shared-reality-chat

Server-less real-time dyadic chat app platform for psychology experiments.

Built for the Shared Reality hackathon group at 2023 MIND (https://github.com/hawkrobe/shared-reality). Original chat platform located here.

Tech Stack

• Svelte 5 - Frontend framework
• Firebase - Database, auth & hosting
• TailwindCSS + DaisyUI - Styling
• Vite - Build tool

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18 or higher recommended)
• npm (comes with Node.js)
• A Firebase project (for database and hosting)

Setup

1. Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/cosanlab/shared-reality-chat.git
cd shared-reality-chat

2. Install dependencies:

npm install

3. Create a .env file from the example:

cp .env.example .env

4. Configure your environment variables in .env:

   • Firebase config (required): Get these from your Firebase Console under Project Settings > General > Your apps > Web app
   • LogRocket (optional): For session replay and debugging
   • Prolific completion code (optional): For participant recruitment platform integration

Development

Start the development server:

npm run dev

The app will be available at http://localhost:3000

Production Build

Build for production:

npm run build

Preview the production build locally:

npm run serve

Deployment

The app is configured for Firebase Hosting with GitHub Actions CI/CD:

• Merges to main branch trigger automatic deployment
• Pull requests get preview deployments

To deploy manually, install the Firebase CLI and run:

npm install -g firebase-tools
firebase login
firebase deploy

Configuration

Key configuration options in src/utils.js:

• taskVersion - Version string for tracking experiment versions
• matchType - Matching algorithm: "high", "low", or "random"
• NO_CHAT - Set to true for no-chat vignette version
• DEBUG_MODE - Set to true to use separate dev collections in Firestore