How to use the file tranfer part only

[aliraza0337]

Hi I want to use the file transfer part only from the webtorrent, can you please guide me how to do that ?

[feross]

I don't understand what you mean by "only the file transfer part". Can you elaborate?

What are you trying to do?

[aliraza0337]

Hi Thanks for your response,
I have a seprate mechanism[I have already implimented this] through which I know who is hosting the files I want, Lets say H[some machine or and ip address to which I can connect] is hosting a file F. How I can download F using this torrent protocol.

[feross]

It's not enough that you know who has the file. They have to be seeding the file using a torrent client. If you can do that, then you're good.

You'll want to disable the normal peer finding via trackers and the DHT.

var client = new WebTorrent({ dht: false, tracker: false })
client.seed('/path/to/file', function (torrent) {
  console.log(torrent.infoHash) // get info hash
  console.log(client.torrentPort) // get torrent port
})

Then from the downloader's end:

var client = new WebTorrent({ dht: false, tracker: false })
var torrent = client.add(infoHash)
torrent.addPeer('ip:port') // use ip and port of remote machine

Hope this helps!

[aliraza0337]

Yes I can run the client for seeding the file as well, Thanks Alot, I will test and update here if it works.

[aliraza0337]

if multiple machies are hosting the same file is there any way I can pass the ip addresses of all so that it can download faster [the usuall chunk based downloading]?
plus where the downloder will save the file after downloading?

[feross]

Just call torrent.addPeer('ip:port') multiple times if you have multiple peers to download from.

You can specify download location with the path option to client.add. Read the documentation to learn how it works.

[aliraza0337]

I tried to run both instances on one machine,
I got infohas from sender and put that as string in receiver.
I got the port number from one and put 'localhost:portnumber' in the downloader here is the error

/Users/aliraza/node_modules/webtorrent/lib/torrent.js:385
self.swarm.addPeer(peer)
^
TypeError: Cannot read property 'addPeer' of undefined
at Torrent.addPeer (/Users/aliraza/node_modules/webtorrent/lib/torrent.js:385:15)
at Object. (/Users/aliraza/Desktop/receiver.js:5:9)
at Module._compile (module.js:460:26)
at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:478:10)
at Module.load (module.js:355:32)
at Function.Module._load (module.js:310:12)
at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:501:10)
at startup (node.js:129:16)
at node.js:814:3

[feross]

localhost is not a valid IP address.
On Sun, Jun 28, 2015 at 6:32 PM aliraza0337 notifications@github.com
wrote:

I tried to run both instances on one machine,
I got the port number from one and put 'localhost:portnumber' in the
downloader here is the error

/Users/aliraza/node_modules/webtorrent/lib/torrent.js:385
self.swarm.addPeer(peer)
^
TypeError: Cannot read property 'addPeer' of undefined
at Torrent.addPeer
(/Users/aliraza/node_modules/webtorrent/lib/torrent.js:385:15)
at Object. (/Users/aliraza/Desktop/receiver.js:5:9)
at Module._compile (module.js:460:26)
at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:478:10)
at Module.load (module.js:355:32)
at Function.Module._load (module.js:310:12)
at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:501:10)
at startup (node.js:129:16)
at node.js:814:3

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[aliraza0337]

I tried 127.0.0.1 as well it didn't work.
Is there any way I can print the IP address of sender as well like we get the port?

[feross]

Ah, the downloader needs to wait until the 'infoHash' or 'listening' event before self.swarm is defined, and before you can call torrent.addPeer(peer).

I just published a new version of WebTorrent (0.50.2) that fixes this. So update to that and try this:

Seeder

var WebTorrent = require('webtorrent')
var client = new WebTorrent({ dht: false, tracker: false })
client.seed('README.md', function (torrent) {
  console.log(torrent.infoHash) // get info hash
  console.log(client.torrentPort) // get torrent port
})

Downloader

var WebTorrent = require('webtorrent')
var client = new WebTorrent({ dht: false, tracker: false })
var torrent = client.add('037596f40092d714b57a919f5628c6d3930debd0') // replace with your infohash
torrent.addPeer('127.0.0.1:52472') // replace with your port
torrent.on('done', function () {
  console.log('all done!')
})