AVChat Trio.6 Brings A Fresh Mobile Version And Red5 1.0.Five Compatibility

A Bit of History

For a while now AVChat three has only been compatible with Red5 0.8 and Red5 1.0 RC1. The reasons are many but the most notable is the fact that we just couldn't get the users and rooms list to work correctly on the newer versions of Red5. It wasn't a major issue since AVChat worked very well with 0.8 and 0.8 could be installed along newer versions of Red5.

But back in August two thousand fourteen the Red5 developers introduced WebSocket support in version 1.0.Trio. This version peaked our interest knowing that WebSockets are a very good platform for building talk applications and adopting it would be a natural step forward for our mobile version of AVChat. But there was a problem, our desktop client was not yet compatible with the newer version of Red5 and the WebSocket support was still in it's early stages. We determined to wait a little longer at the time.

We waited until the beggining of two thousand fifteen when we determined to make a major update to our mobile version and switch the entire technology on which it relied to communicate with the media-server to WebSockets. Very first step we needed to do was make our desktop client compatible with the newer versions of Red5. So in order to do that we worked alongside Red5's main developer Paul Mondain (thanks Paul!) to solve the issues Red5 had regarding the way it treated collective objects (the users list and rooms list rely on SharedObjects). Without going too much into technical jargon, I just wished to say that we managed to identify and fix the issues. The fixes were included in the Red5 1.0.Five release.

In parallel we also worked on the fresh mobile version of the client that was based on WebSocket technology, re-writing the entire code from ground up.

What This All Means?

Two MAJOR things:

1. AVChat Three.6 will only support Red5 1.0.Five or newer
2. we have a fresh, better, quicker mobile version and it's only compatible with Red5 1.0.Five or newer

Red5 is the only media server that supports WebSockets at this time so our fresh mobile version only works with it. The mobile version needs a JSON library (json-smart) to be added to Red5 1.0.Five's plugins folder. You can download a Red5 1.0.Five with this library included.

Mobile Version Evolved

In the fresh mobile version all of the functionalities that existed before, were kept, but now they have the added benefits of the instantaneous and open connection of the web-socket communication. A WebSocket connection is similar to the RTMP connections used by the desktop client.

This fresh WebSockets mechanism has a lot of benefits:

• instantaneous communication inbetween the mobile client and the desktop client
• quicker users list and rooms list
• no more refreshing to get the fresh messages
• much better detection of the mobile user status (joined > online > left/disconnected)

In addition to this, web-sockets permitted us to implement fresh functionalities that couldn't been done before like kicking, instant join and leave messages and file sharing.

Kicking of the Mobile Users

Mobile users can now be kicked from a room (by a room moderator or an admin), or kicked from the entire talk (by an admin). The mobile client user will be notified and redirected accordingly.

Mobile user being kicked from room

Join and Leave Messages for Mobile Users

The mobile app can now register in real-time when another user from either desktop or mobile, joins or leaves the room he is in. A message will be displayed in the text talk, same as in the desktop version.

Join/Leave messages as seen by the mobile users

Collective Pictures and Files

Files and photos that are collective by the desktop users are now also shown in the mobile app and can be downloaded. Photos are previewed directly in the text-chat.

Collective files as seen by a mobile user

Other Switches

The fresh mobile version is found in the fresh ws folder. The old one was in the m folder and it is not included anymore with the AVChat archive. The fresh mobile version comes in a fresh archive separate from AVChat.

Some of the config options that were specifically implemented for the older version of the mobile client became totally unnecessary for the fresh version so they were liquidated. The options in question are from the media server config file:

• webServerIp was eliminated
• adminConnectedForXSeconds was liquidated

Therefore the required steps for the setup have been switched, more details in the mobile installation instructions.

Updated Integration Kits

The following integration kits have all been updated to check for and redirect users to the fresh mobile version:

Fresh Mobile Demo

The fresh AVChat Mobile Version is available to test at m.avchat.net .

Fresh Price & Licensing Model

From now on the mobile version will sell separately from AVChat:

• $59 for the license/download/archive
• $39 for one Year of Updates & Support
• $Nineteen for three Months of Updates & Support

All existing clients will get the initial license for free. During the next few days the fresh mobile version will showcase up as a downloadable product/archive in their private client area.

Fresh Features for the Desktop Client

Stream Recording API (Red5 only)

We've implemented a mechanism that calls a URL every time a fresh stream recording is began and/or stopped.

The way this works is if the media server is setup to record the live flows, each time a stream is began or closed, the media server calls the fresh webserver side file – defined by the fresh getRecordedVideosInfo setting in avchat3.properties – sending the following information about the stream: stream name, the siteId and the username of the user who's stream belongs to.

The API works forearm in forearm with the recordAudioVideoStreams setting (also in avchat3.properties).

The documentation covers the API in detail.

Recorded Movie Rivulets Can Be Acessed via HTTP (Red5 only)

The API described above makes it possible to track the recorded movies but you can now also lightly play them back via HTTP. Together they can be a powerful contraption for managing the rivulets recorded by AVChat.

Accessing the recorded flows via http will help greatly if you want to:

• Play specific files through HTML5 or progressive download
• Download files locally
• Stir the files to a different server

The access to the recorded movies is done using Red5's integrated Tomcat web server and the recorded rivulets can be accessible from the browser at http://RED5_SERVER_ADDRESS:5080/avchat30/flows/

For more information check out the documentation.

Updates & Fixes:

Updates:

• Updates to the way the camera setting window looks when only a microphone is detected
• Updates to the way a webcam window is shown when the stream is audio only.
• Updated version of third party PHP library (Mobile_Detect.php), because it was causing issues with Chrome version 41.0.2272.76 m.
• PMs from admins are no longer disregarded even if the option is selected.
• Motionless moderator glitch caused by the join room button not getting disabled in certain circumstances.

Fixes:

• Immobile issue with user left conversation message being shown even however the user did not leave the room in which the PM primarily began, but another common room.
• Immovable mute cam issue that occurred when muting the audio on a users private webcam before they accepted the request, causing the audio to still come through.
• Immovable issue with the status bar overlapping with the active room tab in the admin client if hideStatusBar was set to 1.
• Stationary issue with some buttons font colors reverting to default color after they have been pressed.
• Motionless issue with close button overlapping with the text of a tab button if the tabs were resized to a much smaller width than the intended size.
• Immovable issue with tab width being larger than it should.
• Further fixes for useritem alignment based on the size of the menu and position of the useritem.
• Stationary issue with possible null reference when just a microphone was present and no camera.
• Immovable issue with the way long user names were displayed in the webcam window.
• Stationary issue with shove to talk button position when only the microphone was present.

How To Download AVChat Three.6 And Upgrade Older Versions

You can download the fresh AVChat Three.6 from your private client area. You can login at https://nusofthq.com/c/ .

Steps to upgrade old AVChat installations to AVChat Three.6:

1. make a backup of your current AVChat client side folder (it's on your website)
2. overwrite all old client side files (for the settings file and the language files, you can just add the fresh settings and the fresh translations to your current settings and language files.)
3. make a backup of your media server files
4. If you're using Red5 0.8 or 1.0 RC1 download Red5 1.0.Five from here and install it together with the fresh Red5 avchat30 webapp
5. If you're using Wowza or AMS just overwrite the media server files with the fresh ones and restart the media server
6. clear your browser cache and access AVChat Trio.6

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