💬 SmartMessenger — Real-Time Chat System

A fully functional real-time chat application inspired by WhatsApp.
Built with Spring Boot (Java 17), WebSocket, and MySQL, featuring live message updates, REST API integration, and a modern responsive frontend.

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📸 Project Screenshots

Connect Page	Chat Client	Chat Server

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🎥 Live Working Demo

🟢 Watch full system in action below (auto-play animation in README itself)

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🧩 System Architecture Overview

🧠 Core Flows

• WebSocket /chat → Live message send & receive
• REST API /api/messages/{userA}/{userB} → Retrieve conversation history
• /api/health → Monitor system uptime

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⚙️ Technology Stack

Layer	Technology	Purpose
Backend	Java 17 + Spring Boot	REST API + WebSocket server
Database	MySQL	Persistent message storage
ORM	Spring Data JPA	Entity <-> Table mapping
JSON	Jackson	Message serialization
Logging	SLF4J + Logback	Application monitoring
Frontend	HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript	WebSocket client & REST API UI
Build Tool	Maven	Dependency management
CORS	@CrossOrigin	Secure browser communication

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🧱 Backend Components

Component	Description
Message Entity	Defines message structure (id, fromUser, toUser, body, timestamp, status)
MessageRepository	Extends JpaRepository — CRUD + custom queries
ChatService	Core business logic (save, update status, fetch history)
MessageController	REST endpoints (/api/messages, /api/health)
WebSocketHandler	Real-time socket events (auth, msg, ack)

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⚙️ Setup Instructions

🔧 Backend (Spring Boot)

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/smartmessenger.git

# Open in IntelliJ IDEA or VS Code
# Configure your MySQL credentials inside src/main/resources/application.properties

# Run the Spring Boot Application
mvn spring-boot:run

🌐 Frontend

# Navigate to the frontend directory
cd frontend

# Open the HTML file (you can also use VS Code Live Server)
open index.html

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👨‍💻 Author

Athavan V
💼 Java | Spring Boot | MySQL | WebSocket | Frontend Developer

📧 Contact Me:

• 🌐 LinkedIn
• 💻 GitHub