Create a Node.js Video Streaming Application

The Internet has a lot of things to offer today. People gather information from different sources, and everyone chooses what suits them best. One of the most popular ways to collect information is video streaming platforms. They became real game changers in the industry, that’s why it’s so important to consider them better. In the past few years video streaming platforms became really popular, everyday they are developing and offering something new. Their main goal is to reach worldwide audiences, so everyone could receive the same content and benefit from it. Video-streamed content is especially convenient while using it at home.

It’s not a secret, that streaming is extremely important for video content. A lot of people start to develop their own video streaming platforms, as it is really beneficial and gives a lot of opportunities to become relevant in the market. There are a lof of different streaming platforms, so it’s really important to remain competitive among other developers. Node. js for streaming web platform is a top-notch option if you want to dive into web app development. Over the last few years using Node. js for streaming platform web development became extremely popular. Of course, there are different reasons why Node.js for building an app that streams video is in such a high demand. One of the main reasons is the ability of Node. js for developing a streaming web platform to handle large-scale applications. It’s really convenient if you work with great amounts of data.

Making a video streaming platform using Node.js is really beneficial for businesses, as it gives companies a lot of different opportunities. If you are interested in creating real-time application, developing a streaming platform with Node.js can be the ultimate option for you. Though traditional web application frameworks still are popular among some developers, they can’t offer the same amount of interesting up to date options. That’s why now the majority of people focuses on developing a streaming platform by using Node.js. If you want to develop a streaming platform using Node. Js, you have to consider some important factors. It can boast with its performance and scalability, and that’s why many people choose it.

This guide will tell you everything you need to know about pros and cons of Node. js for building streaming web platform. If you feel you want to know more about advantages and disadvantages of Node.js for a video streaming platform development, keep on reading!

Why You Should Consider Node. JS for Video Streaming Web Platform Development

The first question that arises is: what is Node.js? Put simply, Node.js is a free, open-source runtime environment for networking and server-side applications. It runs on Windows, Linux, Unix and macOS. Its versatility is one of the reasons why it is so successful. Node.js executes JavaScript code, and JavaScript is widely used among many developers. Usually Node.js is used to provide web services and power up some of the most famous sites on the Internet.

However, if your goal is to make a video streaming platform with Node.js, it is also a perfect solution for you. Developers across the world are choosing Node.js for creating web development projects. Node.js is the most popular among its competitors like .NET, .NET Core, Pandas, Unity 3D, React Native, TensorFlow, Ansible, Cordova and so on.

There are many cases where Node.js is used. The creation of tons of sites was the result of Node.js web development. Usually Node.js is used for streaming websites, banking organizations and sales platforms. Streaming websites are really popular nowadays because they profit off of on-demand videos which are accessible basically to everyone. In this case Node.js is the ultimate decision. One of the most famous streaming platforms – Netflix – actively uses Node.js to achieve its goals.

Moreover, Node.js is extremely useful for banking organizations, as they find Node.js web app options to be suitable for large number of concurrent requests usage. Banking organizations benefit when they have an ability to work with great amounts of customers all around the world, and Node.js allows them to achieve their business goals. Finally, let’s talk about sales platforms. A lot of international platforms sell their products with the help of Node.js. One of the most famous examples is eBay. It contains some elements of Node.js. The most important feature that companies receive is the ability to create a platform that would satisfy needs of a lot of people and do it quickly.

As you can see, it’s extremely important to consider Node.js for any web platform development, not only for video streaming platforms. The main advantage that you receive when you decide to implement Node.js is becoming competitive in the market. Competitive advantage is difficult to overestimate today. There are tons of platforms in the market, and every one of them has a unique set of features to offer. That’s why it’s essential to be able to grow and enlarge your customers’ number.

Advantages of Node.js for Building Streaming Platform

Now you are more acquainted with Node.js – you already know why it’s so widely used and why the most famous streaming platforms are choosing to implement it into their business. Now it’s time to consider some key pros and cons of Node.js. Before you start the development process, you should be able to tell what will be beneficial for you, and which features it’s better to refuse from.

Scalability, high speed, active support – all these factors are definitely pros that will help you build a top-notch streaming platform. However, there also downsides which cannot be ignored. Multithreaded tasks can be executed poorly, the stable API can be absent, there can be issues with callback hell. Yet, there are always some minuses even in the most flawless approaches. Let’s look at some key advantages of Node.js for building video streaming platform.

Ability to scale

There are a lot of ways for your application projection when you are using Node.js. When the task needs to be executed, Node.js is single-threaded. In case you need to work with a large amount of users, it is possible to spread the runtime environment among different servers. This feature is extremely beneficial for your development performance, because it gives your developers a possibility not to care about rewriting the backend.

High speed

The programming model of Node.js is really unusual. The majority of tasks undergo an event-based process and launch in an asynchronous way. A lot of important aspects of the program are already preloaded, so it takes only to launch the rest of the program. It is done with the help of specific signals. The loading of separate important parts is a great plus, as it guarantees the high speed of the processes.

One language

It is not a secret, that focusing on a wide set of software can be challenging. The main issue is that your employees can have problems with knowing various programming languages. It puts a pressure on code maintenance. Moreover, you will become too dependent on specific people in your organization. Node.js solves this problem easily. It gives you a space for creating everything in one language, which simplifies your task significantly.

Fast and easy

Of course, traditional backend languages can give you the same results as Node.js. However, these traditional methods come with the complex program development, and it can be an issue for developers. Not all the employees can handle advanced programming techniques, which are very difficult. It definitely influences the price, so you have to pay more. Node.js is the ultimate option for those who are looking for a perfect balance between fast and easy results.

Community support

Node.js has proven its relevance in the market. Therefore, it is supported by a large developers community. For a comparison, the platform has more than a million packages in NPM repository, while other platforms have from 200 000 to 500 000 packages. There is a great library of materials, which is available for anyone interested. With the help of it, you can achieve fast and quality results. You can use already existing models, or you can develop them from scratch.

Cost-effective

The developers are able to write server-side code in JavaScript. This is a great chance for them to write codes on the frontend and the backend and do it easily. This way you don’t have to hire two resource teams, because one can do it just as effectively. It is a great way to save your time and resources, and, of course, money.

Cross-functional teams

When you hire two different teams that are responsible for different sectors of your project, it can lead to miscommunications between them. It all results in difficulties and gaps in development process. Node.js, however, can be a great salvation for this issue. When your development team works like a one system, it enhances your chances on a good quality final product.

Performance boost

If you are looking for a performance boost, you should definitely consider Node.js. If there are a lot of requests, your team is not always capable of handling them. Single-threaded event-loop model of Node.js allows you to boost the responsiveness of your app, which will be able to deal with a lot of users’ requests.

So, without much talking, let’s dive straight into the process.

Step 1: Initialize the npm configurations and install dependencies

npm i express cors 
npm i -D nodemon

Your package.json file should look like this

https://javascript.plainenglish.io/media/6410055902df25e45cf86e750b64fc78

Step 2: Set up a basic express server to get started.

https://javascript.plainenglish.io/media/1724ba07bce42823a406d44f3c45a9cc

Step 3: Add a new index.html file in your app where you want to stream your video. Your src of the file must be pointing to the server endpoint where you want to streaming to proceed.

Note: This HTML file will be replaced by your frontend application.

https://javascript.plainenglish.io/media/8f81c1793ce8c8bde3aac1cfcad4d63f

Step 4: Now we need to setup the ‘/video’ route and the appropriate controller. Plus as our index route we need to send this HTML file to render as well. Let’s update our app.js file to do these changes.

https://javascript.plainenglish.io/media/96ac0016e146f493e9a9f58b80887d2d

Routes.js

https://javascript.plainenglish.io/media/eb74a1736d8b72bb414e8b848d88d372

videoController.js

https://javascript.plainenglish.io/media/e458d23e5e7536c1cd63cc954247942d

Let’s analyze what’s happening in the controller.

In our headers, we extract out range (range is the part where you are in the video buffer currently). If range is not present, we throw an error saying that the requested header range is not found. Otherwise, we locate the file in our file system. (If you are using database storage then refer to Grid FS).

We then decide the chunk size that we want to send with every concurrent request (1 MB in the above example — Math.pow(10,6) or simply 10**⁶). We then need to decide the start and end variables. The start variable determines the starting point of the video that we are sending. For the end variable, we need to determine the minimum value between (start +chunk) or the video size length. This is because it may be the possibility that (start +chunk) can be greater than the video length, therefore we cannot send anything and it will result in an error.

Lastly, we determine the content Length that we actually send. Content length is the difference between start and end values. Then we generate our header object using the values just calculated above it.

In the last part, we send a partial content response (206) which is also a part of the express framework and pipe this response with a read stream using the fs (Node.js core) module. That is all that is required to stream a video using a Node JS server.

We first check if range is not present then we throw error./
videoPath (Line 8) is the relative path of the file you want to stream.
videoSize(Line 9) is the file size of the selected file.
chunkSize (Line 10) is the file buffer you want to send per integration. In the above example it is 1 Megabyte.
start (Line 11) is the start range of the video.
end(Line 12) is the end range of video.
contentLength(Line 13) The video buffer that needs to be sent from the streaming application.
Line(14–19) Then we set the headers to apply all our configuration to the response object.
(Line 20) Then we send a 206 response indication we are sending a partial content response.
(Line 21–22) Lastly, utilising the Fs (available in core node js) module we create a read stream and pipe it to our response object.

In the next part, I will be designing the frontend using Vue.js. If you liked this article, you’re going to love the frontend integration. You can follow me to get that update instantly.

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