🗨️ Banter

Where modernity embraces tradition.
A real-time, cloud-native chat application that lives entirely in your terminal.

📖 Overview

Banter is a feature-rich Text User Interface (TUI) chat application that bridges the nostalgic aesthetics of classic BBS/IRC systems with modern cloud architecture. Unlike traditional console applications that rely on simple scrolling text, Banter provides a sophisticated windowed interface—complete with mouse support, interactive dialogs, and dynamic menus—all within your command line.

Powered by Google Cloud Firestore for real-time synchronization and Terminal.Gui for an immersive terminal experience, Banter delivers instant messaging with enterprise-grade features in a lightweight, keyboard-friendly package.

✨ Key Features

💬 Real-Time Communication

Instant Messaging: Messages sync across all clients in real-time via Firestore
Group & Individual Chats: Create private conversations or group chatrooms
Message Pinning: Pin important messages for easy reference
Search & Filter: Search through chat history and chatrooms instantly

🖥️ Rich Terminal Interface

Full Windowing System: Multiple resizable windows with mouse support
Keyboard Navigation: Efficient hotkey system for power users
Responsive Design: Adaptive layouts that work in various terminal sizes
Custom Color Schemes: Eye-friendly color schemes optimized for extended use

🛡️ Smart Moderation

Profanity Filter: Built-in content filtering with robust leetspeak detection
Admin Controls: Chatroom admins can manage messages and participants
Content Censorship: Automatically censors inappropriate language

👥 User Management

Secure Authentication: Login and registration system with validation
User Profiles: Display names and usernames
Session Management: Persistent sessions with automatic cleanup

🎛️ Chatroom Management

Create Chatrooms: Invite multiple users to group conversations
Admin Privileges: Designated admins can rename, delete, or clear chatrooms
Leave/Remove: Users can leave chatrooms; admins can remove participants
Dynamic Updates: Chatroom lists update in real-time

🏗️ Architecture

Banter follows a clean, event-driven architecture with clear separation of concerns:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                     Terminal.Gui (View Layer)               │
│  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐     │
│  │ Window1  │  │ Window2  │  │ Window3  │  │  Other   │     │
│  │(Chatroom)│  │  (Chat)  │  │  (Info)  │  │ Windows  │     │
│  └──────────┘  └──────────┘  └──────────┘  └──────────┘     │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                            │
                            ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    SessionHandler (State)                   │
│  • Event-driven state management                            │
│  • Real-time Firestore listeners                            │
│  • User session tracking                                    │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                            │
                            ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  Utilities (Business Logic)                 │
│  ┌──────────────────┐  ┌──────────────────┐                 │
│  │ FirebaseHelper   │  │ ProfanityChecker │                 │
│  │ • CRUD operations│  │ • Content filter │                 │
│  │ • Real-time sync │  │ • Leetspeak det. │                 │
│  └──────────────────┘  └──────────────────┘                 │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                            │
                            ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  Google Cloud Firestore                     │
│  • NoSQL Database • Real-time Updates • Scalable            │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Design Patterns

Singleton Pattern: All windows and managers use thread-safe lazy singletons
Observer Pattern: Event-driven updates via SessionHandler events
Repository Pattern: FirebaseHelper abstracts all database operations

🛠️ Tech Stack

Component	Technology	Purpose
Language	C# / .NET 10.0	Core application logic
UI Framework	Terminal.Gui	Terminal windowing toolkit
Backend	Google Cloud Firestore	Real-time NoSQL database
Local Cache	LiteDB	Embedded database for sessions
Authentication	Firebase Admin SDK	Secure credential management

📂 Project Structure

Banter/
├── 📄 Program.cs                    # Application entry point & initialization
│
├── 📂 Utilities/                    # Business Logic Layer
│   ├── FirebaseHelper.cs            # Firestore CRUD operations
│   ├── FirestoreManager.cs          # Singleton Firestore connection
│   ├── SessionHandler.cs            # User session & state management
│   ├── ProfanityChecker.cs          # Content moderation & filtering
│   ├── Validator.cs                 # Input validation (email, etc.)
│   ├── Models.cs                    # Data models (User, Chatroom, Message)
│   ├── Interfaces.cs                # IViewable interface
│   ├── CustomColorScheme.cs         # UI color schemes
│   └── WindowHelper.cs              # Window management utilities
│
├── 📂 Windows/                      # Presentation Layer
│   ├── AbstractWindow.cs            # Base window class
│   ├── LogInWindow.cs               # User authentication UI
│   ├── CreateAccountWindow.cs       # Registration UI
│   ├── Window1.cs                   # Chatroom list & user info
│   ├── Window2.cs                   # Main chat interface
│   ├── Window3.cs                   # Chatroom management panel
│   ├── CreateChatroomWindow.cs      # Chatroom creation dialog
│   ├── ChangeChatroomNameWindow.cs  # Rename chatroom dialog
│   └── ViewPinnedMessagesWindow.cs  # Pinned messages viewer
│
├── 📂 documentation-website/        # Project documentation site
├── 📂 presentation-website/         # Project presentation site
│
├── 📄 Banter.csproj                 # Project configuration
├── 📄 BanterLogo.txt                # ASCII art logo
├── 📄 Schema.txt                    # Database schema
├── 📄 LICENSE                       # MIT License
└── 📄 README.md                     # This file

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

.NET 10.0 SDK or later
Google Cloud Project with Firestore enabled
Terminal that supports 256 colors (recommended: Windows Terminal, iTerm2, or modern Linux terminals)

Installation

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/dreeyanzz/Banter.git
cd Banter

Configure Firebase Credentials

The project uses an embedded Firebase Admin SDK key. To set up your own:
- Create a Firebase project at console.firebase.google.com
- Enable Firestore Database
- Generate a service account key (JSON)
- Update FirestoreManager.cs:
```
private const string ProjectId = "your-project-id";
string resourceName = "Banter.your-firebase-key.json";
```
- Add the JSON file to the project and set its Build Action to Embedded Resource
Restore Dependencies
```
dotnet restore
```
Build the Project
```
dotnet build
```
Run Banter
```
dotnet run
```

🕹️ Usage Guide

First Time Setup

Launch Banter - The login screen will appear with the ASCII logo
Create an Account:
- Click "Create Account"
- Enter a username (min. 8 characters)
- Set a password (min. 8 characters)
- Provide your name and email
Login with your new credentials

Main Interface

Once logged in, you'll see three main windows:

┌─────────────┬──────────────────────────────┬─────────────┐
│   Window1   │          Window2             │   Window3   │
│  (People)   │       (Main Chat)            │ (Chat Info) │
│             │                              │             │
│ • Chatrooms │ • Chat History               │ • Settings  │
│ • Search    │ • Message Input              │ • Admin     │
│ • User Info │ • Pinned Messages            │   Controls  │
└─────────────┴──────────────────────────────┴─────────────┘

Controls

Mouse: Click buttons, select text, and switch between windows
Tab/Shift+Tab: Navigate between UI elements
Enter: Send message or activate focused button
Esc: Close dialogs
Ctrl+Q: Quit application (from File menu)

Creating a Chatroom

Click "+ Add Chatroom" in Window1
Type usernames to add (one at a time)
Click "Add" after each username
Click "Create" when done

Sending Messages

Select a chatroom from Window1
Type your message in the bottom text field of Window2
Press Enter or click "Send"

Pinning Messages

In Window2, click on any message in the chat history
The message will be pinned (marked with a bullet •)
Click "View pinned messages" to see all pinned messages
Click a pinned message in the viewer to unpin it

Admin Features (Group Chats Only)

If you're an admin of a group chatroom, Window3 will show:

Change chatroom name: Rename the chatroom
Clear Messages: Delete all messages (for everyone)
Delete Chatroom: Permanently remove the chatroom
Leave Chatroom: Remove yourself from participants

🔒 Security Considerations

⚠️ Important Security Notes:

Passwords are stored in plaintext in the current implementation
- This is NOT production-ready
- Implement proper password hashing (bcrypt, Argon2) before deployment
No input sanitization for SQL injection (Firestore is NoSQL, but still validate inputs)
Firebase credentials are embedded in the application
- Use environment variables or secure vaults in production
- Never commit credentials to public repositories
Email validation is basic
- Consider sending verification emails for production use

🐛 Known Issues & TODOs

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Whether you want to add new features, fix bugs, or improve documentation, your help is appreciated.

How to Contribute

Fork the repository
Create a feature branch
```
git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature
```
Commit your changes
```
git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature'
```
Push to the branch
```
git push origin feature/AmazingFeature
```
Open a Pull Request

Development Guidelines

Follow C# coding conventions
Add XML documentation comments to public methods
Test your changes thoroughly
Update README if you add new features

📊 Database Schema

Collections

Users

{
  "username": string,
  "password": string,  // ⚠️ Currently plaintext
  "name": string,
  "email": string,
  "chatrooms": string[]
}

Chatrooms

{
  "chatroom_name": string,
  "participants": string[],
  "admins": string[],
  "type": "group" | "individual",
  "last_chat": string,
  "pinned_messages": string[]
}

Messages (subcollection of Chatrooms)

{
  "sender_id": string,
  "text": string,
  "timestamp": Timestamp
}

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2024 dreeyanzz

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

🙏 Acknowledgments

Terminal.Gui - For the amazing TUI framework
Google Cloud Firestore - For real-time database capabilities
Miguel de Icaza - For creating Terminal.Gui
The open-source community for continuous inspiration

📧 Contact

Developer: dreeyanzz
Project Link: https://github.com/dreeyanzz/Banter
Documentation: https://dreeyanzz.github.io/Banter/

🌟 Star History

If you find Banter useful, please consider giving it a star ⭐ on GitHub!

Made with ❤️ and ☕ by dreeyanzz

Where modernity embraces tradition

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
.config		.config
Banter		Banter
Utilities		Utilities
Windows		Windows
assets		assets
documentation-website		documentation-website
documentation		documentation
presentation-website		presentation-website
.gitignore		.gitignore
Banter.csproj		Banter.csproj
Banter.sln		Banter.sln
BanterLogo.txt		BanterLogo.txt
LICENSE		LICENSE
Program.cs		Program.cs
README.md		README.md
diagram.mmd		diagram.mmd
index.html		index.html
project-structure.txt		project-structure.txt
release-command.txt		release-command.txt

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