aiman-al-masoud / sqlchat

A simple db-based instant messaging service.

sqlchat

A simple db-based instant messaging service.

getting started:

You need to have a mysql server up and running for this app to work.

You can create an account online for a remote server (sometimes even for free), or set your own mysql server on your personal computer (*1)

After you create the database, however you decide to do that, you will need to make sure that you have these five pieces of information readily at your disposal:

domain :

this could be your IP, or a domain name for an online mysql hosting service.

port :

(By default) 3306.

username :

the username you created (eg: root), or which was provided by the online service.

password :

the aforementioned user's password.

schema :

the schema all of the tables are gonna spawn in. (Note that: in this simple project all of the tables go in one schema).

configuring the connection

When you do have these five pieces of information, you can run the jar with the following argument:

java -jar sqlchat.jar config

This will prompt you to enter the five parameters step by step.

Alternatively, you can manually create and fill the res/settings/netConfig file, filling it up with the information in this format:

domain : example.example.net

port : 3306

username : example_user

password : example_password

schema : example_schema

When you're done setting up your connection, you can create an account on the server you just configured:

java -jar sqlchat.jar signup

This will prompt you to choose a new username and a new password.

Now you can launch the app:

java -jar sqlchat.jar

It will prompt you to enter your password.

Connecting to others:

You're done! Now you can send the five configuration parameters to a friend through some other safe means, (possibly on a piece of paper), and after they're done setting up the app and creating a new account, you two can start chatting! Your conversations are NOT kept on the server once you download them, and, in the meanwhile, they're encrypted with 300-digit (decimal) RSA.

Help

You can run the app with the following argument to get a list of the available commands:

java -jar sqlchat.jar help

Sidenotes

(*1) In this second case, to use the app with people that aren't connected to your local network, you need to make sure that your router supports port-forwarding (or something similar) if you have NAT. Also, it wouldn't be wise to distribute your IP address to others, so maybe getting a DNS domain would be a good idea.

sqlchat's Issues

OLD MESSAGE VERIFICATION

Make "old message verification" faster (and indeed correct and unchanging) by storing a "verified" flag in the "pickle-string".