How to use Vue to implement online chat function?

With the continuous development of the Internet, the chat function has gradually become one of the necessary functions for many websites and applications. If you want to add an online chat feature to your website, Vue can be a good choice.

Vue is a progressive framework for building user interfaces that is easy to use, flexible, and powerful. In this article, we will introduce how to use Vue to implement an online chat function. We hope it will be helpful to you.

Step 1: Create a Vue project

First, we need to create a new Vue project to be able to start developing our chat application. You can use the Vue CLI to create a new Vue project.

Open a terminal and enter the following command:

vue create chat-app

This will create a new Vue project named chat-app and automatically install the required dependencies. After completion, enter the project directory and start the development server:

cd chat-app
npm run serve

Now, you should be able to access http://localhost:8080 in the browser and see a welcome interface.

Step 2: Build a chat interface

Next, we will add a simple chat interface. We'll be using the Materialize CSS framework to help us build our interface.

First, in the index.html file in the root directory of the project, add the following code to the tag:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/materialize/1.0.0/css/materialize.min.css">

Then, in the App.vue component, add the following code to the <template></template> tag:

<div class="container">
  <div class="row">
    <div class="col s12">
      <ul class="collection">
        <li class="collection-item avatar">
          <i class="material-icons circle blue">person</i>
          <p class="title">John Doe</p>
          <p class="message">Hello</p>
        </li>
        <li class="collection-item avatar">
          <i class="material-icons circle green">person</i>
          <p class="title">Jane Doe</p>
          <p class="message">Hi</p>
        </li>
      </ul>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="row">
    <div class="input-field col s12">
      <input type="text" id="message">
      <label for="message">Message</label>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

This will render a page with two Chat interface with messages and a text input box.

Step 3: Add Chat Logic

Now, we need to add logic to allow us to send new messages in the chat. We will use Socket.IO to handle real-time communication.

First, we need to install Socket.IO. Using the terminal, run the following command:

npm install socket.io-client

Then, add the following code in the <script></script> tag in the App.vue component:

import io from 'socket.io-client';

export default {
  name: 'App',
  data() {
    return {
      username: 'User',
      messages: [],
      message: '',
      socket: null,
    };
  },
  mounted() {
    this.socket = io('http://localhost:3000');

    this.socket.on('connect', () => {
      console.log('Connected to server');
    });

    this.socket.on('disconnect', () => {
      console.log('Disconnected from server');
    });

    this.socket.on('message', (data) => {
      this.messages.push(data);
    });
  },
  methods: {
    sendMessage() {
      if (this.message.trim() !== '') {
        const data = {
          username: this.username,
          message: this.message.trim(),
        };
        this.socket.emit('message', data);
        this.messages.push(data);
        this.message = '';
      }
    },
  },
};

This code snippet will create a Socket.IO client instance named socket and use it to connect to the server. When the client successfully connects to the server, the connect event will be fired. Likewise, the disconnect event is also triggered when the client disconnects from the server.

We will also define a method called sendMessage for sending new messages. When sendMessage is called, it sends a new message to the server using the emit function and adds a new message record locally.

Finally, in the input element below the chat input box, as shown below:

<input type="text" id="message" v-model="message" @keyup.enter="sendMessage">

We will use the v-model command to enter The value of the box is bound to the message data property of the component and uses @keyup.enter to listen for the Enter key so that our sendMessage method.

Step 4: Start the server

Now, we also need to create a server to handle real-time communication. We will build a simple server using Express and Socket.IO.

First, using the terminal, run the following command to install the required dependencies:

npm install express socket.io

Then, create a file named server.js in the project root directory new file and add the following code:

const express = require('express');
const app = express();
const server = require('http').Server(app);
const io = require('socket.io')(server);

const PORT = process.env.PORT || 3000;

let messages = [];

app.use(express.static('public'));

io.on('connection', (socket) => {
  console.log('User connected');

  socket.on('message', (data) => {
    messages.push(data);
    socket.broadcast.emit('message', data);
  });

  socket.on('disconnect', () => {
    console.log('User disconnected');
  });

  socket.emit('messages', messages);
});

server.listen(PORT, () => {
  console.log(`Server running on port ${PORT}`);
});

This code snippet creates an Express application instance named server and wraps it using the http module An HTTP server. It also creates a new Socket.IO server using Socket.IO and binds it to the HTTP server.

We define an array named messages to store all chat records. When a new message arrives at the server, we add it to the messages array and broadcast it to all clients using the broadcast.emit function.

Finally, we call the server's listen function to start listening for connection requests from the client.

Step 5: Run the application

Now, we have completed building the entire application. We need to start the application and server from two different command line windows.

In the first command line window, enter the following command:

npm run serve

This will launch our Vue application and open it in the browser.

Then, in another command line window, enter the following command:

node server.js

This will start our server and start listening for client connection requests.

Now, you can enter a new message in the chat interface and press the Enter key to send. The new message will be displayed on the interface and sent to the user's browser periodically.

Conclusion

In this article, we learned how to build a real-time chat application using Vue and Socket.IO. We cover the entire process from setting up a Vue project to adding chat logic and starting the server. Hopefully this example helps you understand how to use Vue to build real-time applications.

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