If you don't know too much about WebRTC, this is a fantastic tutorial to get started.
- use P2P (peer-to-peer) connections to chat with others via audio and/or video chat or text messages
- securely encrypted data transfer for all communication parts
- assist peers in solving difficult problems and tasks with overlay drawing indicators
- switch between chat and support mode
- pause video streams to take closer look at issues
- management server built on lightweight, completely extendable node.js application
- 100% open source
- after checkout, server can be started in the folder /server with the command
node index.js. Afterwards, the application can be accessed over https://127.0.0.1:1337, in case the default settings are not changed. Please note the "https" in front of the URL, without which the application will not work in Google Chrome. - all settings for the server application can be changed in /server/config.js (see more details below)
- it is recommended to use Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox for the application.
The server application is running on node.js. The version used during development is v4.1.1. The application's only dependency is the websocket package, which is included in the /node_modules folder for convenience.
For the web page itself, jQuery is used as well as adapter.js, which takes care of browser prefixes regarding the WebRTC API and is maintained by some folks at Google. Both are included in the repository.
The whole application is located in the /server folder.
In the file config.js it is possible to configure the application to one's needs:
- in the server object, the ip address and port for the node.js app can be set
- in the userMedia object, it can be configured whether audio, video or both should be requested by navigator.getUserMedia
- in the peerConnection object, the settings for ICE servers can be configured
- in the frontend object, all DOM element ids are configured for the web page. So you could technically change the whole frontend page while the logic of the page still remains fully functional.
- in the logging object, logging can be enabled or disabled.
The file main_controller.js creates the HTTPS server and also attaches a WebSocket server to it. It is responsible for serving all static files to the clients (all JavaScript and CSS files). A WebSocket connection is opened to each client who has accepted the navigator.getUserMedia request and entered a username.
The file routes_controller.js is responsible for parsing the ReST-ful URL request and delegating the response correctly.
All parts of the frontend web application are located in the /view/public folder.
- in client.html the HTML source of the web page is provided
- the file scripts.js is the main controller for all page interaction
- in user-media.js the access to the device's camera and microphone are managed
- web-rtc.js provides wrapper methods for the WebRTC API, some of which are implemented in scripts.js.
- Screenshots the ability to save and maybe send screenshots to someone else over the application would be really useful and not tremendously difficult to implement.
- User authentication for now, there is no user authentication implemented, anyone visiting the URL can access the application.
- E-mail invitations users could provide an e-mail address, over which other user could invite them to chat sessions. Right now, only active users on the web page can be called.
- Cross-platform application the application only works in web browsers for now, which could be inconvenient on some mobile devices. A cross-platform app with a framework like Apache Cordova or PhoneGap would most likely extend the usability on mobile devices significantly.
- Multi-user sessions while there can theoretically be an infinite number of parallel chat sessions, only two users can be part of one chat session. A Multipoint Control Unit, e.g. the open source plugin Janus, would eradicate this problem.