What is webrtc-adapter?
The webrtc-adapter npm package is a shim to insulate apps from spec changes and prefix differences in WebRTC APIs. It helps developers write code that works across different browsers by providing a consistent API.
What are webrtc-adapter's main functionalities?
Browser Compatibility
The webrtc-adapter package helps ensure that WebRTC code is compatible across different browsers by normalizing the API differences. This code sample demonstrates how to use the adapter to get browser details.
const adapter = require('webrtc-adapter');
console.log(adapter.browserDetails.browser); // Outputs the browser name
console.log(adapter.browserDetails.version); // Outputs the browser version
Unified API
The webrtc-adapter package provides a unified API for accessing media devices, making it easier to write cross-browser WebRTC applications. This code sample shows how to use the adapter to access the user's media devices.
const adapter = require('webrtc-adapter');
const getUserMedia = navigator.mediaDevices.getUserMedia || navigator.getUserMedia || navigator.webkitGetUserMedia || navigator.mozGetUserMedia;
getUserMedia({ video: true, audio: true })
.then(stream => {
console.log('Got MediaStream:', stream);
})
.catch(error => {
console.error('Error accessing media devices.', error);
});
Peer Connection
The webrtc-adapter package helps manage peer connections by normalizing the API across different browsers. This code sample demonstrates how to create a peer connection and handle ICE candidates.
const adapter = require('webrtc-adapter');
const pc = new RTCPeerConnection();
pc.onicecandidate = event => {
if (event.candidate) {
console.log('New ICE candidate:', event.candidate);
}
};
pc.createOffer()
.then(offer => pc.setLocalDescription(offer))
.then(() => console.log('Offer created and set as local description'))
.catch(error => console.error('Error creating offer:', error));
Other packages similar to webrtc-adapter
simple-peer
The simple-peer package is a lightweight wrapper around the WebRTC API that simplifies peer-to-peer data, video, and audio connections. Unlike webrtc-adapter, which focuses on normalizing the WebRTC API across browsers, simple-peer provides a higher-level abstraction for creating and managing peer connections.
peerjs
The peerjs package is a library that simplifies WebRTC peer-to-peer data, video, and audio connections. It provides a server component for managing peer connections, which is different from webrtc-adapter's focus on API normalization. PeerJS is more focused on providing an easy-to-use API for creating peer connections.
rtcpeerconnection
The rtcpeerconnection package is a simple wrapper around the RTCPeerConnection API, providing a more straightforward interface for creating and managing WebRTC connections. Unlike webrtc-adapter, which aims to normalize the WebRTC API across different browsers, rtcpeerconnection focuses on simplifying the use of the RTCPeerConnection API.
WebRTC adapter
[adapter.js] is a shim to insulate apps from spec changes and prefix differences. In fact, the standards and protocols used for WebRTC implementations are highly stable, and there are only a few prefixed names. For full interop information, see webrtc.org/web-apis/interop.
Install
Bower
TODO: Might need to point to the gh-pages branch instead so that the prebuilt versions can be accessed.
bower install webrtc-adapter
NPM
npm install webrtc-adapter
Usage
NPM
In node_modules/webrtc-adapter/out/ folder you will find 4 files:
- adapter.js - includes all the shims and is visible in the browser under the global
adapter
object (window.adapter). - adapter_no_edge.js - same as above but does not include the Microsoft Edge (ORTC) shim.
- adapter_no_edge_no_global.js - same as above but is not exposed/visible in the browser (you cannot call/interact with the shims in the browser).
- adapter.js_no_global.js - same as adapter.js but is not exposed/visible in the browser (you cannot call/interact with the shims in the browser).
Include the file that suits your need in your project.
Prebuilt releases
In the gh-pages branch prebuilt ready to use files can be downloaded/linked directly.
Latest version can be found at http://webrtc.github.io/adapter/adapter-latest.js.
Specific versions can be found at http://webrtc.github.io/adapter/adapter-.js, e.g. http://webrtc.github.io/adapter/adapter-0.2.10.js.
NPM
Copy to desired location in your src tree or use a minify/vulcanize tool (node_modules is usually not published with the code).
See webrtc/samples repo as an example on how you can do this.
Development
Detailed information on developing in the webrtc github repo can be found in the WebRTC GitHub repo developer's guide.
Head over to test/README.md and get started developing.