Adding websockets commands to ConferenceApp application

[Javier Derderyan]

Hi,

Very close to my previous post -https://groups.google.com/g/ant-media-server/c/0ENhd4pnL4A-, this question is related to operations before any actual publishing is made.

I see that the webrtc data channels start working when the publisher starts actually publishing; so that won't work to send "chat" messages -or any other command- before the publishing starts.

I see too that in the ConferenceApp code (is it the same that the "WebRTCAppEE" app?) that the interactions with the app is limited.

But, would it be possible to add more functionality there? Let's say, just to send a "signal"? which can then be forwarded to all the other sessions in the same room?

For instance, 50 "players" connect to a room, and 1 publisher. But before actually publishing he wants to send a "hello" to everyone; that would have to be done via websocket. Is it possible to add to the conference app a way to do it? So that the websocket receives a message, and if it's a "signal" it's sent to everyone else in the same room?

Regards,

Javier

[Burak]

We have kept ConferenceApp as simple as possible, but implemented core messaging. It is extendable and you can add new features to add. You can implement your own websocket messages. We want it to be a community project. So if you fork it and extend it please share it with community. 

 

 

[Zale Schoenborn]

Howdy Burak,

The ability to send data in a "room" without the dependency of requiring publishing media is crucial and basic.  

It would be ideal if you could also add the ability to specify which data channel/id too as you are allowed to have many in the spec and this would be useful.

 

We are looking at modifying the code but think the ability to use data in a room should be a core function Ant Media supports.

[David Knape]

I agree that it would be nice to use existing websocket to relay a message to all room members without using DataChannel connections.

We got chat working with webRTCAdaptor using 'joinRoom' and the 'onlyDataChannel' property. This still requires "publishing" a stream (without media), and then requires each chat participant to connect to every other stream to activate many dataChannels. There is no need for that for chat. If we could simply relay messages to all participants via the existing socket connection, that would be ideal.

We've seen this on other media servers. Would be great to have that included as part of the built-in conference/rooms functionality.

-dk

[Burak]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your great comments and advises. That seems meaningful. I think you can create feature request on the github:

https://github.com/ant-media/Ant-Media-Server/issues/new?assignees=&labels=&template=feature_request.md&title=

 

[David Knape]

Feature request is here:

https://github.com/ant-media/Ant-Media-Server/issues/3239