django-chatkit 0.1.0

A pluggable real-time chat app for Django (Channels) with multi-file uploads and light/dark UI.

django-chatkit

A plug-and-play Django app that provides real-time chat (via Channels), multi-file attachments, Telegram/WhatsApp-inspired UI with light/dark mode, and simple per-user settings.

Features

• Real-time message streaming (WebSocket) using Django Channels
• Send text plus multiple file attachments per message
• Room-based chats (1:1 or group)
• Clean, responsive UI; light/dark theme toggle and user preference storage
• Drop-in Django app with URLs, templates, static assets
• Minimal dependencies

Quickstart (dev)

1. Install:

pip install -e .

2. Add to INSTALLED_APPS:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...,
    "django.contrib.staticfiles",
    "channels",
    "chatkit",
]

3. Channels / ASGI (project asgi.py):

import os
from django.core.asgi import get_asgi_application
from channels.routing import ProtocolTypeRouter, URLRouter
from channels.auth import AuthMiddlewareStack
import chatkit.routing

os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "yourproject.settings")

django_asgi_app = get_asgi_application()

application = ProtocolTypeRouter({
    "http": django_asgi_app,
    "websocket": AuthMiddlewareStack(
        URLRouter(chatkit.routing.websocket_urlpatterns)
    ),
})

4. Channels layer (settings.py). For dev you can leave default in-memory layer. For production, use Redis:

CHANNEL_LAYERS = {
    "default": {
        "BACKEND": "channels_redis.core.RedisChannelLayer",
        "CONFIG": {"hosts": [("127.0.0.1", 6379)]},
    }
}

5. URLs (project urls.py):

from django.urls import path, include

urlpatterns = [
    path("chat/", include("chatkit.urls", namespace="chatkit")),
]

6. Media (for attachments) in settings.py:

MEDIA_URL = "/media/"
MEDIA_ROOT = BASE_DIR / "media"

7. Templates: ensure app templates are discovered:

TEMPLATES = [{
  "BACKEND": "django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates",
  "DIRS": [],
  "APP_DIRS": True,
  "OPTIONS": {"context_processors": [
      "django.template.context_processors.debug",
      "django.template.context_processors.request",
      "django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth",
      "django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages",
  ]},
}]

8. Run migrations:

python manage.py migrate

9. Create a superuser (optional):

python manage.py createsuperuser

10. Start dev server (with daphne or runserver):

python manage.py runserver
# or
daphne yourproject.asgi:application

11. Open: http://localhost:8000/chat/

Notes

• This package is intentionally minimal but production-ready with Channels.
• For group chats, add multiple users to a room via the admin.
• The HTTP endpoint is used to submit messages + files. WebSocket broadcasts updates to connected clients in that room.

License

This project is licensed under the BSD 3-Clause License - see the LICENSE file for details.