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https://github.com/jangouts/jangouts

Videoconferencing based on WebRTC and Janus Gateway with an UI inspired by Google Hangouts
https://github.com/jangouts/jangouts

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Videoconferencing based on WebRTC and Janus Gateway with an UI inspired by Google Hangouts

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README 

        
# Jangouts



[![Coverage Status](https://coveralls.io/repos/github/jangouts/jangouts/badge.svg?branch=master)](https://coveralls.io/github/jangouts/jangouts?branch=master)



Jangouts (for "Janus Hangouts") is a solution for videoconferencing based on WebRTC and the

excellent [Janus Gateway](http://janus.conf.meetecho.com/) with a user interface loosely inspired by

Google Hangouts. It aims to provide a completely self-hosted open source alternative to Google

Hangouts and similar solutions. Currently Jangouts supports conferences with video, audio, screen

sharing and textual chat organized into an unlimited amount of conference rooms with a configurable

limit of participants per room.



![Example screen of Jangouts 0.4.0](screenshot.png?raw=true)



## Installation



Jangouts is a JavaScript application running exclusively client-side (i.e. in the browser). The

server simply needs to provide a bunch of static files through a web server.



### Step 1. Janus Gateway



All the server-side WebRTC handling is performed by Janus Gateway, so the first requirement is a

running janus server with support for data channels compiled in, with the videoroom plugin enabled

and with a valid list of rooms in the `janus.plugin.videoroom.cfg` file. 



There are many ways to get a Janus Gateway server running in your system. Check [JANUS.md](JANUS.md)

for some guidance.



### Step 2. Download and configure Jangouts



The easiest way to get Jangouts is to download the latest archive from the [Jangouts releases page

at Github](https://github.com/jangouts/jangouts/releases).  For deployment purposes, the only

relevant directory in that archive is the one called `build`, which contains the files to be served

by the HTTP server to the participants' browsers.



A file called `config.json` can be added to that directory to point the participants to any Janus

server, to enable extra debugging, or to tweak Jangouts in several ways. Use the file

`config.sample.json` as starting point. It's fine to operate Jangouts without a `config.json` file

or to have some parameters set to `null` in that file, Jangouts will try to guess the proper value

during runtime.



### Step 3. Serve the `build` folder



Given than a Janus Gateway server is running and reachable and that `config.json` contains the

proper values (in case something needs to be adjusted), all that needs to be done is to serve the

content of the `build` directory to the clients. Any web server, such as Apache, can be used for

that purpose.



The simplest way (although certainly not the cleanest) to do such thing in an (open)SUSE

system would be:



1. `sudo zypper in apache2`

2. Copy the content of `build` directly into `/srv/www/htdocs/`

3. `sudo systemctl start apache2.service`



Done. At that point you should be able to access your own instance of Jangouts just by pointing your

browser to `http://localhost/`.



See the [deployment instructions](DEPLOYMENT.md) for more information about how to properly

configure Apache.



## A note about security and browsers



Browsers will refuse to allow screen sharing through WebRTC for connections not using SSL. In most

cases, they will even refuse to send any WebRTC content at all, neither video or audio. Providing

HTTPS access to both the files and the Janus gateway, like shown in the [deployment

instructions](DEPLOYMENT.md), may be crucial for a proper usage experience.



## Plugins



Jangouts includes limited support for plugins in order to provide additional functionality. But

plugins are temporarily disabled in the current version of Jangouts. If you are interested on

Jangouts plugins, use Jangouts version 0.5.x for the time being. Information about configuring the

existing plugins is found in the README.md file for that release.



## Troubleshooting



If Jangouts does not work, please check the [troubleshooting guide](TROUBLES.md).



## Developing Jangouts



In order to modify Jangouts, it's necessary to install some development tools.

That setup is detailed in the [development instructions](DEVELOPMENT.md).



## Acknowledgments



* [Janus Gateway](http://janus.conf.meetecho.com/) developers, for such a powerful and

  versatile tool.

* [SUSE Linux](http://www.suse.com), for the awesome [Hack Week](http://hackweek.suse.com)

  initiative.



## License



This software is released under the terms of the MIT License. See the

[license file](LICENSE.txt) for more information.



## Find us



Jangouts developers can be usually found at:

 - [#jangouts IRC channel at Freenode](https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=%23jangouts)

 - [Google Groups](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/jangouts)