django-chelseru-chat 1.2.2

Real-time one-on-one chat system for Django projects, powered by WebSocket and JWT authentication.

Django Chelseru Chat

A simple real-time chat package for Django using Django Channels and WebSocket. It enables one-on-one private messaging secured with JWT authentication.

---

Installation

pip install django-chelseru-chat

---

Configuration

Ensure your Django project is ASGI-compatible and set up with JWT authentication for WebSocket connections.

1. Add to INSTALLED_APPS:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    'channels',
    'chat',
]

2. Set ASGI_APPLICATION in settings.py:

ASGI_APPLICATION = '<your_project_name>.asgi.application'

Replace <your_project_name> with the actual name of your Django project folder (e.g., myproject).

3. Use your custom asgi.py with JWTAuthMiddleware:

# <your_project_name>/asgi.py

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

# Set environment and initialize Django
os.environ.setdefault('DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE', '<your_project_name>.settings')
django.setup()

# Import routing and middleware AFTER setup
import chat.routing
from chat.middleware import JWTAuthMiddleware

application = ProtocolTypeRouter({
    "http": get_asgi_application(),
    "websocket": JWTAuthMiddleware(
        URLRouter(
            chat.routing.websocket_urlpatterns
        )
    ),
})

Again, replace <your_project_name> with your Django project's name.

---

Models

ChatRoom

class ChatRoom(models.Model):
    user_1 = models.ForeignKey(User, on_delete=models.CASCADE, related_name='user1_chats')
    user_2 = models.ForeignKey(User, on_delete=models.CASCADE, related_name='user2_chats')
    created_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)

Message

class Message(models.Model):
    chat_room = models.ForeignKey(ChatRoom, on_delete=models.CASCADE, related_name='messages')
    sender = models.ForeignKey(User, on_delete=models.CASCADE)
    text = models.TextField()
    timestamp = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)

---

WebSocket Connection

To send and receive messages, connect via WebSocket to:

ws://<your-domain>/ws/chat/<chat_room_id>/?token=<your_jwt_access_token>

Example:

ws://qesa.chelseru.com:8000/ws/chat/3/?token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9...

To send a message:

> {"message": "hi"}

You will receive a response like:

< {"message": "hi", "sender": "user"}

---

Create ChatRoom Programmatically

from chat.models import ChatRoom
chat = ChatRoom.objects.create(user_1=user1, user_2=user2)

---

JWT WebSocket Authentication

This package uses a custom JWTAuthMiddleware for authenticating users via JWT tokens.
Token must be provided as a query parameter: ?token=...

You can use djangorestframework-simplejwt to issue tokens.

---

Features

• Private 1-on-1 chat
• Real-time messaging via WebSocket
• JWT-authenticated WebSocket
• Message history per room
• Simple model structure

---

TODO

• Group chat support
• Message read status
• Typing indicators

---

License

MIT License