For this tutorial , I’m starting from the basis that you already have Jitsi’s API working with your system and simply want to self host , moving away from dependency on https://jitsi-api.jitsi.net/
First, an overview of how the API works -
When users initiate a conference, their browser sends an http request to the API defined in /etc/jitsi/meet/your.domain-config.js > dialInConfCodeUrl . The request is sent in the following format
https://jitsi-api.jitsi.net/conferenceMapper?conference=newmeeting1234@conference.meet.domain.com
The API returns a string that looks like this:
{"message":"Successfully retrieved conference mapping","id":245367,"conference":"newmeeting1234@conference.meet.domain.com"}
Further, when an IVR requests meeting information, a similar request is sent with a known id:
https://jitsi-api.jitsi.net/conferenceMapper?id=245367
For the ID request, The API returns a string formatted exactly the same as the conference request:
{"message":"Successfully retrieved conference mapping","id":245367,"conference":"newmeeting1234@conference.meet.domain.com"}
Let’s get started!
We will mimic this process using PHP and MySQL . I will be hosting all elements on my Jitsi system , which is running on Ubuntu 20.04 server.
1. Install mySQL
sudo apt-get install mysql-server
- After install , run the secure install utility
run sudo mysql_secure_installation utility
-
This part will ask security related questions. Personally , I use strong password strength , make a root password, prevent root from remote login, and remove the test table. Just good security practice in my opinion.
-
Optional - Create a remote user to use a GUI on another system
enter the following commands, replacing USERNAME & PASSWORD with your desired credentials:
sudo mysql
CREATE USER 'USERNAME'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'PASSWORD';
grant all privileges on *.* TO 'USERNAME'@'%';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
\q (to exit)
- start mySQL:
sudo systemctl start mysql
- enable start on boot:
sudo systemctl enable mysql
- edit bind addresses in mysql config
sudo nano /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf
ensure you have the following lines (127.0.0.1 should already be there)
bind-address = 127.0.0.1
bind-address = 192.168.1.20 (replace with server's external IP for remote access)
- restart mysql to pickup the changes
sudo systemctl restart mysql
2. Create mysql table This will house the id & conference name data
I’m using MySQL workbench for the actual table creation, connected using the optional remote user created
-
File > new model > Add Table: jitsiapi
-
Create 2 columns: id & conference, use the following settings for each
[ id ]
Datatype: INT
PK – Primary Key
NN - Not Null
UQ - Unique
A - Autoincrement
[ conference ]
Datatype: VARCHAR(255)
NN - Not Null
UQ - Unique
- to create the table, Database > forward engineer > Click next through the prompts to write the table
Note: By default , mysql will start inserting id’s sequential from 1 (1, 2, 3, 4). since the ID will be our pin, I’d like to start with something a bit larger. Log into mysql from terminal and run the command below. The number 344100 can be whatever you want to start with.
sudo mysql
ALTER TABLE `mydb`.`jitsiapi` AUTO_INCREMENT=344100;
Mysql tips -
- You’ll probably want to clear out test data at some point. To quickly clear the table run:
TRUNCATE TABLE `mydb`.`jitsiapi`;
- clearing the table also resets the starting id , so you’ll want to redo the auto increment command:
ALTER TABLE `mydb`.`jitsiapi` AUTO_INCREMENT=344100;
- if you receive Access denied for user ‘root’@‘localhost’ , log into mysql from terminal and run following command:
ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'insert_password';
3. Install PHP & add nginx config
sudo apt install php-fpm php-mysql
- modify nginx site config
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/your.domain.conf
- Add the following location to the existing SSL Server block
(change “php7.4” to the version you just installed)
location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) {
fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
}
- restart nginx
sudo systemctl restart nginx
4. Upload PHP file
I’m hosting php files from the jitsi-meet/static location. To do this, you need a user with write access. I prefer to acl for permissions.
sudo apt install acl
sudo setfacl -m u:Existing-UserName-Here:rwx /usr/share/jitsi-meet/static
-
now you can use a remote user to add php files via FTP (I use filezilla)
-
save the below code as a php file and upload to usr/share/jitsi-meet/static/
Note: There’s a commented section that restricts the id to 6 digits , change this to suit your needs.
<?php
header('Content-Type: application/json');
//header("Content-Type: text/plain");
$conference = $_REQUEST['conference'];
$id = $_REQUEST['id'];
$db_host = 'localhost';
$db_username = 'root';
$db_password = 'PASSWORD';
$db_name = 'mydb';
$db_table = 'jitsiapi';
$digits = ceil(log10($id));
// Set blank variable if conference contains spaces or is missing "@conference."
if (preg_match('/\s/',$conference) > 0) {
$conference = '';
} else {
$conference = $conference;
}
if (strpos($conference, '@conference.') !== false) {
$conference = $conference;
} else {
$conference = '';
}
// Create connection
$conn = new mysqli($db_host, $db_username, $db_password, $db_name);
// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}
//Check that ID is numeric & 6 digits in length
if (is_numeric($id) && $digits = 6) {
$sql = $conn->prepare("SELECT id, conference FROM $db_table WHERE id=?");
$sql->bind_param("i", $id);
$sql->execute();
$result = $sql->get_result();
if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
// output data of each row
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
echo "{\"message\":\"Successfully retrieved conference mapping\",\"id\":" . $row["id"]. ",\"conference\":\"" . $row["conference"]."\"}";
}
} else {
echo "{\"message\":\"No conference mapping was found\",\"id\":$id,\"conference\":false}";
}
} else {
$sql = $conn->prepare("SELECT id, conference FROM $db_table WHERE conference=?");
$sql->bind_param("s", $conference);
$sql->execute();
$result = $sql->get_result();
if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
echo "{\"message\":\"Successfully retrieved conference mapping\",\"id\":" . $row["id"]. ",\"conference\":\"" . $row["conference"]."\"}";
}
} else {
if ($conference == NULL) {
echo "{\"message\":\"No conference or id provided\",\"conference\":false,\"id\":false}";
} else {
// Insert Conference
$sql = $conn->prepare("INSERT INTO $db_table (conference) VALUES (?)");
$sql->bind_param("s", $conference);
$sql->execute();
$result = $sql->execute();
// Return resulting data
$sql = $conn->prepare("SELECT id, conference FROM $db_table WHERE conference=?");
$sql->bind_param("s", $conference);
$sql->execute();
$result = $sql->get_result();
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
echo "{\"message\":\"Successfully retrieved conference mapping\",\"id\":" . $row["id"]. ",\"conference\":\"" . $row["conference"]."\"}";
}
}
}
}
$conn->close();
?>
5. Provision config.js and IVR
- Tell jitsi to use your new php script as the API. Replace meet.domain.com with your jitsi domain
sudo nano /etc/jitsi/meet/meet.domain.com-config.js
- Modify the dialConfCodeULR line to match your new path
dialInConfCodeUrl: 'https://meet.domain.com/static/conferencemapper.php',
- IVR - update your existibg curl url to match what you used above.
Note: If you’re coming from my IVR tutorial, here’s a modified curl command. I added a pipe to remove new lines if they exist in the result.
exten => s,n(passcode),Set(CURL_RESULT=${SHELL(curl --silent https://meet.domain.com/static/conferencemapper.php?id=${confid} | sed -e 's/.*"conference":"\(.*\)@.*/\1/' | tr -d "\n")})
- Pause here and do some testing
At this point, your API should be functioning. Let’s do some testing…
-
Start a web conference and navigate to the share box, check that a pin as populated.
-
Open another web browser or tab and enter the following, replacing with your domain and PIN obtained from the conference.
https://meet.domain.com/static/conferencemapper.php?id=PINHERE
This should respond with text indicating the conference name associated with the ID, formatted like the example below:
{"message":"Successfully retrieved conference mapping","id":245367,"conference":"newmeeting1234@conference.meet.domain.com"}
- Test the IVR with the same PIN. If the call doesn’t route through to the conference, check your asterisk logs for details.
Trouble shooting tips:
-
If no curl result exists in the log, you may have typed or pasted something wrong in the curl url
-
SSH into your asterisk system and try a curl directly from terminal, confirm it works and check against dial plan
-
If terminal displays an error, lookup the error and try to isolate where the issue is. Also, may be worth trying curl from another system to compare
-
If terminal curl responds “curl: (52) Empty reply from server” , your using an outdated curl package. Check your curl version (
curl –-version). Anything older than 7.49 doesn’t support http2 , but technically you should be using 7.70 as of May 2020.
