Chat App

A simple client-server chat application built in Rust, using Slint for the GUI.

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Features
• Architecture
• Getting Started
• Usage
• Dependencies

Overview

This project is a basic chat application used to learn how to build a real-time messaging system in Rust. It consists of:

• A server that handles message routing and communication between clients
• A client with a GUI built using the Slint toolkit
• Shared components (in a common folder) for data models and protocol definitions.

Features

• Real-time messaging between multiple clients
• Simple user interface
• Modular architecture: clear separation between client, server, and shared logic
• Cross-platform (Rust + Slint)

Architecture

• Server: Listens for client connections, forwards messages, and manages connected users
• Client: GUI application using Slint for the interface, communicates with the server
• Common: Shared Rust code (e.g. message types, encoding, decoding) used by both client and server

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Rust (with cargo)
• (Optional) Slint toolchain for GUI development

Setup

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/DanielGrotan/chat-app.git
cd chat-app

2. Build the project:

cargo build

Usage

1. Run the server

cargo run --release -p server

This will start the chat server and listen for incoming client connections on localhost:8080.

2. Run the client

In a separate terminal/window:

cargo run --release -p client

This will launch the GUI chat client.

3. Chat

• Open multiple clients to simulate chat between users
• Enter the server address (e.g. localhost:8080), username, and start sending messages

Dependencies

• Rust — core programming language
  rust-lang.org

• Slint — declarative GUI toolkit for Rust
  slint.dev

• tokio — asynchronous runtime for networking crates.io

• bincode — binary serialization for Rust
  crates.io