Simple Real-Time Chat System

📝 Overview

In this project, I developed a simple yet robust real-time chat application using Golang, PGX, Parsley, GoFiber, and WebSockets. The goal was to create a lightweight communication system that prioritizes performance, clean code architecture, and secure data handling.

This application features secure user authentication, private 1-on-1 messaging, a dynamic friend list, and persistent message history.

🚀 Key Features

• Real-Time Messaging: Seamless bi-directional communication powered by WebSockets (Fiber v3 extension).
• Private Conversations: Instant 1-on-1 chats between users.
• Dynamic Friend List: Real-time sidebar to find and initiate chats instantly.
• Message History: Persistent storage of all conversations using PostgreSQL for reliable data retrieval.
• Secure by Design:
  • Token-based CSRF Protection.
  • Session Management backed by Redis.
  • Industry-standard password hashing via Bcrypt.
  • Custom Auth Middleware for protected route management.
• Modern UI: A clean, mobile-first dashboard built with Bootstrap 5.

🛠️ Technology Stack

Layer	Technology
Backend	Go (Golang)
Web Framework	Fiber v3
Real-time	Fiber WebSocket Extension
Database	PostgreSQL (via pgxpool)
Caching	Redis (Session & State)
Dependency Injection	Parsley
Frontend	HTML5, Vanilla JavaScript, Bootstrap 5

🏗️ Project Architecture

The project follows a clean, modular structure to ensure maintainability and scalability:

• cmd/: Application entry point.
• internal/app/: Main application setup and dependency orchestration.
• internal/handlers/: Route handlers organized by domain (Auth, Dashboard, WS).
• internal/services/: Core business logic layer.
• internal/repositories/: Data access layer utilizing PostgreSQL.
• internal/middleware/: Security and system configurations.
• views/: HTML templates and frontend assets.

💡 Technical Insight

A key highlight of this project was implementing Parsley for Dependency Injection, which significantly improved the testability and organization of the code. Managing WebSocket connection states while ensuring message persistence in PostgreSQL without sacrificing speed was a challenging yet rewarding part of the development process.

🔗 Github Repository

https://github.com/putra4648/my-chat-app

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