The OpenTok Node SDK lets you generate sessions and tokens for OpenTok applications, and archive OpenTok sessions.
If you are looking for the JavaScript Client SDK please see the @opentok/client NPM module.
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Run this command to install the package and adding it to your package.json:
$ npm install opentok --save
Import the module to get a constructor function for an OpenTok object, then call it with new to
instantiate an OpenTok object with your own API Key and API Secret.
var OpenTok = require('opentok'),
opentok = new OpenTok(apiKey, apiSecret);To create an OpenTok Session, use the opentok.createSession(properties, callback) method. The
properties parameter is an optional object used to specify whether the session uses the OpenTok
Media Router, to specify a location hint, and to specify whether the session will be automatically
archived or not. The callback has the signature function(error, session). The session returned
in the callback is an instance of Session. Session objects have a sessionId property that is
useful to be saved to a persistent store (such as a database).
// Create a session that will attempt to transmit streams directly between
// clients. If clients cannot connect, the session uses the OpenTok TURN server:
opentok.createSession(function(err, session) {
if (err) return console.log(err);
// save the sessionId
db.save('session', session.sessionId, done);
});
// The session will the OpenTok Media Router:
opentok.createSession({mediaMode:"routed"}, function(err, session) {
if (err) return console.log(err);
// save the sessionId
db.save('session', session.sessionId, done);
});
// A Session with a location hint
opentok.createSession({location:'12.34.56.78'}, function(err, session) {
if (err) return console.log(err);
// save the sessionId
db.save('session', session.sessionId, done);
});
// A Session with an automatic archiving
opentok.createSession({mediaMode:'routed', archiveMode:'always'}, function(err, session) {
if (err) return console.log(err);
// save the sessionId
db.save('session', session.sessionId, done);
});Once a Session is created, you can start generating Tokens for clients to use when connecting to it.
You can generate a token by calling the opentok.generateToken(sessionId, options) method. Another
way is to call the session.generateToken(options) method of a Session object. The options
parameter is an optional object used to set the role, expire time, and connection data of the Token.
For layout control in archives and broadcasts, the initial layout class list of streams published
from connections using this token can be set as well.
// Generate a Token from just a sessionId (fetched from a database)
token = opentok.generateToken(sessionId);
// Generate a Token from a session object (returned from createSession)
token = session.generateToken();
// Set some options in a Token
token = session.generateToken({
role : 'moderator',
expireTime : (new Date().getTime() / 1000)+(7 * 24 * 60 * 60), // in one week
data : 'name=Johnny',
initialLayoutClassList : ['focus']
});You can start the recording of an OpenTok Session using the opentok.startArchive(sessionId, options, callback) method. The options parameter is an optional object used to set the name of
the Archive. The callback has the signature function(err, archive). The archive returned in
the callback is an instance of Archive. Note that you can only start an archive on a Session with
connected clients.
opentok.startArchive(sessionId, { name: 'Important Presentation' }, function(err, archive) {
if (err) {
return console.log(err);
} else {
// The id property is useful to save off into a database
console.log("new archive:" + archive.id);
}
});You can also disable audio or video recording by setting the hasAudio or hasVideo property of
the options parameter to false:
var archiveOptions = {
name: 'Important Presentation',
hasVideo: false // Record audio only
};
opentok.startArchive(sessionId, archiveOptions, function(err, archive) {
if (err) {
return console.log(err);
} else {
// The id property is useful to save off into a database
console.log("new archive:" + archive.id);
}
});By default, all streams are recorded to a single (composed) file. You can record the different
streams in the session to individual files (instead of a single composed file) by setting the
outputMode option to 'individual' when you call the opentok.startArchive():
var archiveOptions = {
name: 'Important Presentation',
outputMode: 'individual'
};
opentok.startArchive(sessionId, archiveOptions, function(err, archive) {
if (err) {
return console.log(err);
} else {
// The id property is useful to save off into a database
console.log("new archive:" + archive.id);
}
});You can stop the recording of a started Archive using the opentok.stopArchive(archiveId, callback)
method. You can also do this using the archive.stop(callback) method an Archive instance. The
callback has a signature function(err, archive). The archive returned in the callback is an
instance of Archive.
opentok.stopArchive(archiveId, function(err, archive) {
if (err) return console.log(err);
console.log("Stopped archive:" + archive.id);
});
archive.stop(function(err, archive) {
if (err) return console.log(err);
});To get an Archive instance (and all the information about it) from an archiveId, use the
opentok.getArchive(archiveId, callback) method. The callback has a function signature
function(err, archive). You can inspect the properties of the archive for more details.
opentok.getArchive(archiveId, function(err, archive) {
if (err) return console.log(err);
console.log(archive);
});To delete an Archive, you can call the opentok.deleteArchive(archiveId, callback) method or the
delete(callback) method of an Archive instance. The callback has a signature function(err).
// Delete an Archive from an archiveId (fetched from database)
opentok.deleteArchive(archiveId, function(err) {
if (err) console.log(err);
});
// Delete an Archive from an Archive instance (returned from archives.create, archives.find)
archive.delete(function(err) {
if (err) console.log(err);
});You can also get a list of all the Archives you've created (up to 1000) with your API Key. This is
done using the opentok.listArchives(options, callback) method. The parameter options is an
optional object used to specify an offset and count to help you paginate through the results.
The callback has a signature function(err, archives, totalCount). The archives returned from
the callback is an array of Archive instances. The totalCount returned from the callback is
the total number of archives your API Key has generated.
opentok.listArchives({offset:100, count:50}, function(error, archives, totalCount) {
if (error) return console.log("error:", error);
console.log(totalCount + " archives");
for (var i = 0; i < archives.length; i++) {
console.log(archives[i].id);
}
});Note that you can also create an automatically archived session, by passing in 'always'
as the archiveMode option when you call the opentok.createSession() method (see "Creating
Sessions," above).
For more information on archiving, see the OpenTok archiving programming guide.
You can send a signal to all the participants in an OpenTok Session using the
opentok.signal(sessionId, payload, callback) method or send it to a specific participant in the session using the
opentok.signal(sessionId, connectionId, payload, callback) method.
opentok.signal(sessionId, connectionId, { 'type': 'chat', 'data': 'Hello!' }, function(error) {
if (error) return console.log("error:", error);
});This is the server-side equivalent to the signal() method in the OpenTok client SDKs. See https://www.tokbox.com/developer/guides/signaling/js/.
You can disconnect participants from an OpenTok Session using the
opentok.forceDisconnect(sessionId, connectionId, callback) method.
opentok.forceDisconnect(sessionId, connectionId, function(error) {
if (error) return console.log("error:", error);
});This is the server-side equivalent to the forceDisconnect() method in OpenTok.js: https://www.tokbox.com/developer/guides/moderation/js/#force_disconnect.
You can add an audio-only stream from an external third party SIP gateway using the SIP Interconnect feature. This requires a SIP URI, the session ID you wish to add the audio-only stream to, and a token to connect to that session ID.
opentok.dial(sessionId, token, sipUri, options, function (error, sipCall) {
if (error) return console.log("error: ", error);
console.log('SIP audio stream Id: ' + sipCall.streamId+ ' added to session ID: ' + sipCall.sessionId);
});There are two sample applications included in this repository. To get going as fast as possible, clone the whole repository and follow the Walkthroughs:
Reference documentation is available at https://tokbox.com/developer/sdks/node/reference/index.html.
You need an OpenTok API key and API secret, which you can obtain by logging into your TokBox account.
The OpenTok Node SDK requires Node.js 4 or higher. It may work on older versions but they are no longer tested.
See the Releases page for details about each release.
Changes in v2.2.3:
The default setting for the createSession() method is to create a session with the media mode set
to relayed. In previous versions of the SDK, the default setting was to use the OpenTok Media Router
(media mode set to routed). In a relayed session, clients will attempt to send streams directly
between each other (peer-to-peer); if clients cannot connect due to firewall restrictions, the
session uses the OpenTok TURN server to relay audio-video streams.
Changes in v2.2.0:
This version of the SDK includes support for working with OpenTok archives.
The createSession() method has changed to take one parameter: an options object that has location
and mediaMode properties. The mediaMode property replaces the properties.p2p.preference
parameter in the previous version of the SDK.
The generateToken() has changed to take two parameters: the session ID and an options object that has role, expireTime and data properties.
See the reference documentation http://www.tokbox.com/opentok/libraries/server/node/reference/index.html and in the docs directory of the SDK.
Interested in contributing? We ❤️ pull requests! See the Development and Contribution guidelines.
See https://support.tokbox.com for all our support options.
Find a bug? File it on the Issues page. Hint: test cases are really helpful!