DockChat 🗨️🐳

A production-ready Flask-SocketIO + Redis real-time chat platform, demonstrating multi-container orchestration, WebSocket communication, Redis Pub/Sub messaging, and Dockerized scalability for modern DevOps and Cloud projects.

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🧠 Project Overview

DockChat showcases how to build a fully containerized real-time system using Flask-SocketIO, Redis, and Nginx, all orchestrated with Docker Compose. It highlights scalable WebSocket communication, message queuing, and load-ready networking between containers.

Perfect for demonstrating your DevOps, Cloud, and Microservice skills in interviews or portfolios.

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⚙️ Tech Stack

• Flask-SocketIO (Python) – Web framework for WebSockets
• Redis – Message queue and in-memory state store
• Gunicorn + Eventlet – Async web server for real-time events
• Nginx – Reverse proxy handling WebSocket upgrades
• Docker & Docker Compose – Container orchestration and networking
• Logging + Health Checks – For uptime and monitoring

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🌈 Features

✅ Dynamic multi-room chat (public/private) ✅ Real-time user list updates ✅ Typing indicators and timestamps ✅ WebSocket-powered instant communication ✅ Redis-based message queue for scaling ✅ Health checks, logging, and .env-driven config ✅ Reverse-proxied through Nginx with containerized orchestration

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🏗️ Architecture

📦 DockChat
├── web/ (Flask-SocketIO)
│   ├── app.py             # Flask backend
│   ├── templates/index.html
│   ├── Dockerfile         # Gunicorn + Eventlet
│   ├── requirements.txt
├── nginx/
│   ├── nginx.conf         # WebSocket proxy config
│   ├── Dockerfile
├── redis/
│   └── redis.conf
├── docker-compose.yml     # Orchestrates services
├── .env                   # Environment variables
└── README.md              # Documentation

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🚀 Quick Start

1️⃣ Build and Run

docker compose up --build -d

2️⃣ Verify Containers

docker ps

Expected:

dockchat_web
redis
nginx

3️⃣ Access the App

• Chat UI: http://localhost:8080
• Health Check: http://localhost:8080/healthz

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🔋 Health Monitoring

The /healthz endpoint confirms uptime:

{
  "status": "ok"
}

Check logs for live monitoring:

docker logs dockchat-web -f

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🧭 Observability

• Flask logs incoming Socket.IO and HTTP requests
• Gunicorn outputs worker health and activity
• Docker health checks monitor Redis and web service

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🗂️ Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Default
SECRET_KEY	Flask secret key	change-me
FLASK_ENV	Environment mode	production
SOCKETIO_MESSAGE_QUEUE	Redis URI	redis://redis:6379/1
CHAT_DEFAULT_ROOM	Default chat room	lobby
MAX_ROOM_HISTORY	Max message history per room	50

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🤖 Learning Highlights

• Multi-container orchestration with Docker Compose
• Real-time communication via Flask-SocketIO + Eventlet
• Redis Pub/Sub for horizontal scalability
• Reverse proxy setup using Nginx for WebSocket traffic
• System monitoring with health checks and logs

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🛠️ Future Enhancements

• 🔐 JWT-based authentication
• 💾 Persistent message DB (PostgreSQL)
• ☁️ Deployment on AWS ECS / GCP Cloud Run
• 📈 Prometheus + Grafana integration
• 🔄 CI/CD via GitHub Actions

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👨‍💻 Author

Gaurav Chile DevOps & Security Enthusiast 🚀 Building containerized systems that connect code, cloud & communication.

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🏁 License

Licensed under the MIT License — feel free to use, improve, and build upon DockChat.