Django Real-Time Chat Application

A high-performance, real-time chat application built with Django 6.0, Django Channels, and Redis. This project serves as a comprehensive "spike" to demonstrate scalable WebSocket architecture, robust notification systems, and premium UI/UX.

🚀 Key Features

💬 Messaging Experience

• Real-time Messaging: Instant delivery powered by WebSockets and Redis.
• Group & Private Chats: Support for public rooms and 1-on-1 direct messaging.
• Premium UI: WhatsApp-inspired theme with a clean, responsive layout.
• Message Persistence: Full chat history saved in SQLite.
• Message Grouping: Smart grouping by date (Today, Yesterday, etc.).
• Typing Indicators: Real-time "User is typing..." feedback.

📊 Status & Read Receipts

• WhatsApp-style Ticks:
  • Sent: Single Tick (✓)
  • Read: Blue Double Tick (✓✓)
• Bulk Read Sync: Messages are automatically marked as read when you enter a room or focus the window.

🔔 Advanced Notifications

• Lobby Badges: Real-time unread count badges for every conversation in the lobby.
• Desktop Notifications: Native browser alerts for new messages when the window is out of focus.
• Tab Title Notifications: Dynamic unread counts in the browser tab (e.g., (3) Chat Room).
• Manual Permission Control: Dedicated button to enable/request notification permissions.

🛠 Reliability & Performance

• Robust Reconnection: Automatic reconnection with exponential backoff and visual status indicators.
• Connection Monitoring: Real-time tracking of active socket connections.
• Redis Error Handling: Custom middleware to gracefully handle Redis downtime without crashing the app.
• Session Isolation: Configured for multi-user testing in the same browser using unique session cookies.

🛠 Technology Stack

• Backend: Django 6.0, Django Channels 4.0
• Asynchronous Server: Daphne (ASGI)
• Channel Layer: Redis
• Database: SQLite
• Frontend: Vanilla JavaScript (ES6+), HTML5, CSS3

📦 Setup & Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+
• Redis Server (Running on port 6379)

Installation Steps

1. Clone & Install Dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Start Redis: Ensure Redis is running. If using Docker:

   docker run -p 6379:6379 -d redis:5

3. Database Setup:

   python manage.py migrate

4. Run the Application:

   python manage.py runserver

5. Access: Open http://127.0.0.1:8000 in your browser.

📖 Documentation

For in-depth technical details, diagrams, and architectural analysis, please refer to:

• implementation_docs.txt: Complete technical breakdown in plain text.
• Django_Chat_App_Spike_Documentation.docx: Executive summary and feature overview.
• Django_Chat_App_Technical_Deep_Dive.docx: High-fidelity documentation with system diagrams and flowcharts.

🧪 Multi-User Testing

To test real-time features between different users:

1. Open the app in two different browsers (e.g., Chrome and Firefox).
2. Or use a standard window and an Incognito/Private window.
3. The app is configured with unique session cookies to prevent login conflicts during local testing.