BabelChat

Instant multi-lingual messaging. It allows people to talk to each other in a variety of languages, each user experiencing the same conversation in their own language.

BabelChat is built upon:

• Google Translate API for Node.js
• Node.js
• Express
• React
• Passport
• MongoDB
• webpack

Architecture

Installation Instructions

• Install Node.js and npm.
• Install MongoDB.
• Retrieve the repository and install dependencies.

$ git clone https://github.com/elenamorton/BabelChat.git
$ cd BabelChat
$ npm install

• Obtain a Google Translation API key.
• Set up the environment:

$ export PATH=$PWD/node_modules/.bin:$PATH
$ export TRANSLATE_KEY=<GOOGLE TRANSLATE API KEY>
$ export DATABASE_DEVELOPMENT=mongodb://<username>:<password>@<hostname>:<port>/babelchat
$ export DATABASE_TEST=mongodb://<username>:<password>@<hostname>:<port>/babelchat-test

• Build React frontend

$ webpack

Running the app locally

$ webpack; npm start

then visit http://localhost:3000/

Running tests

$ npm test

Heroku set up

To run on Heroku, the app requires a MongoDB to be hosted somewhere else. We have used mlab previously.

To set up the Google Translate API and MongoDB for Heroku

$ heroku config:set TRANSLATE_KEY=$TRANSLATE_KEY
$ heroku config:set DATABASE_DEVELOPMENT=mongodb://<username>:<password>@<hostname>.mlab.com:<port>/babelchat

The application is available on Heroku at http://babelchat-makers.herokuapp.com

Contributors

• Panteha Ahmadi
• Ian Simpson
• Andrew Clarke
• Spencer Barton-Fisher
• Aaron Rodrigues
• Elena Morton