Build a Video Chat App with ASP.NET Core 2.2, Angular, and Twilio
Time to read: 14 minutes
Realtime user interaction is a great way to enhance the communication and collaboration capabilities of a web application. Video chat is an obvious choice for sales, customer support, and education sites, but how can you quickly implement it? Twilio Programmable Video enables you to efficiently add robust video chat to your applications, whether you are using a JavaScript Model-View-Controller framework like Angular or server-side templates.
This post will show you how to create a video chat application using the Twilio JavaScript SDK in your Angular single page application (SPA) and the Twilio SDK for C# and .NET in your ASP.NET Core server code. You’ll build the interactions required to create and join video chat rooms, and to publish and subscribe to participant audio and video tracks.
Prerequisites to an Angular and ASP.NET Core Video App
You’ll need the following technologies and tools to build the video chat project described in this post:
- .NET Core 2.2 SDK (version 2.2.101+)
- npm and Node.js (version 10.10.0+)
- Angular CLI (version 7.1.4+)
- Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio 2017, or another IDE compatible with the above
- Git (if you’re going to clone the companion repository)
To get the most out of this post you should have knowledge of:
- Angular, including observables and promises
- ASP.NET Core, including dependency injection
- C# 7
- TypeScript
The source code for this project is available on GitHub. The link will take you to the net2.2 branch, which contains the appropriate code for ASP.NET Core 2.2.
Get started with Twilio Programmable Video
You’ll need a free Twilio trial account and a Twilio Programmable Video project to be able to build this project with the Twilio Video SDK. Getting set up will take just a few minutes.
Once you have a Twilio account, go to the Twilio Console and perform the following steps:
- On the dashboard home, locate your Account SID and Auth Token and copy them to a safe place.
- Select the Programmable Video section of the Console.
- Under Tools > API Keys, create a new API key with a friendly name of your choosing and copy the SID and API Secret to a safe place.
The credentials you just acquired are user secrets, so it’s a good idea not to store them in the project source code. One way to keep them safe and make them accessible in your project configuration is to store them as environment variables on your development machine.
ASP.NET Core can access environment variables through the Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration
package so they can be used as properties of a IConfiguration
object in the Startup
class. The following instructions show you how to do this on Windows.
Execute the following commands at a Windows command prompt, substituting your credentials for the placeholders. For other operating systems, use comparable commands to create the same environment variables.
If you prefer, or if your development environment requires it, you can place these values in the appsettings.development.json file as follows, but be careful not to expose this file in a source code repository or other easily accessible location.
Create the ASP.NET Core application
Create a new ASP.NET Core Web Application named “VideoChat” with .NET Core 2.2 and Angular templating using the Visual Studio 2017 user interface or the following dotnet
command line:
This command will create a Visual Studio solution containing an ASP.NET Core project configured to use an Angular application, ClientApp, as the front end.
The server-side code is written in C# and has two primary purposes: first, it serves the Angular web application, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Second, it acts as a Web API. The client-side application has the logic for presenting how video chat rooms are created and joined, and it hosts the participant video stream for live video chats.
Add the Twilio SDK for C# and .NET
The ASP.NET Core server application will use the Twilio SDK for C# and .NET. Install it with the NuGet Package Manager, Package Manager Console, or the following dotnet
command line instruction:
The VideoChat.csproj file should include the package references in an <ItemGroup>
node, as shown below, if the command completed successfully. (The version numbers in your project may be higher.)
Create the folder and file structure
Create the following folders and and files:
- /Abstractions
- IVideoService.cs
- /Hubs
- NotificationHub.cs
- /Models
- RoomDetails.cs
- /Options
- TwilioSettings.cs
- /Services
- VideoService.cs
In the /Controllers directory, rename SampleDataController.cs to VideoController.cs and update the class name to match the new new file name.
Create services
The server-side code needs to do several key things. One of them is to provide a JSON Web Token (JWT) to the client so the client can connect to the Twilio Programmable Video API. Doing so requires the Twilio Account SID, API Key, and API Secret you stored as environment variables. In ASP.NET Core, it is common to leverage a strongly typed C# class that will represent the various settings.
Add the following C# code to the Options/TwilioSettings.cs file below the declarations:
These settings are configured in the Startup.ConfigureServices
method, which maps the values from environment variables and the appsettings.json file to the IOptions<TwilioSettings>
instances that are available for dependency injection. In this case, the environment variables are the only values needed for the TwilioSettings
class.
Insert the following C# code in the Models/RoomDetails.cs file below the declarations:
The RoomDetails
class is an object that represents a video chat room.
With dependency injection in mind, create an abstraction for the server-side video service as an interface.
Replace the contents of the Abstractions/IVideoService.cs file with the following C# code:
This is a very simple interface that exposes the ability to get the Twilio JWT when it is given an identity. It also provides the ability to get all the rooms.
To implement the IVideoService
interface, replace the contents of the Services/VideoService.cs file with the following code:
The VideoService
class constructor takes an IOptions<TwilioSettings>
instance and initializes the TwilioClient
, given the supplied API key and corresponding API secret. This is done statically, and it enables future use of various resource-based functions. The implementation of the GetTwilioJwt
is used to issue a new Twilio.Jwt.AccessToken.Token
, given the Account SID, API key, API secret, identity, and a new instance of HashSet<IGrant>
with a single VideoGrant
object. Before returning, an invocation to the .ToJwt
function converts the token instance into its string
equivalent.
The GetAllRoomsAsync
function returns a listing of RoomDetails
objects. It starts by awaiting the RoomResource.ReadAsync
function, which will given us a ResourceSet<RoomResource>
once awaited. From this listing of rooms we'll project a series of Task<RoomDetails>
where we'll ask for the corresponding ResourceSet<ParticipantResource>
currently connected to the room specified with the room identifier, room.UniqueName
.
You may notice some unfamiliar syntax in the GetAllRoomsService
function if you’re not used to code after the return
statement. C# 7 includes a local functions feature that enables functions to be written within the scope of the method body (“locally”), even after the return statement.
Note that for every room n that exists, GetRoomDetailsAsync
is invoked to fetch the room’s connected participants. This can be a performance concern! Even though this is done asynchronously and in parallel, it should be considered a potential bottleneck and marked for refactoring. It isn't a concern in this demo project, as there are, at most, a few rooms.
Create the API controller
The video controller will provide two HTTP GET endpoints for the Angular client to use.
Endpoint |
Verb |
Type |
Description |
api/video/token |
GET |
JSON |
an object with a |
api/video/rooms |
GET |
JSON |
array of room details: |
Replace the contents of the Controllers/VideoController.cs file with the following C# code:
The controller is decorated with the ApiController
attribute and a Route
attribute containing the template "api/video"
.
In the VideoController
constructor IVideoService
is injected and assigned to a readonly
field instance.
Create the notification hub
The ASP.NET Core application wouldn't be complete without the use of SignalR, which “... is an open-source library that simplifies adding real-time web functionality to apps. Real-time web functionality enables server-side code to push content to clients instantly.”
When a user creates a room in the application their client-side code will notify the server and, ultimately, other clients of the new room. This is done with a SignalR notification hub.
Replace the contents of the Hubs/NotificationHub.cs file with the following C# code:
The NotificationHub
will asynchronously send a message to all other clients notifying them when a room is added.
Configure Startup.cs
There are a few things that need to be added and changed in the Startup
class and in the ConfigureServices
method.
Add the following C# using
statements to the top of Startup.cs:
In the ConfigureServices
method, replace the services.AddSpaStaticFiles
call with the following code:
This configures the application settings containing the Twilio API credentials, maps the abstraction of the video service to its corresponding implementation, fixes the root path for the SPA, and adds SignalR.
In the Configure
method, just before the app.UseMvc
call, add the following lines:
This maps the notification endpoint to the implementation of the NotificationHub
. Using this endpoint, the Angular SPA running in client browsers can send messages to all the other clients. SignalR provides the notification infrastructure for this process.
This concludes the server-side setup. Compile the project and ensure there are no errors.
Build the client-side Angular app
The ASP.NET Core templates are not updated regularly while Angular is constantly being updated. To build the client app with the newest Angular code, it’s best to start with a current Angular template.
Delete the ClientApp directory from the VideoChat project.
Open a command prompt in the VideoChat project directory and execute the following Angular CLI command:
This command should create a new ClientApp folder in the VideoChat project along with the basic folder and file structure for an Angular application.
The Angular application has a number of dependencies, including the twilio-video
and @aspnet/signalr
packages. Its development dependencies include the type definitions for the @types/twilio-video
.
Replace the contents of the package.json with the following JSON code:
With the updates to the package.json complete, execute the following npm command line instruction in the ClientApp directory:
The npm install
command ensures that all required JavaScript dependencies are downloaded.
Open the /ClientApp/src/index.html file and notice the <app-root>
element. This non-standard element is used by Angular to render the Angular application on the HTML page. The app-root
element is the selector for the AppComponent
component.
Add the following HTML markup to the index.html file, in the <head>
element below the <link>
element for the favicon:
This markup enables the application to use the free version of Font Awesome and the Bootswatch Darkly theme.
Continue to the /src/app/app.component.html file and replace the contents with the following HTML markup:
From the command line in the ClientApp directory, execute the following Angular CLI commands to generate the components:
Then execute the following Angular CLI commands to generate the required services:
These commands add all the boilerplate code, enabling you to focus on the implementation of the app. They add new components and services and update the app.module.ts file by importing and declaring the components the commands create.
The folder and file structure should look like the following:
Updating the Angular App Module
The application relies on two additional modules: one to implement forms and one to use HTTP.
Add the following two import statements to the top of ClientApp/src/app/app.module.ts:
Next, add these modules to the imports
array of the @NgModule
as follows:
Add JavaScript polyfills
A JavaScript project wouldn’t be complete without polyfills, right? Angular is no exception to this. Luckily, the Angular tooling provides a polyfill file.
Add the following JavaScript to the bottom of the existing ClientApp/src/polyfill.ts file:
Create Angular services
The DeviceService
class will provide information about the media devices used in the application, including their availability and whether the user has granted the app permission to use them.
Replace the contents of the services/device.service.ts file with the following TypeScript code:
This service provides a media devices observable to which concerned listeners can subscribe. When media device information changes, such as unplugging or plugging in a USB web camera, this service will notify all listeners. It also attempts to wait for the user to grant permissions to the various media devices consumed by the twilio-video
SDK.
The VideoChatService
is used to access the server-side ASP.NET Core Web API endpoints. It exposes the ability to get the list of rooms and the ability to create or join a named room.
Replace the contents of the services/videochat.service.ts file with the following TypeScript code:
Notice that the retrieval of the Twilio JWT is marked private
The getAuthToken
method is only used within the VideoChatService
class for the invocation of connect
from the twilio-video
module, which is done asynchronously in the joinOrCreateRoom
method.
General concepts
Now that the core services are in place, how should they interact with one another and how should they behave? Users need to be able to create or join rooms. A room is a Twilio resource, and a room can have one or more participant. A participant is also a Twilio resource. Likewise, participants have track publications that provide access to video and audio media tracks. Participants and rooms share cameras which provide track publications for both audio and video tracks. The app has Angular components for each of these.
Implement the Camera component
In addition to providing audio and video tracks for room participants to share, the CameraComponent
also displays a local camera preview. By rendering locally-created audio and video tracks to the DOM as the <app-camera>
element. The Twilio Programmable Video JavaScript Platform SDK, imported from twilio-video
, provides an easy-to-use API for creating and managing the local tracks.
Replace the contents of the camera/camera.component.ts file with the following TypeScript code:
Replace the contents of the camera/camera.component.html file with the following HTML markup:
In the TypeScript code above, the Angular @ViewChild
decorator is used to get a reference to the #preview
HTML element used the view. With the reference to the element, the Twilio JavaScript SDK can create local video and audio tracks associated with the device.
Once the tracks are created, the code finds the video track and appends it to the #preview
element. The result is a live video feed rendered on the HTML page.
Implement the Rooms component
The RoomsComponent
provides an interface for users to create rooms by entering a roomName
through an <input type=’text’>
element and a <button>
element bound to the onTryAddRoom
method of the class. The user interface looks like the following:
As users add rooms the list of existing rooms will appear below the room creation controls. The name of each existing room will appear along with the number of active participants and the room’s capacity, like the example shown below.
To implement the rooms user interface, replace the markup in the rooms/rooms.component.html file with the following HTML markup:
The RoomsComponent
subscribes to the videoChatService.$roomsUpdated
observable. Any time a room is created, RoomsComponent
will signal its creation through the observable and the NotificationHub
service will be listening. Using SignalR, the NotificationHub
echos this message out to all the other connected clients. This mechanism enables the server-side code to provide real-time web functionality to client apps. In this application, the RoomsComponent
will automatically update the list of available rooms.
To implement the RoomsComponent
functionality replace the contents of the rooms/rooms.component.ts file with the following TypeScript code:
Under the hood, when a user selects a room to join or creates a room, they connect to that room via the twilio-video
SDK.
The RoomsComponent
expects a room name and an array of LocalTrack
objects. These local tracks come from the local camera preview, which provides both an audio and a video track. The LocalTrack
objects are published to rooms that a user joins so other participants can subscribe to and receive them.
Implement the Participants component
What good is a room without any participants? It's just an empty room—that's no fun!
But rooms do have something very cool: they extend EventEmitter
. This means a room enables the registration of event listeners.
To implement the ParticipantsComponent
, replace the contents of the participants/participants.component.ts file with the following TypeScript code:
A ParticipantComponent
also extends an EventEmitter
and offers its own set of valuable events. Between the room, participant, publication, and track, there is a complete set of events to handle when participants join or leave a room. When participants join, an event fires and provides publication details of their tracks so the application can render their audio and video to the user interface DOM of each client as the tracks become available.
To implement the user interface for the participants component, replace the contents of the participants/participants.component.html file with the following HTML markup:
Much like the CameraComponent
, the audio and video elements associated with a participant are render targets to the #list
element of the DOM. But instead of being local tracks, these are remote tracks published from remote participants.
Implement device settings management
There are a few components in play with the concept of settings. We’ll have a camera
component beneath several DeviceSelectComponents
objects.
Replace the contents of the settings/settings.component.ts file with the following TypeScript code:
The SettingsComponent
object gets all the available devices and binds them to the DeviceSelectComponent
objects that it parents. As video input device selections change the local camera component preview is updated to reflect those changes. The deviceService.$devicesUpdated
observable fires as system level device availability changes. The list of available devices updates to accordingly.
To implement the user interface for settings, replace the contents of the settings/settings.component.html file with the following HTML markup:
If a media device option is not available to select, the DeviceSelectComponent
object is not rendered. When an option is available, the user can configure their desired device.
As the user changes the selected device, the component emits an event to any active listeners, enabling them to take action on the currently selected device. The list of available devices is dynamically updated as devices are connected to, or removed from, the user’s computer.
The user also sees a preview of the selected video device, as shown below:
To implement the settings user interface, replace the contents of the settings/device-select.component.ts file with the following TypeScript code:
Replace the contents of the settings/device-select.component.html file with the following HTML markup:
The DeviceSelectComponent
object is intended to encapsulate the selection of devices. Rather than bloating the settings component with redundancy, there is a single component that is reused and parameterized with @Input
and @Output
decorators.
Implement the Home component
The HomeComponent
acts as the orchestration piece between the various components and is responsible for the layout of the app.
To implement the home user interface, replace the contents of the home/home.component.ts file with the following TypeScript code:
To implement the home user interface, replace the contents of the home/home.component.html file with the following HTML markup:
The home component provides the layout for the client user interface, so it needs some styling to arrange and format the UI elements.
Replace the contents of the home/home.component.css file with the following CSS code:
Understand video chat events
The Angular client app uses a number of resources in the Twilio Programmable Video SDK. The following is a comprehensive list of each event associated with an SDK resource:
Event Registration |
Description |
|
Occurs when a user leaves the room |
|
Occurs when a new participant joins the room |
|
Occurs when a participant leaves the room |
|
Occurs when a track publication is published |
|
Occurs when a track publication is unpublished |
|
Occurs when a track is subscribed |
|
Occurs when a track is unsubscribed |
Putting it all together
Phew, this was quite the project! Time to try it out.
Run the application. If you’re running the application in Visual Studio 2017 using IIS Express, the user interface will appear at a randomly assigned port. If you run it another way, navigate to: https://localhost:5001.
After the application loads your browser will prompt you to allow camera access: grant it.
If you have two video sources on your computer, open two different browsers (or an incognito window) and select different devices on each browser. Settings enable you to choose the preferred video input source. In one browser, create a room and then join it in the other browser.
When a room is created the local preview is moved just under the settings so that remote room participants join their video stream will render in the larger viewing area.
If you don’t have two video sources on your computer, watch for a forthcoming post that will teach you how to deploy this application on Microsoft Azure. When you’ve deployed the app to the cloud you can have multiple users join video chat rooms.
Summary of building a video chat app with ASP.NET Core, Angular, and Twilio
This post showed you how to build a fully functioning video chat application with Angular, ASP.NET Core, SignalR, and Twilio Programmable Video. The Twilio .NET SDK provides JWTs to client-side Angular code as well as getting room details via the ASP.NET Core Web API. The client-side Angular SPA integrates the Twilio JavaScript SDK.
Additional resources
A working example of the application is available on the author’s Azure domain: https://ievangelist-videochat.azurewebsites.net/
The companion repository on GitHub includes better styling, persistent selections, and other features you may want to include in your production app.
You can learn more about the technologies used in this post from the following sources:
- Angular Observables and Promises: Observables on angular.io, Understanding, creating and subscribing to observables in Angular and AngularJS Promises – The Definitive Guide on Medium
- C# local functions: Local functions (C# Programming Guide) on docs.microsoft.com
- SignalR: Learn About ASP.NET SignalR on ASP.NET
- Twilio Programmable Video on Twilio Docs
David Pine is a Microsoft MVP, Google Developer Expert, technical evangelist, and international speaker. You can follow him on Twitter at @davidpine7. Be sure to checkout his blog at https://davidpine.net.
Updated 06/09/2020.
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