Getting Started

Try It Online

You can see Artico in action in these online demos.

Installation

For the purposes of the guide, we will demonstrate how to use Artico's client library, which provides out of the box signaling and relies on a public signaling server hosted by the Artico team. Please refer to the documentation to learn how to use Artico's libraries in a way that fits your application requirements.

npm

$ npm install @rtco/client

yarn

$ yarn add @rtco/client

pnpm

$ pnpm install @rtco/client

bun

$ bun add @rtco/client

Setup

Basic Setup

import { Artico } from "@rtco/client";

const rtco = new Artico();

Setup with Custom ID

You can request a specific peer ID. If you do, Artico will attempt to register such ID with the signaling server. If not available, Artico will emit an Error with the message "id-taken".

TIP

It is recommended that you let Artico assign you a random ID, since IDs should be universally unique within Artico's signaling network.

import { Artico } from "@rtco/client";

const rtco = new Artico({
  id: "my-custom-id"
});

rtco.on("error", (err: Error) => {
  if (err.message === 'id-taken') {
    console.log("ID is taken!");
  }
})

Connection

Connections can be created with the call() function in the Artico object and the connections can be accepted using the answer() method. But before that, the open event should be listened to, to ensure that the signalling is ready.

Request Connection

rtco.on("open", (id) => {
  rtco.call("<Remote Peer ID>");
});

Accept Connection

Incomming requests are emitted as call events and can be listened through the Artico object.

rtco.on("call", (call) => {
  // accepting call
  call.answer();
});

Basic Connection Example

Peer 1 (Calling Peer)

import { Artico } from "@rtco/client";

const rtco = new Artico();
const remoteID = "<Remote Peer ID>"; // Ideally taken from an input field, or other source..

rtco.on("error", (err) => {
  console.error("Artico error:", err.message);
});

rtco.on("close", () => {
  console.log("Disconnected from signaling server");
});

rtco.on("open", (id) => {
  console.log("Connected to signaling server with peer ID:", id);

  const call = rtco.call(
    remoteID,
    JSON.stringify({ username: "<someusername>" }),
  ); // The second attribute is the metadata that can be passed to the connection

  call.on("open", () => {
    // Triggered when connection is established
    console.log("Connection established to ", call.target); // Target is the remote ID
    call.send("Hello World!!"); // Used to send data to connected Peer
  });

  call.on("close", () => {
    console.log("Connection Closed");
  });

  call.on("error", (err) => {
    console.error("Call error:", err);
  });
});

Peer 2 (Receiving Peer)

import { Artico } from "@rtco/client";

const rtco = new Artico();

rtco.on("error", (err) => {
  console.error("Artico error:", err.message);
});

rtco.on("close", () => {
  console.log("Disconnected from signaling server");
});

rtco.on("call", (call) => {
  // Parse the metadata if it exists
  const metadata = call.metadata ? JSON.parse(call.metadata) : {};

  console.log("Incoming call from:", metadata.username || "Unknown user");
  call.answer();

  call.on("open", () => {
    // Triggered when connection is established
    console.log("Connection established to ", call.target); // Target is the remote ID
  });

  call.on("data", (data) => {
    console.log("Data Received:", data);
  });

  call.on("close", () => {
    console.log("Connection Closed");
  });

  call.on("error", (err) => {
    console.error("Call error:", err);
  });
});