Chat on Channels

This project is a chat application built with Django and Channels, allowing real-time communication. This project is configured to run with Docker.

Running with Docker

This is the only supported way to run the project, as it automatically sets up all required services (Django, PostgreSQL, Redis).

1. Prerequisites

• Docker
• Docker Compose (usually included with Docker Desktop)

2. Configuration

All necessary configuration is already hardcoded into the project for ease of use. You do not need to configure anything.

The database credentials and other settings are set directly in docker-compose.yml and project/settings.py.

3. Running

1. Build and run the containers in the background:

   docker compose up -d --build

2. Run database migrations to create the necessary tables:

   docker compose exec web python manage.py migrate

3. The project will be available at http://localhost:8000.

   To connect to the PostgreSQL database from your local machine (e.g., using DBeaver or DataGrip), use the following credentials:

   • Host: localhost
   • Port: 5433
   • Database: chat
   • Username: postgres
   • Password: postgres

Test Data

To populate the database with test users and a chat room, run the following management command:

docker compose exec web python manage.py create_test_data

This command is safe to run multiple times. It will create the following users if they don't already exist:

Role	Login (email)	Password
Admin	admin@example.com	admin
User 1	user1@example.com	user1
User 2	user2@example.com	user2

It also creates a room named "Test Room" and adds all the above users to it.