Chat App with C# Windows Forms and WebSocket

Table of Contents

• About
• Features
• Getting Started
  • Prerequisites
  • Installation
• Usage
• WebSocket Communication
• Database Configuration
• Contributing

About

This project presents a simple yet robust chat application developed with C# Windows Forms and WebSocket communication. Users can engage in real-time messaging over a local network, facilitated by WebSocket technology. The application seamlessly stores chat logs in a SQL Server database.

Features

• Real-time chat between users on the same local network.
• Database storage of chat messages with sender and receiver IP addresses.
• User-friendly Windows Forms interface.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Before running the application, make sure you have the following prerequisites:

• Visual Studio with C# support (for development).
• SQL Server (for database storage).

Installation

1. Clone this repository to your local machine:

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/your-repo-name.git

2. Open the project in Visual Studio.

3. Modify the connectionString variable in Form1.cs to point to your SQL Server instance:

   private string connectionString = "Server=YOUR_SERVER;Database=client logs;Integrated Security=True;";

4. Build and run the application.

Usage

1. Start the application on two different computers within the same local network.
2. Enter the local IP address of each computer and port numbers in the appropriate fields.
3. Click the "Start" button to connect the two computers.
4. Send messages in the chat box, and they will be displayed in real-time on both computers.
5. Chat messages are stored in the SQL Server database.

WebSocket Communication

This chat application leverages WebSocket communication to enable real-time messaging between users on the same local network. WebSocket is a protocol that provides full-duplex communication channels over a single TCP connection. WebSocket communication enables low-latency, bidirectional messaging, making it suitable for real-time chat applications.

Database Configuration

You can find the database configuration in the CheckDatabaseConnection and StoreMessageData methods in Form1.cs. Ensure that your SQL Server is configured correctly for this application to work.

Contributing

If you'd like to contribute to this project, please follow these steps:

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create a new branch for your feature or bug fix: git checkout -b feature-name.
3. Make your changes and commit them: git commit -m 'Description of your changes'.
4. Push to the branch: git push origin feature-name.
5. Create a pull request on GitHub.