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First steps with Video

In this guide, you will learn how to set up a minimal video room using the JavaScript SDK.

A screenshot of a video room in a Safari browser window. There are two participants, one with video muted.
The end result.

If you need to embed a prebuilt video conferencing widget into your web page, follow our guide for Video Conferences. Otherwise, keep reading to start coding a fully customizable video application.

Get started​

Create an HTML file. Copy the following content to create a basic video room:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8" />

    <!-- Import SignalWire library -->
    <script src="https://cdn.signalwire.com/@signalwire/js"></script>
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/axios/0.25.0/axios.min.js"></script>
  </head>

  <body>
    <div
      id="video"
      style="max-width: 100vw; max-height: 100vh; aspect-ratio: 16/9;"
    ></div>

    <script>
      async function connect() {
        // Get an authentication token (This is for demo purposes only. Not for production use!)
        const reply = await axios.post(
          "https://guides.swrooms.com/public/video_token",
          {
            user_name: "user",
            room_name: "room",
          }
        );

        // Configuration
        const roomSession = new SignalWire.Video.RoomSession({
          rootElement: document.getElementById("video"),
          token: reply.data.token,
        });

        // Join the room
        await roomSession.join();
      }

      connect();
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

In the above file, we are using the Browser SDK to establish a video connection to a video room and to display its video stream into a div.

To see it in action, you need to serve the HTML through a web server. You can upload it anywhere you like or, if you prefer, you can either:

  • test it in our live demo: open the link and you'll be able to try it out right away. Or,
  • test it locally. Here's how:

Step 1: Install Node.js​

If you need to install Node.js see instructions on the official web page. Once installed, you can use the npx terminal command that you will need in Step 2.

Step 2: Serve the HTML​

Open a terminal and cd into the directory where you saved your HTML file. Now run:

npx serve .

Your web page will be available in your browser at <http://127.0.0.1:3000>. Try opening it in multiple browser tabs at the same time!

Next steps​

Congratulations! You have now created your own basic video-conferencing application.

In this example, we made a POST request to an endpoint located at https://guides.swrooms.com/public/video_token to obtain a token. While this works for demo purposes, it has some limitations:

  • Rooms and users are shared across all applications using the same endpoint
  • Some APIs are limited
  • swrooms.com is not supported for production applications

Having your own server will also allow you to access the following additional APIs and SDKs:

  • REST APIs: create and manage tokens, rooms, recordings, and more.
  • Realtime SDK: receive events from active video rooms and control them server-side (mute users, start recordings, change layouts, and so on).

To access these full capabilities, you should provide your own video_token endpoint using your own server. Follow the guide to keep learning: