wrtc-simple-data v0.0.4

wrtc-simple-data

A simple Node.js library to communicate between multiple peers via WebRTC data channels.

What is this?

This is a library which helps you with WebRTC communication between Node apps. You might have multiple apps that want to exchange data (e.g. logging, sensor data, ...) using a peer-to-peer connection. To do so you can use this lib to get set up p2p data channels between them with very low effort. Special is the multi-peer support. Usually a data channel exists between exactly two peers. If you want to have communication over more than just two peers but still without a central server (which probably is the reason why you even chose WebRTC instead of e.g. Websockets) you will need to build up a mesh. This basically means that each node hold a connection to (and a data channel with) every other node.

Signalling

Although the data communication is peer-to-peer with WebRTC you still need to have a central signalling server, which basically coordinates the connection establishment between the clients. You can (and really should) use https://github.com/n1try/wrtc-simple-data-signalling in combination with this project. All you need is this server to be running on an address and port of your choice.

Installation

1. npm install wrtc-simple-data
2. var dc = require('wrtc-simple-data')(opts)

or

1. git clone https://github.com/n1try/wrtc-simple-data
2. npm install
3. var dc = require('wrtc-simple-data')(opts)

And don't forget to install and start the signalling server...

Troubleshooting

This project depends on https://www.npmjs.com/package/wrtc. Please make sure to fulfil all of its prequesites (https://github.com/js-platform/node-webrtc#prerequisites) first, otherwise there will be compilation errors.

Usage example

var dc = require('wrtc-simple-data')({
    roomName: 'chatRoom'
});

dc.on('ready', function () {
    dc.on('channel:ready', function () {
        console.log('Data channel is ready.');
    });

    dc.on('message', function (data) {
        console.log(data.sender + ': ' + data.text);
    });

    dc.sendMessage('First message on this channel');
});

Also check out https://github.com/n1try/wrtc-simple-data/tree/master/examples.

API reference

Functions

• .on('event', callback)
• .sendMessage(messageText)

Events

• ready => callback() - Fired when connection establishment with the signalling server was successful and client is waiting for peers
• channel:ready => callback() - Fired when a data channel with a newly connected peer has successfully been opened
• channel:notready => callback() - Fired when a data channel isn't in open state anymore
• message => callback(data) - Fired when receiving a message
  • data: {sender: 'senderPeerId:string', text: 'messageText:string'}

Options

• signallingServer (default: 'http://localhost:3000/'): URL of the wrtc-simple-data-signalling server
• roomName (default: 'defaultRoom'): Socket.io room name where new peers connect to on the signalling server
• rtcOpts (default: {iceServers: freeice()}): Options to pass to the RTCPeerConnection object
• channelName (default: 'messages'): Name of every created data channel - currently doesn't mean anything
• channelOpts (default: {reliable: false}): Options to pass to the RTCPeerConnection.createDataChannel() method
• debugMode (default: false): Turn on/off debug console logs