Go Fiber Real-Time Chat Application

A high-performance, feature-rich real-time chat application built with Go (Fiber) on the backend and Vanilla JavaScript on the frontend. This project demonstrates a clean backend architecture, WebSocket-based real-time messaging, and secure JWT-based authentication.

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📸 Screenshots

Here are some screenshots from the application:

🔐 Login Screen

💬 Chat Room

🏘️ Rooms List

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✨ Features

• Secure Authentication: Registration, login, logout using JWT (Access & Refresh Tokens).
• Multi-Room Chat:
  • Direct Messages (DM): Auto-created 1-on-1 private chat rooms.
  • Group Chats: Create or join group chats with multiple participants.
• Real-Time Messaging: Instant message delivery via WebSocket.
• Lobby & Chat History: View joined rooms and load previous messages on entry.
• Persistent Database: PostgreSQL for users, rooms, and message storage.
• Dynamic UI: Intuitive frontend with auto-generated avatars and readable user display names.

📦 Tech Stack

Component	Technology
Backend	Go, Fiber v2, GORM, Google Wire, PostgreSQL, WebSocket
Frontend	Vanilla JavaScript (ES6+), HTML5, CSS3
Deployment	Docker, Docker Compose
Cloud Storage	Cloudinary for image uploads and CDN delivery

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📱 Mobile Frontend

This project is compatible with a Flutter-based mobile frontend available here:

🔗 Flutter Chat App Repository

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🧱 Architecture

This project follows a layered architecture to ensure clean separation of concerns and maintainability:

+----------------+      +----------------+      +------------------+      +-------------+
|     Client     |----->|     Handler    |----->|      Service     |----->| Repository  |
| (JS/WebSocket) |      | (Validation)   |      | (Business Logic) |      | (Database)  |
+----------------+      +----------------+      +------------------+      +-------------+

• Handler: Receives HTTP/WebSocket requests and performs validation.
• Service: Contains application business logic.
• Repository: Handles communication with the database.
• Dependency Injection: Managed via Google Wire.

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☁️ Cloudinary Integration

This project uses Cloudinary for hosting and delivering profile images with CDN support.

Why Cloudinary?

• Automatic image optimization and resizing
• High availability via CDN
• Public ID–based upload and retrieval
• Built-in image foldering (e.g., go-chat-app/profiles)

Required .env Configuration

# Cloudinary Configuration
CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=your_cloud_name
CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=your_api_key
CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=your_api_secret
CLOUDINARY_BASE_FOLDER=go-chat-app

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🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Go (v1.24+)
• Docker & Docker Compose

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Method 1: Using Docker (Recommended)

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/your-username/go-fiber-chatapp.git
cd go-fiber-chatapp

# Create a .env file
cp .env.example .env
# Fill in your database, JWT, and Cloudinary credentials

# Build and run
docker-compose up --build

Access the app at http://localhost:8080

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Method 2: Manual Setup (Without Docker)

1. Clone the repo and set up .env as shown above.
2. Make sure PostgreSQL is running and create the necessary database.
3. Install Go dependencies:

go mod tidy

4. Generate Dependency Injection files:

go generate ./...

5. Run the app:

go run .

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🔌 API Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/auth/register	Register a new user
POST	/api/auth/login	Login and get access + refresh tokens
POST	/api/auth/logout	Invalidate refresh token
POST	/api/auth/refresh	Refresh access token
GET	/api/profile	Get current user's profile
PUT	/api/profile	Update current user's profile
GET	/api/users	List all users
GET	/api/rooms	List rooms joined by user
POST	/api/rooms	Create a new room (group or DM)
GET	/chat/ws/:roomId	WebSocket endpoint for a room

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🛣️ Roadmap

• Online/Offline user status
• Typing indicators
• Unit and integration tests
• Group management (invite/kick)
• File and image attachments in chat

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📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.