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Version: 0.1.x

Quick Start for Conference in React

VideoSDK enables you to embed the video calling feature into your React application in minutes.

In this quickstart, we are going to explore group calling feature of Video SDK. We will go through step by step guide of integrating video calling with React Video SDK.

This guide will get you running with the VideoSDK video & audio calling in minutes.

Prerequisites​

Before proceeding, ensure that your development environment meets the following requirements:

  • Video SDK Developer Account (Not having one, follow Video SDK Dashboard)
  • Basic understanding of React
  • React Video SDK
  • Have Node and NPM installed on your device.
  • The basic understanding of Hooks (useState, useRef, useEffect)
  • React Context API (optional)
info

One should have a VideoSDK account to generate token. Visit VideoSDK dashboard to generate token

Getting Started with the Code!​

Follow the steps to create the environment necessary to add video calls into your app. Also you can find the code sample for quickstart here.

Create new react app​

Create a new React App using the below command.

$ npx create-react-app videosdk-rtc-react-app

Install Video SDK​

Install the VideoSDK using the below-mentioned npm command. Make sure you are in your react app directory before you run this command.

$ npm install "@videosdk.live/react-sdk"

//For the Participants Video
$ npm install "react-player"

Structure of the project​

Your project structure should look like this.

Project Structure
   root
   ├── node_modules
   ├── public
   ├── src
   │    ├── API.js
   │    ├── App.js
   │    ├── index.js
   .    .

We are going to use functional components to leverage react's reusable component architecture. There will be components for users, videos and controls (mic, camera, leave) over the video.

App Architecture​

App will contain a MeetingView component which includes ParticipantView which will render the participant's name, video, audio, etc. We will also have a Controls component which will allow user to perform operations like leave and toggle media.

VideoSDK React JS Quick Start Architecture

We are going to work on two files:

  • API.js: Responsible to handle API calls such as generating unique meetingId and token
  • App.js: Responsible to render MeetingView and join the meeting.

Step 1: Get started with API.js​

Prior to moving on, we must create an API request to generate unique meetingId. You will need an authentication token, which you can create either through the videosdk-rtc-api-server-examples or directly from the Video SDK Dashboard for developers.

API.js
//Auth token we will use to generate a meeting and connect to it
export const authToken = "<Generated-from-dashbaord>";
// API call to create meeting
export const createMeeting = async ({ token }) => {
  const res = await fetch(`https://api.videosdk.live/v2/rooms`, {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      authorization: `${authToken}`,
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({}),
  });
  //Destructuring the roomId from the response
  const { roomId } = await res.json();
  return roomId;
};

Step 2: Wireframe App.js with all the components​

To build up wireframe of App.js, we are going to use Video SDK Hooks and Context Providers. Video SDK provides MeetingProvider, MeetingConsumer, useMeeting and useParticipant hooks. Let's understand each of them.

First we will explore Context Provider and Consumer. Context is primarily used when some data needs to be accessible by many components at different nesting levels.

  • MeetingProvider: It is Context Provider. It accepts value config and token as props. The Provider component accepts a value prop to be passed to consuming components that are descendants of this Provider. One Provider can be connected to many consumers. Providers can be nested to override values deeper within the tree.
  • MeetingConsumer: It is Context Consumer. All consumers that are descendants of a Provider will re-render whenever the Provider’s value prop changes.
  • useMeeting: It is meeting react hook API for meeting. It includes all the information related to meeting such as join, leave, enable/disable mic or webcam etc.
  • useParticipant: It is participant hook API. useParticipant hook is responsible to handle all the events and props related to one particular participant such as name, webcamStream, micStream etc.

Meeting Context helps to listen on all the changes when participant joines meeting or changes mic or camera etc.

Let's get started with change couple of lines of code in App.js

App.js
import "./App.css";
import React, { useEffect, useMemo, useRef, useState } from "react";
import {
  MeetingProvider,
  MeetingConsumer,
  useMeeting,
  useParticipant,
} from "@videosdk.live/react-sdk";
import { authToken, createMeeting } from "./API";
import ReactPlayer from "react-player";

function JoinScreen({ getMeetingAndToken }) {
  return null;
}

function ParticipantView(props) {
  return null;
}

function Controls(props) {
  return null;
}

function MeetingView(props) {
  return null;
}

function App() {
  const [meetingId, setMeetingId] = useState(null);

  //Getting the meeting id by calling the api we just wrote
  const getMeetingAndToken = async (id) => {
    const meetingId =
      id == null ? await createMeeting({ token: authToken }) : id;
    setMeetingId(meetingId);
  };

  //This will set Meeting Id to null when meeting is left or ended
  const onMeetingLeave = () => {
    setMeetingId(null);
  };

  return authToken && meetingId ? (
    <MeetingProvider
      config={{
        meetingId,
        micEnabled: true,
        webcamEnabled: true,
        name: "C.V. Raman",
      }}
      token={authToken}
    >
      <MeetingView meetingId={meetingId} onMeetingLeave={onMeetingLeave} />
    </MeetingProvider>
  ) : (
    <JoinScreen getMeetingAndToken={getMeetingAndToken} />
  );
}

export default App;

Step 3: Implement Join Screen​

Join screen will work as medium to either schedule new meeting or to join existing meeting.

JoinScreen Component
function JoinScreen({ getMeetingAndToken }) {
  const [meetingId, setMeetingId] = useState(null);
  const onClick = async () => {
    await getMeetingAndToken(meetingId);
  };
  return (
    <div>
      <input
        type="text"
        placeholder="Enter Meeting Id"
        onChange={(e) => {
          setMeetingId(e.target.value);
        }}
      />
      <button onClick={onClick}>Join</button>
      {" or "}
      <button onClick={onClick}>Create Meeting</button>
    </div>
  );
}

Output​

VideoSDK React JS Quick Start Join Screen

Step 4: Implement MeetingView and Controls​

Next step is to create MeetingView and Controls components to manage features such as join, leave, mute and unmute.

MeetingView
function MeetingView(props) {
  const [joined, setJoined] = useState(null);
  //Get the method which will be used to join the meeting.
  //We will also get the participants list to display all participants
  const { join, participants } = useMeeting({
    //callback for when meeting is joined successfully
    onMeetingJoined: () => {
      setJoined("JOINED");
    },
    //callback for when meeting is left
    onMeetingLeft: () => {
      props.onMeetingLeave();
    },
  });
  const joinMeeting = () => {
    setJoined("JOINING");
    join();
  };

  return (
    <div className="container">
      <h3>Meeting Id: {props.meetingId}</h3>
      {joined && joined == "JOINED" ? (
        <div>
          <Controls />
          //For rendering all the participants in the meeting
          {[...participants.keys()].map((participantId) => (
            <ParticipantView
              participantId={participantId}
              key={participantId}
            />
          ))}
        </div>
      ) : joined && joined == "JOINING" ? (
        <p>Joining the meeting...</p>
      ) : (
        <button onClick={joinMeeting}>Join</button>
      )}
    </div>
  );
}
Controls Component
function Controls() {
  const { leave, toggleMic, toggleWebcam } = useMeeting();
  return (
    <div>
      <button onClick={() => leave()}>Leave</button>
      <button onClick={() => toggleMic()}>toggleMic</button>
      <button onClick={() => toggleWebcam()}>toggleWebcam</button>
    </div>
  );
}
Output of Controls Component​

VideoSDK React JS Quick Start Controls Component

Step 5: Implement Participant View​

Before implementing participant view, We need to understand couple of concepts.

1. Forwarding Ref for mic and camera​

We will be using the React useRef to reference our audio and video components which will be used to play and stop the audio and video of the participant.

Forwarding Ref for mic and camera
const webcamRef = useRef(null);
const micRef = useRef(null);
2. useParticipant Hook​

useParticipant hook is responsible to handle all the properties and events of one particular participant joined in the meeting. It will take participantId as argument.

useParticipant Hook
const { webcamStream, micStream, webcamOn, micOn } = useParticipant(
  props.participantId
);
3. MediaStream API​

MediaStream is useful to add MediaTrack to the audio / video tag to play the audio or video.

MediaStream API
const webcamRef = useRef(null);
const mediaStream = new MediaStream();
mediaStream.addTrack(webcamStream.track);

webcamRef.current.srcObject = mediaStream;
webcamRef.current
  .play()
  .catch((error) => console.error("videoElem.current.play() failed", error));

4. Implemeting ParticipantView​

Now let's use all this API to create ParticipantView

ParticipantView
function ParticipantView(props) {
  const micRef = useRef(null);
  const { webcamStream, micStream, webcamOn, micOn, isLocal, displayName } =
    useParticipant(props.participantId);

  const videoStream = useMemo(() => {
    if (webcamOn && webcamStream) {
      const mediaStream = new MediaStream();
      mediaStream.addTrack(webcamStream.track);
      return mediaStream;
    }
  }, [webcamStream, webcamOn]);

  useEffect(() => {
    if (micRef.current) {
      if (micOn && micStream) {
        const mediaStream = new MediaStream();
        mediaStream.addTrack(micStream.track);

        micRef.current.srcObject = mediaStream;
        micRef.current
          .play()
          .catch((error) =>
            console.error("videoElem.current.play() failed", error)
          );
      } else {
        micRef.current.srcObject = null;
      }
    }
  }, [micStream, micOn]);

  return (
    <div>
      <p>
        Participant: {displayName} | Webcam: {webcamOn ? "ON" : "OFF"} | Mic:{" "}
        {micOn ? "ON" : "OFF"}
      </p>
      <audio ref={micRef} autoPlay playsInline muted={isLocal} />
      {webcamOn && (
        <ReactPlayer
          //
          playsinline // very very imp prop
          pip={false}
          light={false}
          controls={false}
          muted={true}
          playing={true}
          //
          url={videoStream}
          //
          height={"300px"}
          width={"300px"}
          onError={(err) => {
            console.log(err, "participant video error");
          }}
        />
      )}
    </div>
  );
}

Final Output​

We are done with implementation of customised video calling app in reeact js using Video SDK. To explore more features go through Basic and Advanced features.


tip

You can checkout the complete quick start example here.

Got a Question? Ask us on discord

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