💬 ChatTalk

A real-time chat application built with Django Channels and React — seamless messaging for individuals and groups.

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🪶 Overview

ChatTalk is a full-stack real-time chat platform designed to demonstrate modern WebSocket-based communication.
It supports 1-on-1(on work) and group conversations, built on a clean and scalable architecture using Django Channels on the backend and React (Vite) on the frontend.

The project is modular, maintainable, and easy to extend — perfect for learning, prototypes, or even production-grade messaging apps.

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🧰 Tech Stack

⚙️ Backend

• Django – Core backend framework
• Django Channels – WebSocket communication layer
• ASGI – Asynchronous server interface for real-time support
• Redis – Channel layer for message broadcasting
• SQLite – Database

🖥️ Frontend

• React + Vite – Fast, modern frontend framework
• Tailwind CSS – Responsive and elegant UI styling
• Axios – API event handling
• Lucide Icons – Clean and modern icons

🧩 Communication

• WebSockets – Real-time, bi-directional event system
• REST API – For CRUD operations and authentication

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✨ Features

✅ Real-time messaging (WebSockets)
✅ Private and group chats
✅ User presence and notifications
✅ Modular frontend and backend structure
✅ Built with performance and scalability in mind
✅ Easy to extend and customize

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📁 Project Structure

ChatTalk/
├── backend/                   # Django backend
│   ├── manage.py
│   ├── requirements.txt
│   ├── User/                  # User management and authentication
│   ├── Message/               # Message handling and notifications
│   └── settings.py            # Django settings and Channels config
│
├── frontend/                  # React + Vite frontend
│   ├── package.json
│   ├── vite.config.js
│   ├── tailwind.config.js
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── pages/             # Page components (Home, Chat, etc.)
│   │   ├── components/        # UI components and layouts
│   │   ├── hooks/             # Custom React hooks
│   │   ├── context/           # State/context management
│   │   └── App.jsx
│   └── public/
│
└── README.md                  # Project documentation

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⚡ Installation Guide

Follow these steps to set up ChatTalk on your local machine.

🧩 Prerequisites

Before installation, make sure you have:

• Python 3.10+
• Node.js 18+
• npm or yarn
• Redis (optional but recommended for WebSockets)

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🐍 Backend Setup (Django)

1. Navigate to backend folder

   cd backend

2. **Create a virtual environment

3. ** pip install -r requirements.txt

4. **Apply migration -> python manage.py migrate

5. **Run the backend server -> python manage.py runserver