README

Le Chat adds rich, flexible chat functionality to your Laravel application with minimal setup and maximum customization. Whether you're building one-on-one messaging, group chatrooms, or bot integrations, this package gives you the tools to implement powerful conversations between any models in your app.

🚀 Features

• Send messages between any models
• One-to-one and multi-user chatrooms
• System messages and bot support
• Unread message tracking
• WebSocket connection detection
• Notifications via Laravel and WebPush
• REST API endpoints included
• No frontend views — bring your own UI

📦 Installation

composer require mmedia/le-chat

Publish migrations and config:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag="chat-migrations"
php artisan migrate

php artisan vendor:publish --tag="chat-config"

🧠 Core Concepts

• Chatroom: A conversation space containing messages and participants
• ChatParticipant: A polymorphic link between your models and a chatroom
• Message: A message sent by a participant in a chatroom
• IsChatParticipant Trait: Add to any model to enable chat behavior

✅ Requirements

• PHP 8.0+
• Laravel 11+

✨ Quick Example

$message = $user->sendMessageTo($otherUser, "Hello!");
$reply = $otherUser->sendMessageTo($user, "Hi back!");

Easily send messages to:

• Individual users
• Multiple recipients
• Entire chatrooms
• Non-model participants (bots, services, etc.)

🔥 Why Not Chatify?

Unlike Chatify, Le Chat does not limit messages to one sender and one recipient. This package supports:

• Multi-participant chatrooms
• Flexible polymorphic model support
• Bots and non-DB participants

📚 Full Documentation

See the complete usage guide for in-depth examples, APIs, and advanced features:

👉 View Full Docs →

🧪 Comparison to Other Projects

• Wirechat — Livewire-heavy
• Musonza Chat — Feature-rich but complex
• Le Chat — Simple API, full flexibility, no view layer

🙋‍♂️ Use Cases

• Teacher ↔ Student chat (one-on-one)
• Teachers + Students group chats per class
• Chatbot ↔ User conversations
• Cross-platform relay (e.g. Slack integration)

📖 License

MIT ©