RealTimeGuestBookApp

This project is a real-time, dynamic guestbook web application built using Go for the backend and HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for the frontend. The application utilizes Redis as a data store to handle user-submitted entries and is containerized using Docker for ease of deployment. The app can run both locally and in cloud environments, with a flexible architecture that scales to meet high traffic demands.

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Features
• Architecture
• Installation
• Usage
• Technologies
• Deployment

Overview

The Guestbook Web Application allows users to submit guestbook entries, which are displayed in real time. The app is designed to be simple and fast, with a focus on efficient handling of user data. Two versions of the application are available:

1. Version 1: Focuses on core guestbook functionality, including the ability to add entries and view them dynamically using a polling mechanism.
2. Version 2: Adds enhancements such as real-time updates, improved UI/UX, and Redis integration for fast data retrieval.

Features

• Real-time Guestbook Entries: Users can submit messages that are instantly visible to all other users.
• Dynamic User Interface: Built using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript with jQuery for handling asynchronous updates without page reloads.
• Data Persistence with Redis: Guestbook entries are stored in Redis, providing fast in-memory data storage.
• Dockerized Deployment: The application is containerized using Docker, ensuring ease of deployment and consistent performance across different environments.
• Scalable Architecture: The design allows horizontal scaling with Redis managing the guestbook data, and the backend serving requests efficiently.
• Automated Frontend Polling: The frontend fetches the latest guestbook entries from the backend at regular intervals.
• Modular Go Backend: Backend is written in Go, ensuring performance and easy management of application logic.

Architecture

The guestbook application uses a client-server model with the following components:

1. Frontend: A responsive and dynamic user interface built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The frontend continuously polls the backend for new guestbook entries and displays them dynamically.

2. Backend: A Go web server that handles incoming requests and interacts with Redis for storing and retrieving guestbook entries.

3. Redis: A high-performance in-memory key-value store used to persist guestbook entries and handle concurrent requests efficiently.

4. Docker: The application is containerized with Docker, allowing seamless deployment and scaling in cloud environments.

Installation

To run this project locally or deploy it, follow these steps:

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/InfectedDuck/RealTimeGuestBookApp.git
   cd RealTimeGuestBookApp
   

2. Build and run the application using Docker:

   docker build -t guestbook .
   docker run -p 3000:3000 guestbook
   

3. Access the guestbook application at http://localhost:3000.

4. Ensure Redis is running locally or use a Dockerized Redis instance:

   docker run --name redis -p 6379:6379 redis
   

Usage

Once the application is running:

1. Open the application in your browser.
2. Add a guestbook entry using the provided form.
3. Submitted entries will appear dynamically without needing to refresh the page.

Technologies

The following technologies and tools were used in this project:

• Go: Backend programming language
• Redis: In-memory database for fast data retrieval
• HTML/CSS/JavaScript: Frontend technologies for building the user interface
• jQuery: Used for handling asynchronous HTTP requests and DOM manipulation
• Docker: Used to containerize the application for ease of deployment
• Redis Docker Image: Used to deploy Redis within a container

Deployment

The application can be deployed using Docker for both the Go-based backend and Redis.

To deploy in a cloud environment:

1. Ensure your Redis instance is set up.

2. Build and push the Docker image to your container registry:

   docker build -t your-repo/guestbook .
   docker push your-repo/guestbook
   

3. Set up your cloud Kubernetes cluster or Docker environment and pull the image:

   docker pull your-repo/guestbook
   docker run -p 3000:3000 your-repo/guestbook
   

4. Configure environment variables to point to your Redis instance if running externally.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. See the LICENSE file for details.
This project is made as a part of IBM Course.