Peer Calls

WebRTC peer to peer calls for everyone. See it live in action at peercalls.com.

Work in progress.

Requirements

• Node.js 8, or
• Node.js 12, or
• Docker

Stack

• Express
• Socket.IO
• React
• Redux
• TypeScript (since peer-calls v2.1.0)

Installation & Running

Using npx (from NPM)

npx peer-calls

Installing locally

npm install peer-calls
./node_modules/.bin/peer-calls

Installing Globally

npm install --global peer-calls
peer-calls

Using Docker

Use the jeremija/peer-calls image from Docker Hub:

docker pull jeremija/peer-calls
docker run --rm -it -p 3000:3000 jeremija/peer-calls:latest

From Git Source

git clone https://github.com/jeremija/peer-calls.git
cd peer-calls
npm install

# for production
npm run build
npm start

# for development
npm run start:watch

Building Docker Image

git clone https://github.com/jeremija/peer-calls
cd peer-calls
docker build -t peer-calls .
docker run --rm -it -p 3000:3000 peer-calls:latest

Configuration

There has been a breaking change in v3.0.0. The default binary provided via NPM is now called peer-calls, while it used to be peercalls. This has been made to make npx peer-calls work.

Version 3 also changed the way configuration works. Previously, config module was used to read config files. To make things simpler, a default STUN configuration will now be used by default. Config files can still be provided via the config/ folder in the working directory, but the extension read will be .yaml instead of .json.

The config files are read in the following order:

• node_modules/peer-calls/config/default.yaml
• node_modules/peer-calls/config/${NODE_ENV}.yaml, if NODE_ENV is set
• node_modules/peer-calls/config/local.yaml
• ./config/default.yaml
• ./config/${NODE_ENV}.yaml, if NODE_ENV is set
• ./config/local.yaml

No errors will be thrown if a file is not found, but an error will be thrown when the required properties are not found. To debug configuration issues, set the DEBUG environment variable to DEBUG=peercalls,peercalls:config.

Additionally, version 3 provides easier configuration via environment variables. For example:

• Set STUN/TURN servers: PEERCALLS__ICE_SERVERS='[{"url": "stun:stun.l.google.com:19302", "urls": "stun:stun.l.google.com:19302"}]'
• Change base URL: PEERCALLS__BASE_URL=/test - app will now be accessible at localhost:3000/test
• Enable HTTPS: PEERCALLS__SSL='{"cert": "/path/to/cert.pem", "key": "/path/to/cert.key"}'
• Disable HTTPS: PEERCALLS__SSL=undefined
• Listen on a different port: PORT=3001 (default is 3000)
• Bind to specific IP or hostname: BIND=127.0.0.1

See config/default.yaml for sample configuration.

By default, the server will start on port 3000. This can be modified by setting the PORT environment variable to another number, or to a path for a unix domain socket.

To access the server, go to http://localhost:3000 (or another port).

Logging

By default, Peer Calls server will log only basic information. Client-side logging is disabled by default.

Server-side logs can be configured via the DEBUG environment variable. Setting it to peercalls,peercalls:* will enable all server-side logging:

• DEBUG=peercalls,peercalls:* npm run start:server

Client-side logs can be configured via localStorage.DEBUG and localStorage.LOG variables:

• Setting localStorage.LOG=1 enables logging of Redux actions and state changes
• Setting localStorage.DEBUG=peercalls,peercalls:* enables all other client-side logging

Development

Below are some common NPM scripts that are used for development:

npm start              start the precompiled server.
npm run build          build all client-side resources.
npm run start:server   start and compile server-side TypeScript on the fly,
                       restarts the server when the resources change.
npm run start:watch    start the server, and recompile client-side resources
                       when the sources change.
npm test               run all tests.
npm run ci             run all linting, tests and build the client-side

Browser Support

Tested on Firefox and Chrome, including mobile versions. Also works on Safari 13 on Mac OS.

Does not work on iOS 10, but should work on iOS 11 - would appreciate feedback!

For more details, see here:

• http://caniuse.com/#feat=rtcpeerconnection
• http://caniuse.com/#search=getUserMedia

TODO

• Do not require config files and allow configuration via environment variables. (Fixed in 23fabb0)
• Show menu dialog before connecting (Fixed in 0b4aa45)
• Reduce production build size by removing Pug. (Fixed in 2d14e5f c743f19)
• Add ability to share files (Fixed in 3877893)
• Enable node cluster support (to scale vertically).
• Add Socket.IO support for Redis (to scale horizontally).
• Generate public keys for each client, and allow each client to accept, deny, and remember allowed/denied connections to specific peers.
• Add support for browser push notifications

Contributing

See Contributing section.

If you encounter a bug, please open a new issue! Thank you ❤️

License

MIT