Doug’s Video Chat!

Douglas MacKrell is a NYC based Full Stack Web Developer who is currently looking for work!

THE PROBLEM

Implementing PeerJS for the very first time

THE SOLUTION

This web app uses WebRTC facilitated through PeerJS on a shared sever to make peer-to-peer many-to-many video calls

FEATURES

• Upon loading localhost:3000, a roomID is created and stored in the URL
• Once the augmented URL (localhost:3000/:roomId) is visited by a second browser on the same network, a call is accepted and instantly opened once the userId is shared
• When a user disconnects from either browser, the connection is ended and the video stream is removed from display

FUTURE FEATURES

• Simple styling
• Deployment

TECHNICAL MILESTONES

• Learning how to properly create a PeerJS server that runs in tandem on the primary server
• Learning how to collect and use the unique userId created by PeerJS

TECHNOLOGIES USED

• JavaScript
• HTML5
• Express
• Node
• PeerJS
• WebRTC
• Socket.io
• uuid

LOCAL SETUP

NOTE: You must install Node.js in your computer for this to run.

You can check to see if you already have Node.js by typing node -v in your terminal. If your shell/terminal doesn’t complain and you see version numbers you are good to go.

1. Clone this repo into a folder of your choice:

   `git clone https://github.com/DouglasMacKrell/dougs-video-chat.git`

2. Install dependencies for the app from inside the cloned root folder:

   `npm install`

3. To launch the App, make sure you have nothing else running on port 3000 and 3001, from inside the root folder run:

   `npm run devStart`

4. Open a new browser window and visit localhost:3000. The browser should ask you for permission to connect to your camera and microphone. The app will generate a room code in the URL. When you visit the same URL localhost:3000/:roomId, it will make the peer-to-peer connection and connect the call instantly.

5. To disconnect from a call, simply close the browser window.

6. Currently, the app is only designed to run locally on the same network

7. If that is not the case check the terminals output for errors, if you are unable to troubleshoot the problem, I would be happy to address issues so open one

Please check out one of my favorite projects, DougTV!