Chatify is a modern, real-time chat application designed to deliver a seamless, secure, and responsive messaging experience.
Built with a production-oriented architecture and deployed on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Chatify supports real-time messaging, online/offline presence, image sharing, email notifications, JWT authentication, and third-party security integrations.
This project demonstrates practical experience in full-stack development, cloud deployment, AWS infrastructure, reverse proxy configuration, process management, and production application deployment.
- 🔐 JWT Authentication & Authorization
- 💬 Real-time Messaging using Socket.IO
- 🟢 Online / Offline Presence Indicator
- 🖼️ Image Sharing with Preview
- ✉️ Email Notifications using Resend API
- 🛡️ Security Integration using ArcJet
- 🔔 Keyboard Sound Effects
- 🎨 Modern Responsive UI with Tailwind CSS + DaisyUI
- ⚡ State Management using Zustand
- 🧠 Optimized Rendering with React Hooks
- ☁️ AWS Cloud Deployment
- 🔄 Process Management using PM2
- 🌐 Nginx Reverse Proxy
- 🔒 HTTPS / SSL Support
Chatify is deployed on Amazon Web Services (AWS) using an EC2-based production architecture.
┌─────────────────────┐
│ Users │
│ Web / Browser │
└──────────┬──────────┘
│
HTTPS
│
▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│ Nginx │
│ Reverse Proxy │
│ SSL / HTTPS │
└──────────┬──────────┘
│
▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│ AWS EC2 │
│ │
│ Node.js / Express │
│ Socket.IO │
│ PM2 │
└──────┬──────┬───────┘
│ │
┌────────────┘ └─────────────┐
▼ ▼
┌─────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐
│ MongoDB Atlas │ │ Third-Party │
│ Database │ │ Services │
└─────────────────┘ │ │
│ Resend │
│ ArcJet │
└─────────────────┘
- ☁️ Amazon EC2 – Hosts the production Node.js application
- 🌐 Nginx – Reverse proxy and web server
- 🔄 PM2 – Node.js process management
- 🔒 HTTPS / SSL – Secure client-server communication
- 🛡️ AWS Security Groups – Network-level access control
- 📦 Amazon S3 – Cloud storage
- 🗄️ MongoDB Atlas – Application database
- React
- Vite
- Tailwind CSS
- DaisyUI
- Zustand
- Lucide Icons
- Axios
- Socket.IO Client
- Node.js
- Express.js
- Socket.IO
- MongoDB
- Mongoose
- JWT Authentication
- Resend API
- ArcJet
- AWS EC2
- AWS S3
- Nginx
- PM2
- Linux
- SSL / HTTPS
- Git
- GitHub
chatify/
├── backend/
│ └── src/
│ ├── controllers/
│ ├── emails/
│ ├── lib/
│ ├── middleware/
│ ├── models/
│ └── routes/
│
├── frontend/
│ ├── dist/
│ │ ├── assets/
│ │ └── sounds/
│ │
│ ├── public/
│ │ └── sounds/
│ │
│ └── src/
│ ├── components/
│ ├── hooks/
│ ├── lib/
│ ├── pages/
│ └── store/
│
└── README.md
Create a .env file inside the backend directory:
PORT=3000
MONGO_URI=your_mongodb_connection_string
NODE_ENV=production
JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret
RESEND_API_KEY=your_resend_api_key
EMAIL_FROM="your_email@resend.dev"
EMAIL_FROM_NAME="Your Name"
CLIENT_URL=https://your-domain.com
CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME=your_cloud_name
CLOUDINARY_API_KEY=your_cloudinary_api_key
CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET=your_cloudinary_api_secret
ARCJET_KEY=your_arcjet_key
ARCJET_ENV=productionWarning
Security: Never commit .env files, API keys, database credentials, JWT secrets, or other sensitive information to GitHub.
-
Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/inba-web/chatify.git cd chatify -
Install frontend dependencies:
cd frontend npm install -
Install backend dependencies:
cd ../backend npm install -
Configure environment variables: Create a
.envfile inside thebackenddirectory and configure the required environment variables. -
Start the backend:
npm run dev
-
Start the frontend:
cd ../frontend npm run dev
Open the application at: http://localhost:5173
Chatify is deployed on AWS EC2 and runs as a production Node.js application.
GitHub
│
▼
AWS EC2
│
├── Node.js
├── Express.js
└── Socket.IO
│
▼
PM2
│
▼
Nginx
│
▼
HTTPS / SSL
│
▼
Users
| Component | Purpose |
|---|---|
| AWS EC2 | Application hosting |
| Node.js | Backend runtime |
| Express.js | REST API |
| Socket.IO | Real-time communication |
| PM2 | Process management |
| Nginx | Reverse proxy |
| HTTPS / SSL | Secure communication |
| MongoDB Atlas | Database |
| Amazon S3 | Object/file storage |
| Resend | Transactional emails |
| ArcJet | Security and request protection |
Chatify implements multiple layers of application and infrastructure security:
- JWT-based authentication
- Secure authentication cookies
- HTTPS communication
- AWS EC2 Security Groups
- Nginx reverse proxy
- ArcJet security integration
- Environment-based secret management
- MongoDB authentication
- Restricted server access
- Production environment configuration
Important
Sensitive credentials are never stored in the repository.
Through this project, I gained practical experience in:
- Building real-time applications with Socket.IO
- Implementing JWT authentication
- Managing online/offline presence
- Working with MongoDB and Mongoose
- Sending transactional emails with Resend
- Integrating third-party security services
- Deploying Node.js applications on AWS EC2
- Configuring Nginx as a reverse proxy
- Managing production processes with PM2
- Configuring HTTPS / SSL
- Working with AWS Security Groups
- Using Amazon S3 for cloud storage
- Connecting cloud applications with MongoDB Atlas
- Managing production environment variables
- Debugging production networking and authentication issues
- Structuring a full-stack application for production
- 💬 Message reactions
- ✓ Read receipts
- 👥 Group chats
- 🎙️ Voice messages
- 🔔 Push notifications
- 👤 Advanced profile customization
- 📱 Progressive Web App support
- 📊 Application monitoring
- 🚀 Automated CI/CD deployment
Built with consistency, persistence, and a strong focus on learning modern full-stack development and cloud technologies.
Chatify represents a practical implementation of a production-oriented real-time communication platform, combining modern web technologies with AWS cloud infrastructure.
This project is open-source and available under the MIT License.
- GitHub Repository: https://github.com/inba-web/chatify-v2-aws
- Live Application: Add your production Chatify URL here.