Emissary

The Open Source Live Chat Solution written in Node.js.

Why make this?

Emissary is made from an early live chat prototype written in PHP called CloudChat. CloudChat was made because the live chat built into our billing platform was not functioning correctly at the time. I, Moe Alam, also needed practice. The alternatives were also lacking in desired structure and practice. I also wanted a self-hosted solution. This was a perfect chance to hone understanding of Websocket. Originally the project started in PHP mainly because that was the only server side language I knew at the time. Now that has changed with Node.js in the picture. I have fully modified the code to not use any PHP. This code is completely written in Node.js, EJS.

How to Install on Ubuntu

1. Install Redis

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get upgrade
   sudo apt-get install redis-server
   

• Edit Redis conf

  sudo nano /etc/redis/redis.conf
  

• Add lines to the bottom and save.

  maxmemory 128mb
  maxmemory-policy allkeys-lru
  bind-address 127.0.0.1
  

• Enable and start

  sudo systemctl restart redis-server.service
  sudo systemctl enable redis-server.service
  

• Install MariaDB (or MySQL)

  sudo apt install mariadb-server
  

• Install Node.js

  sudo apt install nodejs npm
  

• Update Node.js and Node Package Manager.

  sudo npm cache clean -f
  sudo npm install -g n
  sudo n stable
  npm install npm -g
  

• Install the Node.js Process Manager, PM2

  
  npm install pm2 -g
  

• Clone Emissary

  git clone https://github.com/moeiscool/Emissary.git -b dev
  

• Install libraries

  npm install
  

• Install SQL files. You can replace root with your SQL login username.

  mysql -u root -e "source sql/user.sql;source sql/framework.sql" -p
  mysql -u root -e "source sql/framework.sql" -p
  mysql -u root -e "source sql/defaultAccount.sql" -p
  

• Setup configuration file. Modify it to reflect your SQL login details.

  cp conf.sample.json conf.json
  

• Start Emissary

  pm2 start emissary.js