hacky-talk-server.js

// *******************
// file server on 3000


(function(){

    var express = require('express'),
        app = express(),
        server = require('http').createServer(app);

    // serve static files
    app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));

    server.listen(3000);

}());


// *******************
// socket.io on 3001


(function(){

    var app = require('http').createServer(handler),
        io = require('socket.io').listen(app),
        fs = require('fs');


    app.listen(3001);

    // quiet IO!
    io.set('log level', 2);

    function handler (req, res) {
        res.writeHead(200);
        res.end('hello');
    }

    io.sockets
    .on('connection', function (socket) {
      socket.on('message', function (data) {
        console.log("data>", data);
        socket.broadcast.send(data);
      });
    });


}());


// *******************
// binaryjs on 3002

(function(){


    //Start Binary.js server
    var BinaryServer = require('binaryjs').BinaryServer;

    var bs = BinaryServer({port:3002});

    // Wait for new user connections
    bs.on('connection', function(client){


      client.on('data', function(d){
        console.log("DATA>", d)

      });
      // Incoming stream from browsers
      client.on('stream', function(stream, meta){

        for(var id in bs.clients){
            if(bs.clients.hasOwnProperty(id)){
                var otherClient = bs.clients[id];
                if(otherClient !== client){
                    console.log('sending: ' + client.id + '---->' + otherClient.id);

                    otherClient.send("SUP?");
                    var send = otherClient.createStream(meta);
                    stream.pipe(send);
                }
            }
        }

        stream.on('data', function(data){
            console.log("binaryjs>", data.length);
        });
      });
    });



}())


// *******************
// webrtc on 3003

var webRTC = require('webrtc.io').listen(3003);

websockets & webrtc.md

I'm planning to write a proper blog post with descriptions, examples & demos, but here are a couple of resources to get up and hacking with websockets and webrtc.

Websockets

Probably the easiest/fastest way of getting this set up is using socket.io, it falls back to other methods for older browsers. You could use something like ws for a purer/'proper' websockets.

To send binary files (like photos in <input> fields in my example) - you have to use binaryjs to chunk up the file for sending.

WebRTC

apprtc.appspot.com is definitely worth a look through - webRTC.io can be quite a handy abstraction layer.

---

In my talk - I hacked together a node server that broadcast any messages posted to the other clients (code on this gist). They were all on different ports to keep things simple.

The client code is a bit confusing at the moment, though I'll hopefully bring it together soon.