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ionic-socket.io-redis-chat

Quick project demonstrating how to use Socket.io / Redis / and Ionic to have a simple chat applications with expiring messages

The idea - Codename VaniChat

I wanted to make a chat application similar to SnapChat where messages are wiped clean after a certain time period.

You enter a channel. Once in a channel, you send messages. All other clients connected in the channel will see the message. Any messages you send are automatically removed after a time period (default 2 mins).

In future versions, the channel itself would eventually expire (like a message).

Requirements

Requirements for Mobile

  • Cordova npm install -g cordova
  • Ionic npm install -g ionic
  • iOS SDK
  • Android SDK

Getting started

  • Clone the repo and ensure redis is running
  • run npm install to get all packages required to run the server.
  • run node server to run the server
  • visit VaniChat in your browser

Running the iOS Application

  • Change directories to client/RedisChat
  • run cordova run ios

Running the Android Application

  • Change directories to client/RedisChat
  • run cordova run android

Technology details

DISCLAIMER: I know using Redis as a data store for large scale users is not the best use case for Redis. I wanted to play more with Redis and get some more experience using it and the expires functionality.

The messages are stored in Redis as a sorted set in the messages:channel:channelname key where channelname is the channel they are in. The value stored is a simple JSON encoded object with information about the message (message, user, expires time) with its score set as it's UNIX time of posting.

There is a method in the server.js file - removeKeys that will remove messages from channels if they exceed the expire time stored in the set.

//Channels are populated before this call
var channelWatchList = ['Lobby', 'Redis', 'Ionic', 'Socket.io'];
function removeKeys() {
  console.log('We are removing old messages');

  for(var channelIndex in channelWatchList) {
    var channel = channelWatchList[channelIndex];
    var timeToRemove = moment().subtract('m', 2).unix(); //Two minutes ago
    var messageChannel = 'messages:' + channel;

    redisClient.zrangebyscore(messageChannel, 0, timeToRemove, function(err, result) {
      if(result && result.length > 0) {
        console.log('Emitting information to client to remove: ', result);
        for (var resultIndex in result) {
          var message = JSON.parse(result[resultIndex]);
          console.log('emitting: ', message);
          //Signal to all of our connected clients to remove the message.
          io.emit('message:remove:channel:' + channel, { message: message, channel: channel });
        }
      }
    });

    redisClient.zremrangebyscore(messageChannel, 0, timeToRemove, function(err, result) {
      console.log('Removed ', result, ' records');
    });
  }
}

var cleanUpMesssagesInterval = setInterval(removeKeys, 6000);

Interesting tidbits

After failing miserably at trying to make keys that expire, I spoke to Michael Gorsuch and he had found an easier way to manage that using sorted sets and expire times as scores.

The idea is, you have a sorted set with a key. Then you add a score with a JSON encoded string. The score itself is the unix timestamp. Then, have a timer that passes over and checks for a unix timestamp with some time in the past (2 minutes) and remove using zremrangebyscore with 0 to the timestamp - time past.

NOTES

  • All ports / hostnames are hardcoded. In later versions these will be put into a configuration file.
  • Channels need to be expired - and users then removed from channels as well as messages

Contact

I'm available to chat and give insight to this application.

Find me on twitter or by email