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Published 3 months ago

How to Build a Real-Time Chat App in PHP (No JavaScript Needed)

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How to Build a Real-Time Chat App in PHP (No JavaScript Needed)
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PHP

Build a powerful real-time chat app using only PHP and AJAX – no JavaScript needed. Full source code and tutorial included.

1. Create MySQL Database

CREATE TABLE `messages` (
`id` INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
`username` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
`message` TEXT NOT NULL,
`created_at` TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
);

2. HTML + AJAX Interface (index.php)

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>PHP Chat App</title>
<style>
#chatbox { height: 300px; overflow-y: scroll; border: 1px solid #ccc; padding: 10px; }
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Real-Time PHP Chat</h2>

<div id="chatbox"></div>

<form method="post" action="send.php">
<input type="text" name="username" placeholder="Your name" required>
<input type="text" name="message" placeholder="Your message" required>
<button type="submit">Send</button>
</form>

<script>
setInterval(function() {
var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhr.open('GET', 'messages.php', true);
xhr.onload = function() {
document.getElementById('chatbox').innerHTML = this.responseText;
}
xhr.send();
}, 1000);
</script>
</body>
</html>

3. Handle Message Send (send.php)

<?php
$conn = new mysqli("localhost", "root", "", "chatapp");
if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST') {
$username = $conn->real_escape_string($_POST['username']);
$message = $conn->real_escape_string($_POST['message']);
$conn->query("INSERT INTO messages (username, message) VALUES ('$username', '$message')");
}
header('Location: index.php');

4. Fetch Messages (messages.php)

<?php
$conn = new mysqli("localhost", "root", "", "chatapp");
$result = $conn->query("SELECT * FROM messages ORDER BY created_at DESC LIMIT 20");
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
echo "<p><strong>{$row['username']}:</strong> {$row['message']}</p>";
}

🔒 Need to secure your messages? Learn about PHP input sanitization here

In this blog post, we demonstrated how to build a real-time chat system in PHP without JavaScript, using AJAX (XMLHttpRequest) to simulate real-time behavior. We created a MySQL database to store messages, wrote PHP scripts to send and fetch messages and used minimal HTML and CSS to build the interface.


This type of project is beginner-friendly, works even on limited hosting (no Node.js or WebSockets) and teaches core concepts like:

• PHP-MySQL integration

• Simple AJAX requests using vanilla JS

• Securing form inputs

• Refresh-less page updates (via polling)


This post is highly recommended for:

• Students building PHP mini-projects

• Freelancers adding chat features to PHP websites

• Educators explaining AJAX and server-side interaction

Author
TAPAS SAHOO

Developer by Profession, Techie by Heart

A curious mind with a love for writing and technology, dedicated to simplifying web development and programming topics while keeping up with the ever-changing tech landscape.

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