SightCall Communicator

SightCall Communicator is a reference implementation for a web application showcasing real-time communications for a small workgroup. It is implemented as essentially a Single-Page Web-Application. Communicator demonstrates real-time services and shows how to layer them onto a base web application using the SightCall platform.

• one-to-one video and voice
• multiparty video-teleconference
• screen-share
• text-chat
• file transfer
• presence
• recording (optional)

Communicator uses WebRTC when available, and uses the SightCall "Plugin" when WebRTC is not available. This ensures that you will have the same experience on all supported browsers.

• Chrome (webrtc)
• Firefox (plugin)
• Internet Explorer (plugin)
• Safari (plugin)

SightCall Communicator has been created using common web technologies (Rails, Bootstrap, jQuery), and is purposely kept small so that it can serve as a starting point for a complete project. It is not only a showcase of SightCall technologies, it is also a tutorial of best-practices and idioms to use for embedding SightCall features into your own site.

Communicator is easy to clone and run on your own servers, or you can try it out by deploying on Heroku. (Even a free/hobby account on Heroku will suffice.) Read on.

And Mobile Too!

See also Communicator-for-Android, a mobile App that you can run on Android.

Run It On Heroku

You can run your own instance of SightCall Communicator on Heroku in just a few minutes.

• If you have not already, you should request an API KEY and credentials from SightCall. Get it here: http://www.sightcall.com/developers/.

Once you have registered, you will need these four pieces of information.

• your RTCC_APP_ID
• your RTCC_CLIENT_ID (this identifies your API KEY)
• your RTCC_CLIENT_SECRET (this is the secret part)
• your RTCC_DOMAIN_IDENTIFIER (example: "acme.com")

You will also need to choose an

• ADMIN_PASSWORD.

Use the Heroku Button

The easiest way to try out Communicator is to press the purple "Heroku Button" above. This will clone this repository into your Heroku account and launch an instance. Put the RTCC credentials you gathered above into the Environment Variable slots, and you are off and running!

Or clone this repository and then push to Heroku

• Clone this repository so you can customize it.
• Create a new Heroku project for this demo.

    % heroku create

Note the URL of the project you just created. (E.g. https://adjective-noun-1234.herokuapp.com)

• Push the code to Heroku

    % git push heroku master

• Run the bootstrap task (in file lib/rake/bootstrap.rb). This creates the database and the default users. If you would like to customize the default users, you can edit the task before you invoke it.

    % heroku run bundle exec rake bootstrap

• Set the following Heroku environment variables as appropriate for your SightCall account.

    % heroku config:set RTCC_APP_ID=ab01cd34ef56
    % heroku config:set RTCC_CLIENT_ID=7a7a7a7a7a8b8b8b8b8b9c9c9c9c9c
    % heroku config:set RTCC_CLIENT_SECRET=19ab19ab19ab19ab28cd28cd28cd28
    % heroku config:set RTCC_DOMAIN_IDENTIFIER=acme_video.com
    % herouk config:set ADMIN_PASSSWORD=logmein

Visit the application at your Heroku URL and log-in as one of the pre-defined users to test it out. Have one of your friends log-in as one of the other pre-defined users and test making and receiving video calls and using text chat.

• bob / bobpassword
• john / johnpassword
• pat / patpassword
• sue / suepassword
• tim / timpassword

Run the Rails project locally

Of course, you can run this Rails project on your local machine. Edit the file config/environment.rb to set the RTCC environment variables directly. The general procedure would be this.

    % git clone [email protected]:sightcall/Communicator.git
    % cd Communicator
    % bundle install       (install the gems)
    % bin/rake bootstrap   (migrate the DB and make default users)
    % bin/rails s          (run the server)

Then visit it at http://localhost:3000.

And if you want to develop locally, but debug on the public internet, I can recommend ngrok.

    % ngrok http 3000

This will expose your local webserver to an HTTPS port on the public internet.

Use the Admin Interface

Log into the Administrator interface to add and remove users. Go to the /admin path of your installation of Communicator.

Add the Recording Feature

Contact SightCall if you are interested in Recording video calls. We can provide you with a CloudRecorder token. Once you receive it, add it to your Communicator project this way.

    % heroku config:set CLOUDRECORDER_TOKEN=xxyyxxyy27331b82ef0e8fa9bfe37fcb

Customize It

Most of this single-page application is defined in the file: app/views/call/index.html.erb. The elements of the page and their layout is defined using Twitter Bootstrap classes. All of the Javascript implementing Communicator is defined in this one file, with the exception of a few reusable classes in app/assets/javascripts.

The page layout is defined in app/views/layout/application.html.erb. This is the file that defines the navigation header and application name. The online connection status area is also defined here.

The SightCall user definitions are in file app/model/user.rb. Edit this file to change user profiles (SightCall 'premium' versus 'standard') or the logic that selects their domain ('yourdomain.com').

Short Feature Overview

This application shows how to connect to the SightCall cloud, and how to use some of the main features of the SightCall Realtime Platform.

Check your online status

A green check-mark means you're ready to go and the you are connected to the SightCall Realtime Platform.

Make a one to one call

Note the presence status of your contacts. Select a contact and initiate a one-to-one call. SightCall's signaling platform notifies your contact and Communicator displays up an alert asking them to answer the call.

Use text chat, or send a File

Select a contact and press the Chat button to begin a text chat. SightCall's real-time platform handles chat messaging. Communicator shows how to use pop-up windows to keep each conversation in a separate window. (Please disable your pop-up blocker when prompted!)

To send a File, use the "Choose File" dialog. The file will be uploaded to the cloud and a URL will be sent to your contact.

Set up a multiparty conference call

Press the Begin ad-hoc Meeting button to set up a conference call. For each contact you would like to invite, select them from the list and press the Invite button. SightCall's signaling platform notifies each invitee and Communicator will display an alert asking them to join the conference.

Conferences can be recorded by the SightCall Cloud Recorder. If you have enabled this feature, you can enter a Title for your recording and press "Start."

Best Practices for using SightCall

The Realtime logic of SightCall Communicator resides in a single file: app/views/call/index.html. This file is a good reference for coming up to speed on how to connect to the platform and use it.

Reusable Components

A few small Javascript classes are defined in app/assets/javascripts. The chat_manager takes care of sending and receiving chat messages, and routing them to the right window for display. The cloudrecorder_manager wraps the Ajax calls to the proxy methods of the CloudRecorder. The proxy methods themselves are defined in app/controllers/cloudrecorder_controller.rb.