rtc-switchboard

This is an rtc.io signalling server (counterpart to rtc-signaller) uses websockets to communicate with signalling clients. It has been designed and built primarily as a reference implementation for a signalling server and is not designed to be deployed at scale.

Try it out

If you would like to use our test signalling server (no uptime guaranteed) then you can use rtc-quickconnect and take it for a spin:

var quickconnect = require('rtc-quickconnect');

quickconnect('//switchboard.rtc.io/', { room: 'switchboard-test' })
  .createDataChannel('test')
  .once('channel:opened:test', function(peerId, dc) {
    dc.onmessage = function(evt) {
      console.log('received data: ', evt.data);
    };

    dc.send('hello');
  });

Other examples are available in the guidebook

Usage: Standalone

If you wish to use rtc-switchboard on its own to test signalling, then you can simply clone this repository, install dependencies and start the server:

git clone https://github.com/rtc-io/rtc-switchboard.git
cd rtc-switchboard
npm install && npm start

If you wish to run the server on a specific port, then set the NODE_PORT environment variable prior to execution:

NODE_PORT=8997 node server.js

Usage: API

To create an application using switchboard signalling, see the following examples:

Pure Node HTTP

var server = require('http').createServer();
var switchboard = require('rtc-switchboard/')(server, { servelib: true });
var port = parseInt(process.env.NODE_PORT || process.env.PORT || process.argv[2], 10) || 3000;
var replify = require('replify');

server.on('request', function(req, res) {
  if (req.url === '/') {
    res.writeHead(302, {
      'Location': 'https://github.com/rtc-io/rtc-switchboard'
    });
    res.end('switchboard available from: https://github.com/rtc-io/rtc-switchboard');
  }
});

// start the server
server.listen(port, function(err) {
  if (err) {
    return console.log('Encountered error starting server: ', err);
  }

  console.log('server running at http://localhost:' + port + '/');
});

// add the repl
replify({
  name: 'switchboard',
  app: switchboard,
  contexts: {
    server: server
  }
});

switchboard.on('room:create', function(room) {
  console.log('room ' + room + ' created, now have ' + switchboard.rooms.length + ' active rooms');
});

switchboard.on('room:destroy', function(room) {
  console.log('room ' + room + ' destroyed, ' + switchboard.rooms.length + ' active rooms remain');

  if (typeof gc == 'function') {
    console.log('gc');
    gc();
  }
});

Using Express

var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var server = require('http').Server(app);
var port = process.env.PORT || 3000;

// create the switchboard
var switchboard = require('rtc-switchboard')(server);

server.listen(port, function(err) {
  if (err) {
    return;
  }

  console.log('server listening on port: ' + port);
});

Usage: Docker

If you are interested in deploying an instance of rtc-switchboard using docker then the following is a great place to start:

https://github.com/synctree/docker-rtc-switchboard

Logging and Analytics using the data event

Every message that flows through the switchboard (whether handled or not) can be logged through tapping into the data event. The example below demonstrates how this can be done with a node logging module like bunyan:

var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var server = require('http').Server(app);
var port = process.env.PORT || 3000;
var bunyan = require('bunyan');
var log = bunyan.createLogger({ name: 'rtc-switchboard' });

// create the switchboard
var switchboard = require('rtc-switchboard')(server);

server.listen(port, function(err) {
  if (err) {
    return;
  }

  console.log('server running at: http://localhost:' + port + '/');
});

switchboard.on('data', function(data, peerId, spark) {
  log.info({ peer: peerId }, 'received: ' + data);
});

As can be seen in the example above, the handlers of the data event can expect to receive three arguments to the handler function, as per the code snippet below:

switchboard.on('data', function(data, peerId, spark) {
});

The data is the raw data of that has been sent from the client, the peerId is the id of the peer sending the data (this will be undefined if it is a message received prior to an /announce command).

License(s)

Apache 2.0

Copyright 2015 National ICT Australia Limited (NICTA)

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.