OakStreaming

General information

This project is a JavaScript library which enables to easily integrate peer-assisted streaming into a Web page. Peer-assisted delivery denotes a hybrid between peer-to-peer and server delivery.

Build steps for example-application.html

1. Make sure to have gulp globally installed (npm install -g gulp)
2. Install development dependencies: run npm install in the project folder
3. Run gulp in the project folder
4. Now the Oakstreaming Web server delivers the exemplary Web application, which uses the OakStreaming library, at http://localhost:8080
5. After gulp has run successfully, the Jasmine test suites results can be viewed by visiting the URL http://localhost:8888

Usage of the exemplary Web application

1. Open the Web application in two or three browser windows.
2. Choose via the Choose File button a video file, e.g. the example.mp4 file in the project folder (a larger video file like https://durian.blender.org/download/ is probably more suitable to show the power of the OakStreaming library), that should be streamed to all browser windows that currently have the Web application running. If the video file (identical content and file name) can also be found in the web folder (this does not include subfolders of web), the video will be streamed via peer-assisted delivery. Otherwise, the video will be streamed purely peer-to-peer.

Additional information

• The OakStreaming library has been developed for the Web browser Google Chrome. Therefore, you should run the OakStreaming library, the example application and the Jasmine test suites in Google Chrome.
  
  
• The OakStreaming library only supports MP4 files.
  
  
• The program code of the library itself is located in the oakstreaming folder.
  
  
• The JSDoc documentation of the library API can be found in the Final JSDoc documentation folder.
  
  
• The file example-application.html in the project folder contains the HTML code of the example application.
  
  
• The file example-application.js contains the JavaScript code of the example application.
  
  
• In the web folder, the minified HTML page (index.html) and the built JavaScript code of the example application are located. The web folder contains additional files which are needed for the example application but not for the OakStreaming library. Moreover, the web folder contains a videos folder where some example videos files are located. These video files are necessary for the successful run of the Jasmine test suites. The web folder is the root directory of the gulp Web server. Video files that the gulp Web server should serve to the example application have to be put into the web folder.
  
  
• The source code of the example application is commented and does not comprise a large number of lines. Therefore, it is probably not a bad idea to change the code in order to experiment with the OakStreaming library.
  
  
• To use all features of the OakStreaming library, a special Web server is necessary. This Web server, called Oakstreaming Web server, can be configured by changing the values of the constants at the beginning of the the oakstreaming-web-server.js file. This Web server can be manually started by running node oakstreaming-web-server.js.
  
  
• The Oakstreaming Torrent Tracker server can be manually started by running node oakstreaming-tracker.js.
  
  
• If the create_stream method of the OakStreaming library does not get handed over URLs to one or more torrent trackers, it tries to connect to several public WebTorrent tracking servers, which support all functionality needed by the OakStreaming library. The example application only tries to connect to a local torrent tracker.
  
  
• The file jasmine-testsuites.js contains the JavaScript code of the Jasmine test suites.
  
  
• The file jasmine-testsuites-help.js contains the JavaScript code to create the appropriate environment for the Jasmine test suites. It is needed because we want to import node modules that should then get browserified, which is not possible in the main Jasmine test suites file.
  
  
• The built Jasmine test suites are located in the jasmine-testsuites-build folder.