Groupspeak: Chat System Using Java

Simple client–server chat system built with Java and a JavaFX client.

Prerequisites

• JDK 17+ (or the Java version you use)
• Maven
• make (GNU Make)

The repository includes a Makefile that provides convenient targets to build and run the server and client.

Usage (Makefile)

Use the Makefile targets from the project root.

Run

# Build and run the server (uses mvn exec:java)
make run-server

# Build and run the JavaFX client (tries javafx:run, falls back to exec:java)
make run-client

Package

# Build/package server
make package-server

# Build/package client
make package-client

Run packaged jars

# Run the most recently created server jar (from target/ or server/target)
make run-server-jar

# Run the most recently created client jar
make run-client-jar

Clean

# Clean build artifacts (runs mvn clean)
make clean

Override defaults

You can override the main classes or the mvn command on the fly:

# Run server using a different main class
make SERVER_MAIN=com.example.chat.CustomServer run-server

# Use a custom mvn (example: add -DskipTests)
make MVN='mvn -DskipTests' package-server

Notes / Alternatives

If you prefer not to use make, here are the direct Maven one-liners equivalent to the Makefile targets:

# Run server directly with Maven (single command)
mvn -Dexec.mainClass="com.example.chat.server.App" exec:java

# Run client (JavaFX)
cd client && mvn clean javafx:run