Embedded
developer guide

Whereby Embedded is an easy-to-use video meetings API. Embed video meetings into an application or website with the REST API ↗ allowing your team to build faster and ship more often.

Get started

To use the Embedded API you need to be on our Embedded product ↗, and you’ll need an API key. A new key is generated from the “Embedded” section in the Embedded dashboard. API keys can be renamed and deleted.

Create a meeting by sending a HTTP request to Whereby’s servers from your server. A successful response contains a roomUrl. Your API key is secret and should only be used from your server. Create a meeting.

Embed a meeting in your website or app with an iframe. The iframe’s src attribute is specified as the roomUrl. You can customize the meeting with URL parameters.

Whereby REST API

Create a meeting with a HTTP request containing your API key sent from your server to Whereby’s. The response contains a roomUrl that is embedded in your client within an iframe.

Calling Whereby’s API from your client should be done through an endpoint on your server. This will help keep the API key safe from exposing it to users. For this reason, the API does not return an Access-Control-Allow-Origin header in its response.

Create a meeting

To create a meeting, send an HTTP request with the necessary parameters in the body. Available parameters and formats can be found in the API docs ↗. Both startDate and endDate are interpreted as UTC by default, but other time zones are supported by including an offset in hours and minutes. For example, Eastern Standard Time (EST) would be expressed as 2021-08-11T07:56:01-05:00.

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curl https://api.whereby.dev/v1/meetings \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --request POST \
  --data @- << EOF
{
  "startDate": "2021-08-03T17:04:00.000Z",
  "endDate": "2021-08-04T17:03:00.000Z",
  "fields": ["hostRoomUrl"]
}
EOF

$api_key = "YOUR_API_KEY";
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://api.whereby.dev/v1/meetings');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, '{
  "startDate": "2021-08-03T17:04:00.000Z",
  "endDate": "2021-08-04T17:03:00.000Z",
  "fields": ["hostRoomUrl"]}'
);

$headers = [
  'Authorization: Bearer ' . $api_key,
  'Content-Type: application/json'
];

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
$httpcode = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);

curl_close($ch);

echo "Status code: $httpcode\n";
$data = json_decode($response);
echo "Room URL: ", $data->{'roomUrl'}, "\n";
echo "Host room URL: ", $data->{'hostRoomUrl'}, "\n";

const fetch = require("node-fetch");

const API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY";

const data = {
  startDate: "2021-08-03T17:04:00.000Z",
  endDate: "2021-08-04T17:03:00.000Z",
  fields: ["hostRoomUrl"],
};

function getResponse() {
    return fetch("https://api.whereby.dev/v1/meetings", {
        method: "POST",
        headers: {
            Authorization: `Bearer ${API_KEY}`,
            "Content-Type": "application/json",
        },
        body: JSON.stringify(data),
    });
}

getResponse().then(async res => {
    console.log("Status code:", res.status);
    const data = await res.json();
    console.log("Room URL:", data.roomUrl);
    console.log("Host room URL:", data.hostRoomUrl);
});

import requests
import json

API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY"

data = {
    "startDate": "2021-08-03T17:04:00.000Z",
    "endDate": "2021-08-04T17:03:00.000Z",
    "fields": ["hostRoomUrl"],
}

headers = {
    "Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
}

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.whereby.dev/v1/meetings",
    headers=headers,
    json=data
)

print("Status code:", response.status_code)
data = json.loads(response.text)
print("Room URL:", data["roomUrl"])
print("Host room URL:", data["hostRoomUrl"])

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{
    "meetingId": "1",
    "startDate": "2021-08-03T17:04:00.000Z",
    "endDate": "2021-08-04T17:03:00.000Z",
    "roomUrl": "https://example.whereby.com/room",
    "hostRoomUrl": "https://example.whereby.com/room?roomKey=eFhcG...i00ZG"
}

401 Response: API key missing or invalid

Embed a meeting

Embedding a meeting into a service or app requires using an iframe with the src attribute specified as the roomUrl. Read the Allowed domains section to learn how to allow your website’s domain so that browsers don’t block the iframe.

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<iframe
  src="https://subdomain.whereby.com/room?minimal"
  allow="camera; microphone; fullscreen; speaker; display-capture"
></iframe>

Embedding in Android

Embedding in Android requires the use of the WebView class. To allow Whereby to access the camera, you need to do two things:

Override the method WebChromeClient.onPermissionRequest to avoid the default implementation. You can just return true.
Add the parameter ?skipMediaPermissionPrompt to the room embed URL.

Embedding in iOS

WKWebView supports embedding pages that use WebRTC from iOS 14.5 onwards. To support older iOS versions it is recommended to use one of the following options:

For iOS 14.3 and 14.4 use SFSafariViewController to open a website containing an iframe with its src specified as a Whereby meeting, alongside a custom user interface.
Redirect to mobile Safari for iOS versions lower than 14.3.

To use Whereby with Cordova (Phonegap) please use the plugin for SafariViewController

Meeting customization

Meeting customization is achieved with url parameters for each iframe instance. It’s possible for each participant in a meeting to have different parameter combinations. Learn more about combining parameters.

URL Parameter	Description
`?minimal`	Applies a minimal UI. Turns off all controls except for cam and mic.
`?video=off`	Participant joins the meeting with camera turned off.
`?audio=off`	Participant joins the meeting with microphone turned off.
`?screenshare=<on\|off>`	Show/hide the screenshare button.
`?chat=<on\|off>`	Show/hide the chat button.
`?people=off`	Hide the people button.
`?leaveButton=<on\|off>`	Show/hide the leave button.
`?displayName=<name>`	Set display name of participant.
`?background=off`	Hide the meeting background.
`?logo=off`	Hide the logo in the room header.
`?locking=off`	Hide the room lock button.
`?participantCount=off`	Hide the participant counter.
`?settingsButton=off`	Hide the settings button.
`?pipButton=off`	Hide the Picture in Picture button.
`?moreButton=off`	Hide the more button.
`?lang=<code>`	Set the meeting UI language to either English `en`, French `fr`, German `de`, Norwegian `nb`, Portuguese `pt`, Spanish `es`, or Japanese `jp`.
`?floatSelf`	Float the self view to the bottom right.
`?breakout=<on\|off>`	Show/hide the breakout room feature for the meeting host.
`?groups=Orange,Banana,Coconut`	Predefine up to 20 groups for the breakout groups function.
`?timer=<on\|off>`	Show/hide the meeting timer.
`?precallReview=<on\|off>`	Determines if users see the pre-call review step.
`?personality=<on\|off>`	Can be used to turn off “cheery” UI language that may not fit certain businesses.

Property details

?minimal

The minimal parameter applies a combination of UI adjustments to simplify the embedded meeting interface.

Hidden items: Status bar, chat button, screensharing button, leave button, and Whereby’s branding.

Shown items: Video and audio buttons.

For further adjustments, additional parameters can be combined with ?minimal. For example ?minimal&chat=on will show the chat button.

?video=off

Participants join the meeting with their camera off, they can turn it on whenever they want.

Use case: A sales representative showcasing a product to a customer relaxing at home.

?audio=off

Participants join the meeting with their microphone off, they can turn it on whenever they want.

Use case: A presentation is being given in a big meeting where attendees are not expected to participate verbally.

?screenshare=<on|off>

Show/hide the screensharing button for the meeting participant.

Screensharing is available on all browsers that support this natively. Currently no mobile browsers support screensharing.

?chat=<on|off>

Show/hide the chat button. Messages are not stored after the meeting has ended.

?people=off

Hide the people button.

Use case: The people button shows the participant list, which can be useful for bulk management of participants in bigger meetings.

?displayName=<name>

Set the display name for a participant instead of prompting the user for this information.

Use case: A participant’s name may be known before they join the meeting. Including this information as a parameter will save the user from entering their name again.

?background=off

Hide the default meeting background.

Use case: Hiding the meeting background allows the meeting to appear more integrated by allowing the app or service’s branding shine through as the new background.

?logo=off

Hide the logo in the room header.

Use case: Control whether or not your company logo is displayed in the room header.

?locking=off

Hide the room lock button.

Use case: When set to off the lock button won’t be displayed in the room header. Also, hosts won’t be able to lock/unlock the room through the settings menu or the keyboard shortcut.

?participantCount=off

Hide the participant counter.

Use case: Will display the current and maximum number of participants in the room, e.g. “2/4” or “13/100”.

?settingsButton=off

Hide the settings button.

Use case: Control whether or not the settings button is displayed in the room header.

?pipButton=off

Hide the Picture in Picture button.

Use case: Control whether or not the Picture in Picture button is displayed in the room header. Picture in Picture lets you pop out your meeting guests’ faces while browsing other tabs or applications.

?moreButton=off

Hide the “…” button.

Use case: Control whether or not the “…” button is displayed in the room header.

?lang=<code>

Set the meeting UI language to match your product or service. Select from either English en, French fr, Spanish es, Norwegian nb, Portuguese pt, or Japanese jp.

?floatSelf

Float the self view to the bottom right.

Use case: Floating the self view to the bottom right maximizes the space for other meeting participants.

?breakout=<on|off>

Show/hide the breakout room feature for the meeting host.

Use case: Combine bigger meetings with smaller, collaborative sessions. Your hosts can start breakout sessions where participants are split into smaller groups.

?groups=Orange,Banana,Coconut

Predefine up to 20 groups for the breakout groups function.

Use case: Setting up groups ahead of time can save the host time during the meeting. Hosts will still be able to modify the group setup during the session using the in-room controls if needed.

?timer=<on|off>

Show/hide the breakout room feature for the meeting host.

Use case: Set this to “on” to have the meeting timer be displayed in the room. When set to “off”, room hosts can still activate the meeting timer from the “…” button, unless this button has been hidden via the ?minimal or ?moreButton=off parameters.

?precallReview=<on|off>

Determines if users see the pre-call review step.

Use case: The pre-call review step will allow users to check their video/audio settings before joining the room, but this can be skipped by setting this parameter to “off”.

?personality=<on|off>

Can be used to turn off “cheery” UI language that may not fit certain businesses.

Use case: Set this to “off” to use more neutral language for certain text strings, like replacing “Have a good one!” with “You’ve left the room” when participants leave the room.

Combining parameters

Further customize the meeting by combining parameters by using the ampersand symbol (&). The following example combines the embed with screenshare=off and people=off

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https://subdomain.whereby.com/room?screenshare=off&people=off

Host privileges

Hosts can join the meeting with the hostRoomUrl. They have the following features available:

Lock and unlock the meeting.
Remove, mute, and spotlight meeting participants.
Enter locked rooms without knocking.
Host privileges are valid an hour before the startDate and an hour after the endDate.

An example of the returned JSON containing the hostRoomUrl. Explore more in the API docs ↗.

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{
    "meetingId": "1",
    "startDate": "2021-08-03T17:04:00.000Z",
    "endDate": "2021-08-04T17:03:00.000Z",
    "roomUrl": "https://example.whereby.com/room",
    "hostRoomUrl": "https://example.whereby.com/room?roomKey=eFhcG...i00ZG"
}

Localhost

Currently, embedding on localhost is not supported. An alternative is to redirect a local DNS name to localhost (127.0.0.1) by adding an entry to the file /etc/hosts, and checking the domain is allowed. Only HTTPS domains are allowed, so a self-signed SSL certificate is also required. Follow this guide to learn more ↗.

Allowed domains

For embedded meetings in an iframe to work inside a website, its domain has to be allowed. The list of allowed domains can be updated from the “Account settings” section in the Embedded dashboard.

Please note that domains must be prefixed by https:// and have no path. Wildcards to allow all subdomains under a domain are permitted, for example https://*.domain.com. If you are using another port than 443 for https, you need to include a line allowing it, for example https://dev.domain.com:8080.

To validate which domains are allowed, follow the instructions in Troubleshooting.

Webhooks

Webhooks ↗ are user-defined callbacks triggered by meeting events. They are created in the ”Embedded” section. These are the two supported event types:

room.client.joined: Sent when a user joins a meeting after the pre-call screen if enabled.
room.client.left: Sent when a user leaves a meeting room, either by closing the browser tab or by click on the leave button.

Please note that webhook events are sent for interactions that happen between one hour before the startDate and an hour after the endDate of a meeting.

Event objects

Events are delivered to their corresponding webhook endpoint in JSON format, as the body of an HTTP request. The table below describes their top-level attributes.

Property	Description
`apiVersion`	The Whereby API version used to populate data.
`createdAt`	ISO representation of the creation date of the event.
`type`	The event’s type identifier, e.g. `room.client.joined`
`data`	Object containing information associated with the event.

Data properties

The data property for both room.client.joined and room.client.left has the following properties:

Property	Description
`roleName`	The client’s role depending on what URL they use to access the meeting.
`meetingId`	The identifier of the meeting that the user has joined/left.
`roomName`	The string that identifies the room assigned to the meeting. It’s the last path parameter of the roomUrl.
`numClients`	Number of clients connected to the meeting after the event.

The property roleName will have one of the following values:

host: A user joined using the hostRoomUrl.
visitor: A user joined using the regular roomUrl.
granted_visitor: Same as a visitor but can join without knocking if the room is locked.
member: A user with an account in your Embedded organization.
owner: A user with an admin account in your Embedded organization.

An example of a webhook event object:

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{
    "apiVersion": "1.0",
    "createdAt": "2021-01-21T16:29:59.681Z",
    "type": "room.client.joined",
    "data": {
        "roleName": "host",
        "meetingId": "134",
        "roomName": "/af0b7b66-c738-4981-887a-ad416754f32d",
        "numClients": 8
    }
}

Validating events

To prevent from man-in-the-middle attacks ↗ , webhook requests to your endpoint contain a signature in the Whereby-Signature header. This string is generated with a unique secret that only you can view when creating or editing a webhook in the Embedded dashboard. Only Whereby and you have access to this secret, and no third party can send forged events to your endpoint. On top of that the header also includes a timestamp to help you prevent replay attacks. The header is composed of a timestamp and the signature itself, for example:

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Whereby-Signature: t=1606227791,v1=94a23dc9d73e8e6abdf9d4095aee954697e9317e9649e742361b35707edd45a3

To verify an event’s signature, follow these steps:

Extract the timestamp and signature by splitting the string on , then removing both t= and v1= from the resulting strings.
Prepare the signedPayload string by concatenating the timestamp (as a string), the character . and the JSON event object (the request body).
Calculate the HMAC: It is the SHA256 hash of signedPayload, using the endpoint’s signing secret (the one you get when creating the webhook) as the key.
Compare the signature from the header to the one you just generated. To protect yourself from timing attacks consider using a constant-time equality function instead of the default equality operator of the language you’re using. Finally, to prevent replay attacks, compare the header’s timestamp with the current one and decide if the elapsed time is within your allowed threshold.

Failed delivery

Any 5xx response to the webhook delivery request will trigger a retry, for a total of 2 retries. A short exponential backoff will be used.

Troubleshooting

Verify an API key

Check if an API key is valid with the simple interface below. Alternatively use cURL from either a terminal window or server.

API key*

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curl https://api.whereby.dev/v1/hello \
  --head \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer API_KEY"

A 200 response indicates the API key is working. A 401 response means the provided key is incorrect.

Check if a domain is allowed

Enter your Whereby organization’s subdomain and run the cURL command in a terminal window.

Subdomain*

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curl --head "https://YOUR_SUBDOMAIN.whereby.com"

A successful response is indicated with your allowed domains included in the Content-Security-Policy’s header.

Embedded developer guide

Get started

Whereby REST API

Create a meeting

Embed a meeting

Embedding in Android

Embedding in iOS

Meeting customization

Property details

Combining parameters

Host privileges

Localhost

Allowed domains

Webhooks

Event objects

Data properties

Validating events

Failed delivery

Troubleshooting

Verify an API key

Check if a domain is allowed

Embedded
developer guide