Cheems

(Documentation in Progress)

Cheems is a communication platform allowing the users to connect via video conferencing and text messaging. The project was built as a solution to the challenge described during Microsoft Engage 2021.

Tech Stack

Cheems is built primarily on JavaScript. The following technologies were used to prepare the whole project:

1. Front-end

   • TypeScript
   • React.js
   • Chakra UI
   • Framer Motion

2. Back-end

   • JavaScript
   • Node.js
   • MongoDB (for database)

A few helper libraries such as Socket.IO were used to deal with connection failures between server and client and between users. To maintain the code quality and standards, developer tools (linters, formatters, and parsers) such as Prettier and ESLint were set up in place.

Installation

Follow the steps below to run the project locally:

1. Download or clone the project.

2. Set up a MongoDB cluster.

   1. Create a remote MongoDB cluster (read more).

   2. Once a cluster is created, navigate to the Database Deployments section (see below).

      

   3. Click on Connect button on the right of your cluster name. This will open a new dialog window. Select Connect your application and copy the connection string.

3. Navigate to the backend directory.

   1. Install all dependencies:

      npm install

   2. Create a copy of the .env.template file and rename the copy as .env.

   3. Open the .env file. Paste the MongoDB cluster connection string (copied in step 2.3) as value of the MONGODB_URI environment variable.

   4. Type any random string as value of the JWT_SECRET variable in the same file. Make sure to store this somewhere for future references.

   5. Set the port number on which the backend should run (by setting the value of PORT variable). Default port number is 9000.

      Important: Avoid port 3000 since app's front-end runs on the same port.

4. Setup a Google Firebase project for the chat to work correctly.

   1. Follow only Step 1 from this article to obtain your Firebase credentials.

   2. Save the Firebase credentials for use in front-end setup.

5. Register your application on Microsoft Azure Portal for sign-in to work correctly.

   1. Navigate to Microsoft Azure Portal and sign in.

   2. Search App Services in the search bar on top of the page and open it.

   3. Click on Create button. Follow through the steps to register your web application.

5. Navigate to the frontend directory.

   1. Install all dependencies:

      npm install