WhisperWire

This repository contains the WhisperWire chat application, consisting of a web frontend, backend API, and supporting infrastructure.

Project Structure

/
├── ww-web/         # Frontend application
├── ww-api/         # Backend API service
└── infrastructure/ # Infrastructure configuration

Development Setup

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v23 or higher)
• Java 23
• Docker and Docker Compose (eg. through Docker Desktop)
• IntelliJ IDEA (recommended for backend development)
• Minikube (for local Kubernetes development)

Frontend (ww-web)

Navigate to the frontend directory:

cd ww-web

Install dependencies:

npm install

Start the development server:

npm run dev

The application will be available at http://localhost:5173/conversations/1.

You can specify the user name by changing the query parameter userName, eg. go to http://localhost:5173/conversations/1?userName=Frodo

Backend (ww-api)

1. Open the ww-api directory in IntelliJ IDEA
2. Let the IDE sync the Gradle dependencies
3. Add a run/debug configuration (if it doesn't pick it up automatically from .run/Start dev server.run.xml) with:

./gradlew bootRun SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE=local

The API will be available at http://localhost:8080.

Infrastructure

The application requires Zookeeper, Kafka, and PostgreSQL. Start these services using Docker Compose:

cd infrastructure
docker compose up

Kafka Topic Setup

After starting with docker compose, create the required Kafka topic:

docker exec -it kafka kafka-topics \
  --create \
  --topic test-topic \
  --partitions 1 \
  --replication-factor 1 \
  --bootstrap-server localhost:9092

Production-like Environment

Using Docker Compose

Run all services in a production-like configuration:

docker compose -f docker-compose-prod.yml up

Using Kubernetes (Minikube)

Start Minikube:

minikube start

Load the images into minikube (given that you've built them through docker compose above, if not, do that first through docker compose -f docker-compose-prod.yml build):

minikube image load wwapi:latest
minikube image load wwweb:latest

Apply infrastructure configurations:

kubectl apply -f persistent-volumes.yml
kubectl apply -f persistent-volume-claims.yml
kubectl apply -f zookeeper.yml
kubectl apply -f kafka.yml
kubectl apply -f postgres.yml
kubectl apply -f jobs/kafka-topic-init.yml
kubectl apply -f api.yml
kubectl apply -f www.yml

Use port forwarding so that both www and the api can be reached inside the cluster:

kubectl port-forward service/api 8080:8080

Open www:

minikube service www