Socket Chat

A simple chat app written in Python. Users sign up, add friends and send each other messages.

Requirements

• Python 3.12 or newer
• OpenSSL, to make the certificate (Git for Windows includes it)

How to run

Make a certificate (only once):

python make_cert.py

Start the server:

python server.py

Start the app (once for each user):

python main.py

How to use

1. File > Sign up to create an account.
2. Friends > Find User to send a friend request.
3. Your friend accepts it in Friends > Pending Requests.
4. Click your friend's name on the left and start chatting.

Good to know

• To start over with an empty database, run python initialize_db.py.
• After 5 failed logins, each retry waits longer, up to a minute.
• If the connection drops, the app reconnects and logs you back in.
• The connection is encrypted with TLS. The app only talks to a server whose certificate matches cert.pem.
• To chat across machines, run python make_cert.py --host <server address>, start the server with --host 0.0.0.0, and give each user a copy of cert.pem (never key.pem). They start the app with --host <server address>.

For developers

Install uv, then run the checks:

uv sync
uv run ruff check .
uv run pytest

Contributors

Amin Niaziardekani, Swapnaneel Sarkhel, Ajdin Buljko