Advanced Web Apps

What You'll Learn

Advanced React

Master hooks, performance optimization, and complex state management.

State Management

Learn to implement global state solutions and context providers.

API Integrations

Connect your app to third-party APIs with robust error handling.

Let's Build a Real-time Chat App

In this tutorial we'll create a chat application with real-time messaging using WebSockets and React.

What You'll Need:

Node.js and npm installed
Basic knowledge of React
WebSockets understanding
Code editor (VSCode recommended)

All required packages will be installed during the tutorial. Make sure your development environment is ready!


const express = require('express');
const ws = require('ws');

const server = express();
const wss = new ws.Server({ noServer: true });

server.get('/', (req, res) => {
  res.sendFile(__dirname + '/index.html');
});

wss.on('connection', function connection(ws) {
  ws.on('message', function incoming(message) {
    const messageText = message.toString();
    wss.clients.forEach(function each(client) {
      if (client.readyState === ws.OPEN) {
        client.send(messageText);
      }
    });
  });
});

server.listen(3000, () => {
  console.log('Server is running on port 3000');
});

server.js

Project Structure

Our directory setup will look like:


chat-app/
├── public/
│   └── index.html
├── server.js
├── package.json
└── views/
    └── chat.jsx

Authentication

Implement JWT-based user authentication and chat privacy control.

Performance

Optimize WebSocket performance for large chats with message throttling.

Deployment

Prepare your web app for production with Docker and cloud deployment.

Advanced Web App Development