A video plugin for Spark using WebRTC

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For those following the use of Openfire for audio and video communication, The Jitsi project released very recently, the VideoBridge plugin for Openfire. If you use Jitsi with Openfire, you find it very useful for creating both audio and video conferences with multiple people. I am hoping someone will try and make a Spark plugin for it

In the meantime, I did a quick experiment to see if I could convert the Redfire plugin for Spark to use WebRTC instead of RTMP/RTMFP

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Guess what!!. It worked

It works the same way as the Redfire plugin for Spark. Click on the webrtc button to share audio and video with the person you are chatting with. On the other side, that person will receive a prompt to accept or reject the offer.

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So here it is attached, if you want to play with it. It does not depend on any Openfire plugin, but will use the JingleNodes plugin if available to relay WebRTC audio/video media when a direct connection cannot be made between two Spark clients…

It needs Google Chrome version 26+ running on the client desktop as the default browser. It supports Google Chrome frame for Internet Explorer. The source code is in there as well. When Firexfox WebRTC support becomes stable, I will probably add support for that too.

*** UPDATE ***

I finally got multi-user video conferencing working in group chat like Redfire. Please note that there is no prompt. Each participant MUST click on the webrtc button to join the video conference and the plugin ensures a webrtc peer-connection is made between each and every participant. This should be done after everyone joins the groupchat.

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If a new person enters the room and wishes to join the video-conference, each participant should close their browser windows and click on the webrtc button again.
webrtc-plugin.jar (1774804 Bytes)

3 Likes
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Great. But Chrome requirement is not an option for me. Though we probably won’t need audio/video capabilities in the near future, but i was considering using Jitsi client instead of Spark, because it has such option. If we suddenly need that feature. Would be great to have something on a Spark side, but without browser requirements. I can deal with Openfire plugin though.

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Thanks. Yes I agree, Jitsi is good with great features, but Spark is more polished

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great, except for the chrome requirement…but it´s a start

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Thanks The Chrome requirement is temporary.

In fact, if the default browser is Internet Explorer, then it will still work by just installing Chrome Frame.

As soon as Firefox webrtc jumps from nightly build to stable, some minor changes to the Javascript will make it work with Firefox.

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Dele and all people interested by webRTC.

I have now webrtc components install on my servers. As a very early test, you can now create an account and play with it.

Have a look at https:/www.free-solutions.ch Tab “Inspired webRTC”

This is still experimental and only for test purpose. Feel free to post comments and feed back.

This is a demo server, account and service could be interrupted at any time

Geek visitors are warmly welcomed, sign with your Gmail or Facebook account, follow strictly instructions on main page(in progress…).

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Hi,

I just installed the plugin for spark but i think I’m experiencing a strange behaviour. The IM Openfire server version is 3.8.1 and i’m testing it also with red5 plugin with a correct behaviour. Once i try to establish a webrtc av connection the systems open a chrome window (my default browser) pointing it to http://localhost:4040…and goes immediately in error. Furthermore no connection request is sent to the other client that should receive the call.

I also installed the webrtc plugin for openfire and trying to use the web chat it seems to connect even if it does not let me choos the webcam to use.

Have you any idea on what to crosscheck?

Thanks.

Giorgio

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I suspect there is a conflict with another plugin. Try to test wlth all Spark plugins removed except the webrtc plugin and then add them back one by one.

I am not aware of any webrtc plugin for openfire

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The only plugin that was added on spark was the red5 video plugin. Do you think i do need to remove it?

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Possibly, I did not have that plugin installed when I tested it.

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No Sparkweb, just plain and simple Spark with Chrome web browser

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I have this same issue. I disabled all other spark plugins and it did not resolve the issue. How did you resolve this?

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Hi hktranstech,

How did you get it work ? Just install “webRTC-plugin” and “JingleNodes plugin” or something else ?

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I had the problem with Spark locking up when sending or receiving a chat message from a specific user. What what different for this user is I tried to move him to a different group, and every since a chat with him would lock-up.