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Secure ingest with Webcaster

We enable secure ingest with the Webcaster by using JWT (JSON Web Token).

What is JWT?​

JWT is an open standard for securely transmitting information between two parties. It simplifies the workflow and increases security for your end users in a simple way.

tip

For more information about JWT click here.

About Webcaster and web tokens​

By using web tokens you can now omit the Bintu API key when using the Webcaster.
Also the tokens will contain ingest information, so your customers will not need to see RTMP ingest urls and RTMP ingest stream names. The Webcaster API can now utilize web tokens for signing in to the servers and for sharing ingest information. You can pass the tokens in the two following API calls:

Please see the following workflow on how to get started.

Creating web tokens for the Webcaster​

Before starting

To begin, please sign in using your nanoStream Cloud/Bintu account credentials.
If you have not created an account yet, you can sign up or reach out to our dedicated sales team via the contact form or by sending an email to sales(at)nanocosmos.de.

In order to create a web token for the Webcaster you will need the following data:

  • your bintu API key
  • a RTMP stream name
  • an RTMP ingest url
  • an expiration date (this is optional, a web token will expire after 1 week by default)

You can create web tokens by calling the REST interface of the nanocosmos Cloud Token Service (CTS) endpoint of the Webcaster. You will need a Bintu API key for creating tokens.

Nanocosmos Token Creator​

Feel free to create web token through our Webcaster Token Creator and test the feature immediately. All you need to get started is a bintu API key.

Using web tokens with the Webcaster​

1. Create a bintu stream​

Create a bintu stream either through the nanoStream Cloud Dashboard or with help of the bintu REST API.

Find a CURL example below:

 curl --request POST \
    --url 'https://bintu.nanocosmos.de/stream' \
    --header 'content-type: application/json' \
    --header 'x-bintu-apikey: YOUR-APIKEY'

CURL response:
The response will contain the ingest information for the created stream. You will need this information in order to create the web token.

- ingest.rtmp.url
- ingest.rtmp.streamname
// response from CURL command

{
    ...
    "ingest":{
      "rtmp":{
         "url":"rtmp://bintu-stream.nanocosmos.de:1935/live",
         "streamname":"XXXXX-YyyYY"
      }
    },
    ...
}

2. Create a web token​

Use the data (ingest RTMP url and ingest RTMP streamname) from the previously created stream to create a web token.

Find a CURL example below:

curl --request POST \
  --url 'https://cts.nanocosmos.de/webcaster' \
  --header 'accept: application/json' \
  --header 'content-type: application/json' \
  --header 'x-bintu-apikey: YOUR-APIKEY' \
  --data '{
    "streamname": "YOUR_RTMP_STREAMNAME",
    "ingesturl": "YOUR_RTMP_INGEST_URL"
  }'

CURL response:
The token will be contained in data.token

{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "token": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpc3MiOiJuYW5vY29zbW9zIiwiZXhwIjoxMjM0NTY3ODksIm5iZiI6MTIzNDU2Nzg5LCJpbmdlc3R1cmwiOiJydG1wOi8vYmludHUtc3RyZWFtLm5hbm9jb3Ntb3MuZGU6MTkzNS9saXZlIiwic3RyZWFtbmFtZSI6ImFiYy1kZWYiLCJpYXQiOjE2MzU4NzEwOTN9.0BrnTUmu0A8yrcVHXj4OZU23sKpAHIQekALgW5jnZAo"
    }
}

3. Use the web token in the Webcaster​

var yourJWT = 'YOUR_JWT'; // obtain the web token by the previous step

// 1) the JWT is used for signing into the server

rtcuser.signIn({
  server: 'wss://bintu-webrtc.nanocosmos.de/p/webrtcws',
  jwt: yourJWT
});

...

// 2) pass the web token on startBroadcast()

rtcuser.startBroadcast({jwt: yourJWT });

Verify a web token​

You can verify a web token by passing it when calling the verification url:

Find a CURL example below:

curl --request POST \ 
--url https://cts.nanocosmos.de/webcaster/verify \ 
--header 'content-type: application/json' \ 
--data '{"token": "eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCIsImtpZCI6Im5hbm9jb3Ntb3MifQ..."}'

CURL response:
"success": true indicates token validity.

{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "token": "eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCIsImtpZCI6Im5hbm9jb3Ntb3MifQ..."
    }
}

Parsing information from a web token​

If you want to read the public information contained in a web token you can do that by decoding the token.
The token has its payload encoded in base64.

Example for decoding the JWT token
var yourJWT = 'YOUR_JWT';

var base64Url = yourJWT.split('.')[1];
var base64 = base64Url.replace('-', '+').replace('_', '/');

console.log(JSON.parse(atob(base64)));
Example console.log
{
  exp: 1636648020,
  iat: 1635434867,
  ingesturl: "YOUR_RTMP_INGEST_URL",
  iss: "nanocosmos",
  nbf: 1635434867,
  streamname: "YOUR_RTMP_STREAMNAME",
}
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