wasa

WASAText

WASAText is a lightweight messaging platform built for the Web and Software Architecture course. It pairs a Go API backed by SQLite with a Vue 3 single page application and demonstrates authentication, conversation management, and messaging features suitable for the exam project we just completed.

Features

• Username-based onboarding with self-registration and stateless JWT authentication.
• SQLite-backed persistence for users, direct and group conversations, and message receipts.
• Direct chats and group conversations with photo, rename, add/invite, and leave operations.
• Rich messaging with text or photo attachments, delivery/read receipts, deletion, and forwarding.
• Emoji reactions aggregated per message.
• User and conversation search plus profile updates (username and avatar upload).
• Vue 3 SPA consuming the REST API defined in doc/api.yaml.

Tech Stack

• Go 1.17 with httprouter, logrus, and sqlite3.
• SQLite database auto-initialised by service/database.
• Vue 3 + Vite, packaged with Yarn 4 using the offline mirror stored in .yarn.
• Docker-based Node 20 environment via open-node.sh for frontend development.
• Dockerfiles for backend and frontend deployment examples.

Technologies Used

Backend

• Go 1.17 – API server, business logic
• SQLite – Embedded database
• httprouter – Lightweight router
• logrus – Structured logging
• uuid – Unique identifier generation

Frontend

• Vue 3 + Vite – SPA UI framework and bundler
• Vue Router – Page navigation
• Axios – HTTP client
• Bootstrap + custom CSS – Responsive design

Repository Layout

• cmd/webapi/ – entrypoint that wires configuration, logging, database, and the HTTP server.
• service/api/ – HTTP handlers (auth, profile, conversations, messages, reactions, groups).
• service/database/ – SQLite persistence layer and schema bootstrap.
• service/components/ – shared request/response schemas.
• webui/ – Vue SPA, components, router, Axios client, and build tooling.
• doc/api.yaml – full OpenAPI 3 specification of the REST endpoints.
• demo/config.yml – sample configuration values for the API server.
• Dockerfile.backend / Dockerfile.frontend – container images for deployment.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Go 1.17 or newer.
• Docker (recommended for open-node.sh) or a local Node 20 + Yarn 4.5 installation.
• SQLite is bundled via CGO, so no extra service needs to be running.

Backend

• Start the API server with go run ./cmd/webapi. By default it listens on http://localhost:3000 and stores data in /tmp/decaf.db.
• Override settings via CLI flags or environment variables as defined in cmd/webapi/load-configuration.go. Example: CFG_DB_FILENAME=./wasa.db go run ./cmd/webapi --cfg.web.apihost=127.0.0.1:3000.
• The first run automatically bootstraps the database schema. Logs and graceful shutdown handling are managed for you.

Try a quick smoke test:

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/login \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"username":"alice"}'

The response returns the created user and a bearer token.

Frontend

Run ./open-node.sh to enter an ephemeral Node 20 container already mounted at /src/webui.

Inside the container start the dev server with yarn run dev and open http://localhost:5173. The command installs dependencies on demand thanks to the Yarn offline mirror.

For a production bundle run yarn run build-prod. To embed the SPA inside the Go binary run yarn run build-embed before building the backend with:

go build -tags webui ./cmd/webapi/

Docker Images

• Dockerfile.backend builds the API service (optionally after embedding the web UI).
• Dockerfile.frontend serves the SPA standalone if you prefer to host it separately.

API Documentation

The REST contract lives in doc/api.yaml. Preview it with any OpenAPI viewer, e.g.:

npx @redocly/openapi-cli preview-docs doc/api.yaml

Or point Swagger UI to the file.

Endpoints cover login, profile management, conversation discovery, message operations (send, forward, delete, set status), reactions, and group management.

Testing

Run go test ./... to execute the backend unit tests and ensure the project still builds.

Production Notes

• Replace the development secret in service/api/token.go (jwtKey) before deploying a public instance.
• Update webui/vite.config.js if the API is exposed on a URL other than http://localhost:3000; the __API_URL__ constant controls the Axios base URL.
• Consider serving the API behind TLS and configuring reverse proxies/CORS as needed for your hosting environment.
• Remember to persist the SQLite database file or move to an external database if you expect multiple instances.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License – see the LICENSE file for details.

Maintainers

This project was built by Dana Rabandiyar as part of the Web and Software Architecture course at Sapienza University of Rome (2025). For questions or reuse, feel free to fork or reference the codebase.