PackChat

A minimal, fast, and responsive real-time chat application using WebSockets and MessagePack for efficient data transfer.

Features

• Lightweight and fast communication with binary MessagePack encoding
• Real-time messaging with WebSockets
• Multiple chat rooms support

Technology Stack

• Backend: Go
• Frontend: HTML, CSS, JavaScript
• Data Transport: WebSockets
• Data Format: MessagePack
• Styling: PureCSS (minimal dependency)

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Go 1.18 or later

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/isErenG/packchat.git
   cd packchat

2. Run the application:

   go run cmd/main.go

3. Open your browser and navigate to:

   http://localhost:8080
   

How It Works

PackChat uses WebSockets for real-time communication between clients and the server. All messages are serialized using MessagePack, a binary format that's more efficient than JSON, resulting in faster transmission and lower bandwidth usage.

When you send a message, it's compressed using MessagePack and sent to the server, which then broadcasts it to all clients in the same room. Messages include the sender's information, content, and timestamp.