Mind API is a cloud platform (aka PaaS) that enables you to build applications where group of people communicate on the Internet using voice and video. For example, you can easily build a standalone application for video conferencing from scratch, or embed audio and video communication capabilities into an existing chat application, and do a lot more. Here is a list of features of Mind API:

• Voice and video chats for up to X participants
• Instant text messaging between the participants
• Manageable recording of meetings on the server side
• P2P audio and video calls (coming soon)
• Screen/window sharing and streaming multimedia content
• Support for SIP participants
• Support for H.323 participants (coming soon)
• Sourcing external RTSP and RTMP streams (coming soon)

Mind API allows you to take a full advantage of described functionality without a need to dive deep into low level details. All the complexity is hidden behind a simple HTTP-based API which can be used directly on the server, but we highly encourage you to stick with one of our SDKs on the client:

• Mind Web SDK
• Mind Android SDK
• Mind iOS SDK

Mind API is RESTful and built on top of HTTP. It uses predictable resource URIs and standard HTTP response status codes to indicate errors. The API accepts and returns JSON in the HTTP body. We use standard HTTP methods and authentication which are understood by almost any off-the-shelf HTTP client. We support cross-origin resource sharing, allowing you to interact directly with our API from a client-side web application deployed to its own domain. Mind API uses WebSockets to keep all the parts of your application in sync (they also help tracking the presence of participants).

To demonstrate what you can do with Mind API we have developed a simple web-application for video conferencing. It allows you to create a media room where up to 5 participants can communicate using voice, video and text messages. The room is automatically destroyed in 15 minutes after creation. Try it yourself.

To use Mind API you will need an application ID and a token. For development purpose we suggest you to start with our free shared application ID 00e1db72-c57d-478c-88be-3533d43c8b34 and corresponding token:

W1VJggwnvg2ldDdvSYES07tpLCWLDlD5nFakVJ6QSCPiZRpAMGyAzKW07OpM1IpceZ2WT5h5Mu7Ekt7WDTQzMUoQkVTRE4NdYUFE

They allow creating unlimited number of conferences with up to 5 participants and up to 15 minutes duration each. These limits should be enough for you to start developing your application. To get an application ID and a token without such limits, please fill out a form here.

Authentication is performed using bearer HTTP authentication scheme, thereby all HTTP requests to Mind API must include an access token which must be sent in the Authorization HTTP request header:

Authorization: Bearer <token>

If the client is unable to set the headers (which is the case for Javascript WebSocket API), the token can be sent as a value of access_token HTTP request parameter. Any request without a valid token will return 401 - Unauthorized HTTP response status code.

There are two types of accesss tokens: application token and participant token. Application token is requested together with the application ID. Application token gives anyone who is using it a full access to Mind API on behalf of corresponding application. This type of token is required to create and delete conferences, it is intended to be used on server-side code only and should never be exposed in public, i.e. never share your application token in publicly accessible areas such GitHub, client-side code, and so forth.

Participant token is generated whenever your create a new participant in the conference. It can't be used for conference creation or deletion (like application token), but it gives an ability to act on behalf of the corresponding participant, and is intended to be passed to (and used on) a client-side code. Every participant token is tied to a single conference. It invalidates if conference ends or if the participant was expelled from the conference.

Mind API uses conventional HTTP response status codes to indicate whether a specific API request has been completed successfully of failed. In general, 200 indicates success, 4xx indicate a failure due to supplied parameters, and 500 indicates an error on the server-side.

Mind API uses WebSockets to keep an application and participants^* informed of all the changes in the conference, and to track the presence of the participants: if WebSocket connection is opened on behalf of a participant he is considered to be online, otherwise Mind API treats him as offline. This means that any participant has only to open or close WebSocket connection to join or leave the conference, respectively, but you don't have to do it manually on behalf of the participant (i.e. on the client), because SDK will do it for you. For opening WebSocket on behalf of the application (i.e. on the server) — to make it receive notifications — use the following URI:

wss://api.mind.com/<applicationId>/<conferenceId>

WebSocket opening request requires a token. Every WebSocket connection is tied to only one conference. To receive notifications about multiple conferences, your server has to open multiple WebSockets — one for every conference.

A separate notification is sent for every change in the conference. It is sent to everyone except the one who caused the change. Each notification is a JSON with three attributes: type, location and resource. The type attribute can have one of the following values: created, updated and deleted. They correspond to creation of a new resource and modification and deletion of the existent one, respectively. The location attribute contains an URI of the affected resource. The URI is relative to the conference, / URI means the conference itself. The resource attribute stores an initial or a new value of the created or updated resource, respectively. Here is an example of the notification which is sent when a new participant is created:

{
    "type": "created",
    "location": "/participants/24300bf9-d9f2-4bbf-9719-8660d110bc63",
    "resource": {
        "id": "24300bf9-d9f2-4bbf-9719-8660d110bc63",
        "online": false,
        "name": "John Doe",
        "role": "speaker",
        "media": {
            "audio": false,
            "video": false
        },
        "secondaryMedia": {
            "audio": false,
            "video": false
        }
    }
}

Usually any WebSocket is closed by the one who has opened it, but it also can be closed at the initiative of the Mind API: if an online participant is deleted its WebSocket is closed with 4001 code, if an entire conference is deleted all opened WebSockets tied to the conference are closed with 4000 code. Again, you don't have to worry of these codes on the client if your use SDK.

* Here we are talking about participants who use Mind API/SDK only. Any participant who has joined the conference using SIP or H.323 receives no notifications, and her presence is tied to the state of the call: she is online till she is on the phone, otherwise she is offline.