Basically, I want to make a peer to peer architecture, using JavaScript (Ionic).
Since, JS cannot create sockets/etc; a NodeJS server has to be introduced between the clients; acting as the Socket.IO server between the clients.
The problem with this, is that the Socket.IO (NodeJS) server would need to be automatically found within the local network -- by the clients (instead of hardcoded/configured).
Are there any ways to implement such a thing; or alternatives to this architecture?
Thanks for the help!
Are there any ways to implement such a thing; or alternatives to this architecture?
Currently your architecture is using a browser app plus a Node app that users need to have on their network just to create TCP connections.
What you can do instead is create an Electron app that combines a Node app, a browser app, and a browser itself. See:
https://electron.atom.io/
With Electron you can write your frontend code almost the same way as for the regular browser, but you can use the entire Node API including the TCP sockets so there will be no need to create a separate Node app and to search for that app in the network. This can greatly simplify your architecture.
Note: this is not an answer to the first part of the question: "How to detect a server in the network using JS?" but to the second part of the question: "Are there any ways to implement such a thing; or alternatives to this architecture?" Detecting the servers on the local network with client-side JavaScript will not be easy - and in fact it shouldn't be even possible because websites being able to scan your LAN for active services would be a serious problem for privacy and security.
Recently I was working on a webRTC project that displays media stream in users browser. However this was only on the client side. What if I want to stream this media to other users browser. As I looked around I found that it was possible by connecting to peers and setting up signalling servers (STUN & TURN). I went through all details that was mentioned on one of the articles on html5rocks website.
I am making use of simplewebRTC but that isn't enough I have to set up my own signalling server in order to be actually able to video chat.
My question is what actually is needed in order to implement a live video chat application embedded within website apart from the api provided by webRTC and how do I set up my own signailling server.
signalmaster was built as a signaling server for simplewebrtc and used by talky.io. It's a node application, start it with "node server.js" and then hook up simplewebrtc to the socket.io endpoint provided.
STUN and TURN servers are not signaling servers. They just help with punching a hole through NAT. The most popular option is rfc-5766-turn-server, restund performs quite well too.
You should provide more detail about your project to get a good answer. Are you planning on making only browser to browser calls? SIP calls? These would be a factor in the signalling server you choose. I went with a SIP signalling server (SIPML5.org) and integrated it with an Asterisk server for call control. This also let me integrate my existing corporate telepresence devices into the PBX. If you want to read up on the basics of signalling and on Webrtc in general Muaz Khan has done some very good work on it.
https://github.com/muaz-khan/WebRTC-Experiment/blob/master/Signaling.md
I'm fairly new to the world of JS and its abundance of libraries. I'm looking to get into a project that involves network communication (sockets) between clients and a server. In a world with tons of libraries, I cannot make a decision as to which to use. I'm looking for something that will bring efficiency and stability.
I've been told that Node.js is like the middleman between you, as the developer, and Socket.IO. I've been told it's a huge framework that you may not use at least half of. I've been told that to maximize efficiency, you're better off using Socket.IO to make your own functionalities. I've done some research on my own and found that Socket.IO NEEDS Node.js and Node.js DOESN'T NEED Socket.IO. Which is completely opposite of what I was told. Then I find that most developers use both Socket.IO and Node.js at the same time?
Like I said, I'm fairly new, but I cannot find the right resources that would help me accomplish a websocket communication between a client and a server with maximum efficiency, or at least explain the difference between Socket.IO and Node.js. If anyone here could, please let me know! I would greatly appreciate it.
node.js is a general purpose javascript-based run-time environment (somewhat similar to other language runtimes like python in scope). You can create apps in it that don't even use the network. It is often used as a web server for created web apps and has a great set of tools and rich library of add-ons for doing so. It does not need socket.io.
socket.io is a specific library to enable web-socket-like communication between a client and a server (e.g. a chat room app is the canonical example). The server side of socket.io assumes a javascript run-time (because it's written in javascript) so that generally means node.js (though I'm not sure if a different JS runtime could perhaps be substituted).
You can think of node.js like the platform and socket.io like a specific tool to do a specific job that runs on that platform. You would use socket.io (on top of node.js) if you needed web socket connectivity between client and server.
You would use only node.js if you need any of the other things node is good at, but did not need websocket connectivity.
websockets themselves can be programmed on the server side without socket.io and without node.js. They could be programmed in strait C++ or in Java. But socket.io (running in node) provides a very easy way to set them up because the socket.io library covers both client and server in one library and one API and it's all in the same language (javascript). Look at the chat room app example on the socket.io site and you will be unlikely to find any other solution that can accomplish that in as few lines of code as it does and with the same interface on client and server.
If you were only setting up a websocket server (no web server or web app of any kind), you could still use node and socket.io and use it just for the websocket server and it would still be quite efficient. While node is capable of doing lots of other things, if you don't configure and install all those other things, they aren't costing you anything - they are just unused capabilities that aren't running.
I should add that one other thing the socket.io library does is it handles an auto-negotiation between client and server to find the best channel for the client and server to communicate on. If websockets are available, then socket.io will likely use them, but if web sockets are not available, socket.io has alternate methods that will work (even in older browsers). That functionality comes for free in socket.io without you even doing anything.
In case this isn't completely clear to you, websockets are typically used to provide real-time communication between client and server. While clients can ask for data from a server at any time with an ajax call or a web page request, what websockets allow is a two way real-time communication between client and server and the biggest advantage of websockets is that a server can send a client real-time data at any time while they are connected.
For example, I have a web page that receives real-time data from my server anytime the web page is open. The web page is served over the typical node.js web server installation, but the real-time data is sent from server to client over a websocket connection.
In addition, if there's a chatty conversation happening between client and server, websockets can be much more efficient than a series of ajax calls because with a websocket, a connection is opened once and used repeatedly whereas with ajax, each successive ajax call is like a new connection.
Node.js is a runtime environment. It's a javascript engine with a standard library built around asynchronous I/O. It plays the same role that Java, Python, Ruby, .NET, etc., play for many other web applications.
I've been told it's a huge framework that you may not use at least half of.
It might be true that most people never use most of the standard library, but I wouldn't think it's more true of Node.js than other runtimes. "Framework" isn't an accurate word to describe it.
I've been told that to maximize efficiency, you're better off using Socket.IO to make your own functionalities.
Whoever told you that was mistaken, or meant that to maximize efficiency, you're better off using [Node.js and] Socket.IO [instead of other solutions]. Many other non-Node.js solutions require a single thread or process per connection, which limits the number of simultaneous connections a server can handle. Node.js is built around asynchronous I/O which is better for keeping many connections open at once, and Socket.IO is a library for Node.js for using WebSockets.
TL;DR: Socket.IO can fire events in realtime between your client and server, so there is no need for you to reload the page to notice something changing. This can be used for "live" applications like collaborative drawing, live chats, online games and more!
I'd like to know if anyone has managed to set up a peer-to-peer app for the Windows Store using HTML5 and JavaScript. Basically I want app client A to be able to connect and send data to app client B via a TCP or UDP socket (the problem I'm facing seems to be irrelevant to the socket type).
My main problem is that I am unsure how to obtain a suitable IP/port which the other client would be able to connect to. It seems like there would be issues with router firewalls and whatnot, but MS claims that peer-to-peer is possible.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
Edit: I cannot use a third party service for communicating the data, because I want my app to be able to connect with other applications besides the one I'm writing. So something standard like TCP sockets is necessary.
Take a look at TideSDK for the desktop app development with web technology.
I don't know is TideSDK provide an API to access TCP or UDP communication, may be you could try read the docs. IMO best is you need to create a server to handle 1:1 connection between clients.
If you dont want to get mess with the server, you should get to know PubNub and Pusher
We are using Socket.IO to communicate real-time statistics to connected browsers; however due to the architecture of a system we are building we want to allow both browsers and other nodejs servers to subscribe via Socket.IO for statistics. Would it be possible for me to create something like a custom transport for communicating via TCP to another Socket.IO server that had subscribed?
We want to continue to use Socket.IO's built in support for channels and subscriptions, but provide server-server via node.
Thanks for any suggestions!
I also posted on Socket.IO's GitHub Issues Page and got an answer there. Looks like I will be using Hook.IO to do what I need.
Thanks!