sushant12/chattex

An example chat server in Elixir, using OTP and gen_tcp

Example Chat Server in Elixir

This is an example chat server written in Elixir. It is not for production, but is useful for exploring and learning about Elixir and OTP.

The chat server utilizes :gen_tcp, which is the Erlang provided module that gives us communication over TCP. Intimidating at first, my hope is that this project can provide insight in using this module, along with GenServers.

The chat server consists of 4 components:

The Connection Dispatcher

The connection dispatcher awaits for new TCP connections, and when one is avaialable, hands the new connection off to the client registrar.

The Client Registrar

The client registrar handles the coordination of client server. The register first asks the client for a name, and if valid, assigns that process to a client server, while monitoring the client server process for termination.

The Client Server

A client server is a process that represents the TCP socket, and data flowing to and from the client to the chat server.

The Chat Server

The chat server coordinates the messages from a client to other clients, and shared state. Notice that the client registrar and the chat server could actually be combined into one process, but I chose to separate them.

To Test

make test

To Run

make run

To Connect

make telnet