Creating a Simple Video Chat Application with Node.js and WebRTC

Chankapure Ravi
2 min readMar 17, 2023

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  • express: A popular web application framework for Node.js that simplifies creating web applications by providing abstractions for common tasks.
  • http: A built-in Node.js module that allows the creation of HTTP servers and clients.
  • socket.io: A library for enabling real-time, bidirectional communication between client and server over the WebSocket protocol.

Serve static files

Next, we use the express.static middleware to serve static files from the public directory. This allows the client-side code (including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files) to be served by the Node.js server.

Home page route

We then create a route for the home page (/) that sends the index.html file from the public directory when a user visits the root URL.

Socket.io connection event

The io.on('connection') event is triggered whenever a new client connects to the server using the Socket.io library. Here, we log a message to the console to indicate that a new user has connected.

Photo by visuals on Unsplash

Here is an example of a Node.js code for a simple video chat application using WebRTC and Socket.io:

// Dependencies
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
const http = require('http').Server(app);
const io = require('socket.io')(http);
const port = 3000;

// Serve static files from the public directory
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));

// Route for the home page
app.get('/', (req, res) => {
res.sendFile(__dirname + '/public/index.html');
});

// Socket.io connection event
io.on('connection', (socket) => {
console.log('A user connected.');

// Join room event
socket.on('join room', (roomId) => {
socket.join(roomId);
console.log('User joined room:', roomId);
});

// Offer event
socket.on('offer', (offer, roomId) => {
socket.to(roomId).emit('offer', offer);
console.log('Sent offer to room:', roomId);
});

// Answer event
socket.on('answer', (answer, roomId) => {
socket.to(roomId).emit('answer', answer);
console.log('Sent answer to room:', roomId);
});

// ICE candidate event
socket.on('ice candidate', (candidate, roomId) => {
socket.to(roomId).emit('ice candidate', candidate);
console.log('Sent ICE candidate to room:', roomId);
});

// Disconnect event
socket.on('disconnect', () => {
console.log('A user disconnected.');
});
});

// Start server
http.listen(port, () => {
console.log(`Server running on port ${port}.`);
});

This code sets up a Node.js server with Express and Socket.io. The index.html file in the public the directory should contain the HTML and JavaScript for the client side of the application, including WebRTC code for capturing and sending video and audio streams, and Socket.io code for establishing connections and sending offers, answers, and ICE candidates.

To use this code, you need to create the index.html file and include the necessary JavaScript libraries and code for WebRTC and Socket.io. You must also create the client-side code for capturing and sending video and audio streams.

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Chankapure Ravi
Chankapure Ravi

Written by Chankapure Ravi

NodeJs, ReactJS, MongoDB, PHP, MySQL, Google Cloud, Linux, VoIP Switch, SoftSwitch

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