PHP Chat API: Exchange chat messages between users using an API

Backend Chat API

A backend Chat API written in Laravel with these features:

• Users can send and receive messages
• Users are authenticated in order to send and retrieve messages using Laravel Passport
• Uses cache system to increase speed of message retrieval
• Feature tests written to assert users can login, send messages and retrieve messages

How to use

• Clone project
• Run composer install
• Add .env file and specify credentials for cache and database (if needed)
• Run php artisan migrate for migrations
• Run php artisan db:seed to seed users
• Run php artisan passport:install for laravel passport
• Test endpoints

Endpoints

• Login User - /api/auth/login [POST]

  Sample body - { "username":"john", "password":"password" }

• Send Message - /api/messages [POST] Sample body - { "message":"hello world", "receiver_username":"john" } > This endpoint uses bearer token gotten from login endpoint
• Retrieve Message - /api/messages [GET] > This endpoint uses bearer token gotten from login endpoint

Testing

Run the feature test - vender/bin/phpunit