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End-to-end chat example

This tutorial will help you set up an end-to-end chat application for sending and receiving messages using the MQTT protocol.

In this example, we are going to use Courier library for all client(Android & iOS) & backend applications. Find more about these libraries here.

Components​

  • Broker - For the purpose of this tutorial, you can either can use the HiveMQ public broker or setup your own MQTT broker.

  • Android application - Check this tutorial on how to setup the android application

  • iOS application - Check this tutorial on how to setup the iOS application

  • Backend application - Check this tutorial on how to setup the backend application

Flow Diagram​

Diagram

Client app(Android or iOS) will connect to the MQTT broker by passing the following information:

  • MQTT Broker IP & Port
  • Client ID, Username & Password for creating the MQTT connection
  • Room code for starting the conversation

Once client app(Android or iOS) connects to the broker, it will subscribe to the topic - chat/{room-code}/receive

When client app(Android or iOS) sends a message, it will publish to the topic - chat/{username}/send

Backend application subscribes to the topic - chat/+/send, in order to listen to all messages published by client applications. This is a wildcard subscription.

Once the backend application receives a message on the above topic, it parses the message payload and publishes the message on the topic subscribed by the client applications.

Message payload format: {"from":{sender-username},"message":{text-message},"to":{room-code}}