown Server: /chat/shutdown

Access these via your browser or tools like curl.

HTTPS Setup (Optional)

For secure connections, provide an SSL certificate and key:

./kisschat [port] [token]

Ensure the files server.crt and server.key are in the same directory as the binary.

Development

Code Structure

• ChatServer: Core chat server implementation, manages message storage and user connections.
• Message: Represents a chat message, with support for text, images, and timestamps.
• Handlers: HTTP endpoints for chat interaction (/messages, /clear, /shutdown).

Customize

• Modify the MAX_MESSAGES constant to adjust message history length.
• Update the HTML and CSS in the getHTML() function for UI changes.

License

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

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Feel free to contribute, report issues, or suggest features via the issues page.