Using ActionCable and React to Create a Simple Chat App

Online example: https://ac.aiichat.cn

Code repository: https://github.com/renny-ren/action-chat

Introduction

In this article, I'm going to explore how to leverage the power of Rails ActionCable and React to build a web chat application. ActionCable provides a straightforward way to incorporate real-time features into Rails applications, while React serves as a powerful and flexible frontend framework. By combining these technologies, we can create an interactive and dynamic chat application. Let's dive into the details of how to implement this solution.

Setting up the Environment

Before we dive into the implementation details, make sure you have the following prerequisites in place:
- Ruby on Rails: Ensure that you have Rails installed on your local machine.
- React: Familiarize yourself with React and have a basic understanding of how React components and states work.

Creating the ActionCable Channel

To begin with, let's create an ActionCable channel for our chat application. In your terminal, run the following command to generate the channel:

rails g channel chat_channel

This command will generate a chat_channel.rb file under the app/channels directory. Open this file and update it as follows:

class ChatChannel < ApplicationCable::Channel
  def...