With the introduction of HTML5, you can place videos directly into the page itself. Before HTML5, in order to have a video play on a webpage, you would need to use a plugin like Adobe Flash Player. The HTML5 streaming technology was created as a more widely compatible alternative to Adobe’s Flash player. It is a digital technology that allows broadcasters to share video content with users over the internet. The if statements handles this, returning a 400 Error alerting the client that it needs a range header: app.get("/video", function (req, res) ) īefore wrapping up, you simply need to add "start": "nodemon index.js" to your package.An HTML5 Video Player is a JavaScript library that builds a custom set of controls over top of the HTML5 video element to provide a consistent look between HTML5 browsers. Otherwise, you won’t be able to tell the client what part of the video you want to send back. You need to make sure there is a range header. Now, we’ll create a function for the /video endpoint. more code will go in here just befor the listening function Run the code below: const express = require("express") fs will create a file stream, then return it to the client in the /video endpoint. In this new file, we’ll import Express and fs, which stands for file system. Eventually, when you test the HTML code above, you should have a media element on the screen.įor this to work, we’ll first need to create a new JavaScript file that will house all our functions. Given that your video element is an empty folder, you’ll need to generate an HTML file as follows: Now, install Express and nodemon: npm install -save express nodemon Getting startedįirst, we’ll set up a new folder and initialize npm: npm init It’s likely that you’ll end up requesting some of the same resources over and over again. Essentially, the video player will just request the part of the video you’re on, without taking into account what you already requested. However, because of our app’s simplicity, the server and video player don’t work as well together as we would like. For mine, I chose 1MB, but you have the freedom to play around with it. Our server will allow us to select timeframes throughout the video and decide how big of a payload to send back. Essentially, we’re creating a file system and returning it back to the client. Now that we understand how our app will work, let’s consider some of the pros and cons of following this methodology.Īs you may have guessed from the application overview, our streaming server will be fairly simple to implement. When this happens, the video element will continue making requests, and the cycle will continue until there are no bytes left. As a result, the video element will play what it has downloaded so far. The response headers indicate to the video element that the video is incomplete. The server will respond with a 206 HTTP status, indicating it is returning partial content with the proper header response, which includes the range and content length. For example, at the beginning of the video, the requested range would be from the 0th byte onwards, hence the 0. On your site, you’ll have an HTML5 video element with a source that points to the /video endpoint.įirst, the video element makes a request to the server, then the header provides the desired range of bytes from the video. In the image above, the browser is on the left and the server is on the right. To follow along with this article, you can check out the GitHub repo.īefore we begin coding our project, let’s review how our app will work at a high-level. If you follow this tutorial step-by-step, you’ll be able to build a video streaming server with Node.js that you can integrate into your own project. In this article, we’ll create our own video streaming server using Node.js. When building web apps, developers frequently have to handle different types of media, some of which can be complex. Build a video streaming server with Node.js The different technologies that I have encountered through my journey allows me to relate to beginners and seniors alike. Samuel Martins Follow I am a full-stack developer who loves sharing the knowledge accumulated over the years with people.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |