This project was bootstrapped with Create React App.

A live demo of the frontend application is available at :
https://whatsapp-mern.netlify.app/

and the backend is hosted in :
https://whatsapp-mern-eersd-backend.herokuapp.com/

Getting started

To run the frontend locally:

• Clone this repo
• Go to whatsapp-mern directory
• npm install to install the required dependencies
• npm start to start the local server on port 3000
• Edit the axios.js file accordingly to setup your endpoint url

To run the backend:

• Go to whatsapp-backend directory
• npm install to install dependencies
• nodemon server.js to run the backend

Tools or APIs used for this project:

Frontend

• react.js : lightweight Javascript library by Facebook
• react-router-dom : mainly to navigate or routing
• axios : Javascript library to make HTTP requests
• firebase : used for authentication

Backend

• node.js : Javascript run time environment that runs outside of browser.
• express : nodejs framework that provides robust features for web development.
• cors : enables open access across domain boundaries.
• mongoDb : NoSQL DB.
• mongoose : mongoDB Object modelling.
• pusher : mongoDB is not a real-time database, therefore pusher-API (similar to socket.io) is used to forward any changes in DB.
• Postman : simplifies HTTP methods to test mongoose commands as well as test DB.

Functionality overview

This project is created mainly for education purposes. This project aims to replicate whatsApp using MERN(MongoDB Express React Nodejs)-stack. React is the main framework used for the frontend and nodejs is used for the backend. Furthermore, MongoDB is used as the database.

Features

• User authentication via Firebase
• Able to send messages in a chat room
• Create rooms and join the ones you like

Issues to be fixed

• Chat view should scroll down to newest message
• Leave room to be implemented
• maybe add friends as well