How to try
Open the WCS4 Beta page, download, install, try, have a look at docs.
What’s done
In WCS3 we refined the functionality and did a great job on fixing bugs and tuning the work under higher loads in production-projects.
In WCS4 we turned WCS3 to something we wanted to do for a long time – we made out server simple and straightforward for people. Who are those people, you ask?
Front-End developers
First of all, they are, of course, Front-end Javascript and CSS web developers. It is for you, dear Front-end developers, we developed our new and convenient JavaScript API packed into a single file Flashphoner.js and containing all required methods to make calls and exchange streams.
Previously, a developer might need few days to go deeply into how our standard web-client works before actually making changes to design. Now, only few minutes are required to write several lines of JavaScript code or to apply our minimum client without a line of extra code.
Put these three JavaScript lines to an HTML document and the call is ready:
var f = Flashphoner.getInstance();
f.init();
f.call({callee:’Alice’});
Back-End developers
It doesn’t matter what kind of technology you use as Back-End — PHP, JSP, ASP, a complex application server or something else. WCS can integrate to any Back-End thanks to the versatile REST API. The server REST API carefully passes all information about connections, calls, streams and messages – all and everything Web Call Server does – to your Back-End.
Thanks to the REST API your Back-End finally has full control over Web Call Server users – authorize any operation starting from connection, making an outgoing call and sending a message to publishing a video stream. Simple and versatile exchange of JSON-objects underlying the REST API allows WCS to integrate into any websites and systems.
System administrators and technical specialists
A software product without a thorough documentation is like a suitcase without a handle. Taking this principle as a guide, we decided to make the most comprehensive and complete documentation for WCS. And we think we succeeded at this. As a result, we ended up with four documents:
Specification — Description of the product and technologies it supports.
Administrator Manual — A complete manual on managing the server, from architecture description, installation and setup on out to traffic analysis and ways to fix possible issues.
Developer Manual — A description of WCS JavaScript API and detailed review of bare minimum samples.
Call Flow — The invocation sequence and the list of JSON objects passed to WCS JavaScript API and REST API.
For more convenient administration of the server, we also added a command line interface where you can manage applications and users. Let’s enlarge upon application models a bit. While WCS3 was a solid server working as one application, WCS4 is in fact an application server where you can deploy any number of interactive applications to work with video and WebRTC, and each one will have its own REST back-end and the unique key for user connections.
We made WCS4 simpler and easier to use to save your time and time of your colleagues resulting in faster and effortless integration of SIP calls or video streams to your website or service. Don’t forget about our community at forum.flashphoner.com, where any questions find their answers.
See you in the final release!
