PeerServer: A server for PeerJS

PeerServer helps establishing connections between PeerJS clients. Data is not proxied through the server.

Run your own server on Gitpod!

https://peerjs.com

Usage

Run server

Natively

If you don't want to develop anything, just enter few commands below.

1. Install the package globally:

   $ npm install peer -g

2. Run the server:

   $ peerjs --port 9000 --key peerjs --path /myapp
   
     Started PeerServer on ::, port: 9000, path: /myapp (v. 0.3.2)

3. Check it: http://127.0.0.1:9000/myapp It should returns JSON with name, description and website fields.

Docker

Also, you can use Docker image to run a new container:

$ docker run -p 9000:9000 -d peerjs/peerjs-server

Kubernetes

$ kubectl run peerjs-server --image=peerjs/peerjs-server --port 9000 --expose -- --port 9000 --path /myapp

Create a custom server:

If you have your own server, you can attach PeerServer.

1. Install the package:

   #$ cd your-project-path
   $ npm install peer

2. Use PeerServer object to create a new server:

   const { PeerServer } = require('peer');
   
   const peerServer = PeerServer({ port: 9000, path: '/myapp' });

3. Check it: http://127.0.0.1:9000/myapp It should returns JSON with name, description and website fields.

Connecting to the server from client PeerJS:

<script>
    const peer = new Peer('someid', {
      host: 'localhost',
      port: 9000,
      path: '/myapp'
    });
</script>

Config / CLI options

You can provide config object to PeerServer function or specify options for peerjs CLI.

CLI option	JS option	Description	Required	Default
--port, -p	port	Port to listen (number)	Yes
--key, -k	key	Connection key (string). Client must provide it to call API methods	No	"peerjs"
--path	path	Path (string). The server responds for requests to the root URL + path. E.g. Set the path to /myapp and run server on 9000 port via peerjs --port 9000 --path /myapp Then open http://127.0.0.1:9000/myapp - you should see a JSON reponse.	No	"/"
--proxied	proxied	Set true if PeerServer stays behind a reverse proxy (boolean)	No	false
--expire_timeout, -t	expire_timeout	The amount of time after which a message sent will expire, the sender will then receive a EXPIRE message (milliseconds).	No	5000
--alive_timeout	alive_timeout	Timeout for broken connection (milliseconds). If the server doesn't receive any data from client (includes pong messages), the client's connection will be destroyed.	No	60000
--concurrent_limit, -c	concurrent_limit	Maximum number of clients' connections to WebSocket server (number)	No	5000
--sslkey	sslkey	Path to SSL key (string)	No
--sslcert	sslcert	Path to SSL certificate (string)	No
--allow_discovery	allow_discovery	Allow to use GET /peers http API method to get an array of ids of all connected clients (boolean)	No
	generateClientId	A function which generate random client IDs when calling /id API method (() => string)	No	uuid/v4

Using HTTPS

Simply pass in PEM-encoded certificate and key.

const fs = require('fs');
const { PeerServer } = require('peer');

const peerServer = PeerServer({
  port: 9000,
  ssl: {
    key: fs.readFileSync('/path/to/your/ssl/key/here.key'),
    cert: fs.readFileSync('/path/to/your/ssl/certificate/here.crt')
  }
});

You can also pass any other SSL options accepted by https.createServer, such as `SNICallback:

const fs = require('fs');
const { PeerServer } = require('peer');

const peerServer = PeerServer({
  port: 9000,
  ssl: {
    SNICallback: (servername, cb) => {
        // your code here ....
    }
  }
});

Running PeerServer behind a reverse proxy

Make sure to set the proxied option, otherwise IP based limiting will fail. The option is passed verbatim to the expressjs trust proxy setting if it is truthy.

const { PeerServer } = require('peer');

const peerServer = PeerServer({
  port: 9000,
  path: '/myapp',
  proxied: true
});

Custom client ID generation

By default, PeerServer uses uuid/v4 npm package to generate random client IDs.

You can set generateClientId option in config to specify a custom function to generate client IDs.

const { PeerServer } = require('peer');

const customGenerationFunction = () => (Math.random().toString(36) + '0000000000000000000').substr(2, 16);

const peerServer = PeerServer({
  port: 9000,
  path: '/myapp',
  generateClientId: customGenerationFunction
});

Open http://127.0.0.1:9000/myapp/peerjs/id to see a new random id.

Combining with existing express app

const express = require('express');
const { ExpressPeerServer } = require('peer');

const app = express();

app.get('/', (req, res, next) => res.send('Hello world!'));

// =======

const server = app.listen(9000);

const peerServer = ExpressPeerServer(server, {
  path: '/myapp'
});

app.use('/peerjs', peerServer);

// == OR ==

const http = require('http');

const server = http.createServer(app);
const peerServer = ExpressPeerServer(server, {
  debug: true,
  path: '/myapp'
});

app.use('/peerjs', peerServer);

server.listen(9000);

// ========

Open the browser and check http://127.0.0.1:9000/peerjs/myapp

Events

The 'connection' event is emitted when a peer connects to the server.

peerServer.on('connection', (client) => { ... });

The 'disconnect' event is emitted when a peer disconnects from the server or when the peer can no longer be reached.

peerServer.on('disconnect', (client) => { ... });

HTTP API

Read /src/api/README.md

Running tests

$ npm test

Docker

We have 'ready to use' images on docker hub: https://hub.docker.com/r/peerjs/peerjs-server

To run the latest image:

$ docker run -p 9000:9000 -d peerjs/peerjs-server

You can build a new image simply by calling:

$ docker build -t myimage https://github.com/peers/peerjs-server.git

To run the image execute this:

$ docker run -p 9000:9000 -d myimage

This will start a peerjs server on port 9000 exposed on port 9000 with key peerjs on path /myapp.

Open your browser with http://localhost:9000/myapp It should returns JSON with name, description and website fields. http://localhost:9000/myapp/peerjs/id - should returns a random string (random client id)

Running in Google App Engine

Google App Engine will create an HTTPS certificate for you automatically, making this by far the easiest way to deploy PeerJS in the Google Cloud Platform.

1. Create a package.json file for GAE to read:

echo "{}" > package.json
npm install express@latest peer@latest

2. Create an app.yaml file to configure the GAE application.

runtime: nodejs

# Flex environment required for WebSocket support, which is required for PeerJS.
env: flex

# Limit resources to one instance, one CPU, very little memory or disk.
manual_scaling:
  instances: 1
resources:
  cpu: 1
  memory_gb: 0.5
  disk_size_gb: 0.5

3. Create server.js (which node will run by default for the start script):

const express = require('express');
const { ExpressPeerServer } = require('peer');
const app = express();

app.enable('trust proxy');

const PORT = process.env.PORT || 9000;
const server = app.listen(PORT, () => {
  console.log(`App listening on port ${PORT}`);
  console.log('Press Ctrl+C to quit.');
});

const peerServer = ExpressPeerServer(server, {
  path: '/'
});

app.use('/', peerServer);

module.exports = app;

4. Deploy to an existing GAE project (assuming you are already logged in via gcloud), replacing YOUR-PROJECT-ID-HERE with your particular project ID:

gcloud app deploy --project=YOUR-PROJECT-ID-HERE --promote --quiet app.yaml

Privacy

See PRIVACY.md

Problems?

Discuss PeerJS on our Telegram chat: https://t.me/joinchat/ENhPuhTvhm8WlIxTjQf7Og

Please post any bugs as a Github issue.