CChat

A real-time client-server chat application. Supports a Qt GUI and React web clients. This project was created for a school assignment, and has since been polished and expanded.

Building

Prerequisites

sudo apt install cmake g++ qt6-base-dev nlohmann-json3-dev

Node 18+ is needed for the web client and gateway.

Qt is only required for the desktop GUI. To work on the server or web client without installing it, see Building without Qt.

Build

cmake --preset dev
cmake --build --preset dev

Binaries land in bin/. The preset handles the Qt lookup, so no environment variables or -D flags are needed.

If Qt is installed somewhere non-standard

The preset looks for the Qt online installer's default location, ~/Qt/6.10.1/gcc_64, and otherwise falls back to the system Qt from qt6-base-dev. If yours is elsewhere, or is a different version, create CMakeUserPresets.json in the repo root (it is gitignored, so it stays local):

{
    "version": 3,
    "configurePresets": [
        {
            "name": "local",
            "inherits": "dev",
            "cacheVariables": {
                "CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH": "$env{HOME}/Qt/6.11.0/gcc_64"
            }
        }
    ]
}

Then build with cmake --preset local and cmake --build --preset local.

Building without Qt

cmake --preset dev -D BUILD_CLIENT_GUI=OFF
cmake --build --preset dev

Running Locally

The server listens on port 5000. Start it first:

./bin/server 5000

Native GUI client

./bin/client 127.0.0.1 5000

Browser client

The gateway bridges the browser's WebSocket to the server's TCP socket. It takes the server host, the server port, and the port to serve WebSockets on:

cd gateway
npm install
node gateway.js 127.0.0.1 5000 8080

Then, in another terminal, create client_site/.env with:

VITE_GATEWAY_URL=ws://localhost:8080

and start the dev server:

cd client_site
npm install
npm run dev

Connecting to the Live Server with the GUI

The live server listens on port 5000.

./client cchat.fun 5000

You can also connect from a local browser environment with:

VITE_GATEWAY_URL=ws://cchat.fun:8080