How to Build a Video Call App with ZEGOCLOUD and React

In this blog post, I will show you how to create a video call app using ZEGOCLOUD and React.

For context, ZEGOCLOUD is a cloud-based video call platform that provides developers with a set of APIs and SDKs to easily build video calling applications.

Prerequisites

Before you start, you will need to:

• Create a ZEGOCLOUD account and project.
• Have a basic understanding of React.

Creating a ZEGOLCOUD account and project

Step 1: Head over to the ZEGOCLOUD website and create an account.

Step 2: Now, create a new project and grab the appId and serversecret from the project dashboard.

Creating a Video Call App

The following steps show you how to create a video call app using ZEGOCLOUD and React:

1. Create a new React project.
2. Install the ZEGOCLOUD React SDK.
3. Import the ZEGOCLOUD SDK into your project.
4. Join a room.
5. Create a local audio and video stream.
6. Start a video call.
7. Render the video streams.

Step 1: Create a new React project

You can create a new React project using the following command:

npx create-react-app video-call-app

This will create a new directory called video-call-app with a basic React project.

Step 2: Install the ZEGOCLOUD React SDK

You can install the ZEGOCLOUD React SDK using the following command:

npm i zego-express-engine-webrtc

This will install the ZEGOCLOUD React SDK into your project.

Step 3: Import the ZEGOCLOUD SDK into your project and initialize it

In your project's index.js file, import the ZEGOCLOUD SDK and initialize the zegocloud app by the function as follows:

import React from "react";
import { ZegoExpressEngine } from "zego-express-engine-webrtc";

function App() {
  useEffect(() => {
    const zg = new ZegoExpressEngine(
      process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_ZEGO_APP_ID,
      process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_ZEGO_SERVER_ID
    );
  }, []);
  return (
    <div>
      <div id="local-video"></div>
      <div id="remote-video"></div>
    </div>
  );
}

export default App;

In the above step, we have utilized the useEffect hook to initialize the ZegoClouds library by passing the app ID and server secret as parameters.

Step 4: Join a Room

import React from "react";
import { ZegoExpressEngine } from "zego-express-engine-webrtc";

function App() {
  useEffect(() => {
    const initializeApp = async () => {
      const zg = new ZegoExpressEngine(
        process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_ZEGO_APP_ID,
        process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_ZEGO_SERVER_ID
      );
      await zg.loginRoom(
        "zego-room",
        token,
        { userID: "123", userName: "kishan" },
        { userUpdate: true }
      );
  }, []);
  return (
    <div>
      <div id="local-video"></div>
      <div id="remote-video"></div>
    </div>
  );
}

Now in this step, we have joined the passing of the token, userId, and userName, and the userUpdate status.

Step 5: Create a local audio and video stream.

import React from "react";
import { ZegoExpressEngine } from "zego-express-engine-webrtc";

function App() {
  useEffect(() => {
    const initializeApp = async () => {
      const zg = new ZegoExpressEngine(
        process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_ZEGO_APP_ID,
        process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_ZEGO_SERVER_ID
      );
      await zg.loginRoom(
        "zego-room",
        token,
        { userID: "123", userName: "kishan" },
        { userUpdate: true }
      );

      const localStream = await zg.createStream({
        camera: {
          audio: true,
          video: true,
        },
      });
      // Get the audio tag.
      const localAudio = document.getElementById("local-video");

      const videoElement = document.createElement("video");
      videoElement.id = "local-video";
      videoElement.className = "h-28 w-32";
      videoElement.autoplay = true;
      videoElement.muted = false;

      videoElement.playsInline = true;

      localAudio.appendChild(videoElement);

      const td = document.getElementById("audio-local");
      td.srcObject = localStream;
    };
  }, []);
  return (
    <div>
      <div id="local-video"></div>
      <div id="remote-video"></div>
    </div>
  );
}

We have created the video elements here where we will be actually displaying the video streams of our local webcam.

Step 6: Start a video call.

import React from "react";
import { ZegoExpressEngine } from "zego-express-engine-webrtc";

function App() {
  useEffect(() => {
    const initializeApp = async () => {
      const zg = new ZegoExpressEngine(
        process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_ZEGO_APP_ID,
        process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_ZEGO_SERVER_ID
      );
      await zg.loginRoom(
        "zego-room",
        token,
        { userID: "123", userName: "kishan" },
        { userUpdate: true }
      );

      const localStream = await zg.createStream({
        camera: {
          audio: true,
          video: true,
        },
      });
      // Get the audio tag.
      const localAudio = document.getElementById("local-video");

      const videoElement = document.createElement("video");
      videoElement.id = "local-video";
      videoElement.className = "h-28 w-32";
      videoElement.autoplay = true;
      videoElement.muted = false;

      videoElement.playsInline = true;

      localAudio.appendChild(videoElement);

      const td = document.getElementById("audio-local");
      td.srcObject = localStream;
    };

    const streamID = "123" + Date.now();

    zg.startPublishingStream(streamID, localStream);
  }, []);
  return (
    <div>
      <div id="local-video"></div>
      <div id="remote-video"></div>
    </div>
  );
}

Here we have started publishing our local stream to the specified room.

Step 7: Render the video streams.

import React from "react";
import { ZegoExpressEngine } from "zego-express-engine-webrtc";

function App() {
  useEffect(() => {
    const initializeApp = async () => {
      const zg = new ZegoExpressEngine(
        process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_ZEGO_APP_ID,
        process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_ZEGO_SERVER_ID
      );

      zg.on(
        "roomStreamUpdate",
        async (roomID, updateType, streamList, extendedData) => {
          if (updateType == "ADD") {
            const rmVideo = document.getElementById("remote-video");
            const vd = document.createElement("video");
            vd.id = streamList[0].streamID;
            vd.autoplay = true;
            vd.playsInline = true;
            vd.muted = false;
            if (rmVideo) {
              rmVideo.appendChild(vd);
            }
            zg.startPlayingStream(streamList[0].streamID, {
              audio: true,
              video: true,
            }).then((stream) => {
              vd.srcObject = stream;
            });

            // New stream added, start playing the stream.
          } else if (updateType == "DELETE" && zg && streamList[0].streamID) {
            zg.stopPublishingStream(streamList[0].streamID);
            zg.logoutRoom("123");
          }
        }
      );

      await zg.loginRoom(
        "zego-room",
        token,
        { userID: "123", userName: "kishan" },
        { userUpdate: true }
      );

      const localStream = await zg.createStream({
        camera: {
          audio: true,
          video: true,
        },
      });
      // Get the audio tag.
      const localAudio = document.getElementById("local-video");

      const videoElement = document.createElement("video");
      videoElement.id = "local-video";
      videoElement.className = "h-28 w-32";
      videoElement.autoplay = true;
      videoElement.muted = false;

      videoElement.playsInline = true;

      localAudio.appendChild(videoElement);

      const td = document.getElementById("audio-local");
      td.srcObject = localStream;
    };

    const streamID = "123" + Date.now();

    zg.startPublishingStream(streamID, localStream);
  }, []);
  return (
    <div>
      <div id="local-video"></div>
      <div id="remote-video"></div>
    </div>
  );
}

Now as soon as the other user joins the room, we want to display the upcoming video stream and render it to the DOM.

Conclusion

In this blog post, we have shown you how to create a video call app with Zegocloud and React. We have covered the following topics:

• Setting up your development environment
• Integrating the Zegocloud video call web APIs
• Building a simple video call app

We hope that this blog post has helped you to get started with building video call apps using Zegocloud and React.

For more information, please refer to the Zegocloud documentation.