PHP Quick Start: Create and Join a Meeting
This tutorial provides a complete, step-by-step example of how to use the plugNmeet-sdk-php library to create a new meeting room and generate a secure join token for a user.
The logic follows a common workflow: check if a room exists, create it if it doesn't, and then generate a URL for a user to join.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, ensure you have the following:
- A working PlugNmeet server with your API Key and Secret.
- The latest version of the plugNmeet-sdk-php library downloaded.
Step 1: Setup & Configuration
First, create a PHP file (e.g., quickJoin.php) and include the plugNmeetConnect.php class from the SDK. Then, create a configuration object with your server details.
<?php
require __DIR__ . "/plugNmeetConnect.php";
// Step 1: Configuration
$config = new stdClass();
$config->plugnmeet_server_url = "http://localhost:8080"; // Your server URL
$config->plugnmeet_api_key = "plugnmeet"; // Your API Key
$config->plugnmeet_secret = "zumyyYWqv7KR2kUqvYdq4z4sXg7XTBD2ljT6"; // Your API Secret
$connect = new plugNmeetConnect($config);
Step 2: Define Room & User Parameters
Next, define the basic parameters for the room you want to create and the user who will be joining. The $roomMetadata array allows you to customize every aspect of the room's features, from enabling webcams to setting default lock permissions.
// Step 2: Room and User definitions
$roomId = "room01"; // Must be unique. You can also use $connect->getUUID();
$user_full_name = "Your Name";
$userId = "your-unique-user-id"; // Must be unique for each user.
// Define all the features for this specific room.
$roomMetadata = array(
"room_features" => array(
"allow_webcams" => true,
"mute_on_start" => false,
"allow_screen_share" => true,
"room_duration" => 0 // 0 = no limit
),
// ... and many more options
);
View Full Room Metadata Options
$roomMetadata = array(
"room_features" => array(
"allow_webcams" => true,
"mute_on_start" => false,
"allow_screen_share" => true,
"allow_rtmp" => true,
"allow_view_other_webcams" => true,
"allow_view_other_users_list" => true,
"admin_only_webcams" => false,
"enable_analytics" => true,
"allow_virtual_bg" => true,
"allow_raise_hand" => true,
"room_duration" => 0 // in minutes. 0 = no limit/unlimited
),
"recording_features" => array(
"is_allow" => true,
"is_allow_cloud" => true,
"is_allow_local" => true,
"enable_auto_cloud_recording" => false
),
"chat_features" => array(
"allow_chat" => true,
"allow_file_upload" => true
),
"shared_note_pad_features" => array(
"allowed_shared_note_pad" => true
),
"whiteboard_features" => array(
"allowed_whiteboard" => true,
//"preload_file" => "https://mydomain.com/text_book.pdf"
),
"external_media_player_features" => array(
"allowed_external_media_player" => true
),
"waiting_room_features" => array(
"is_active" => false,
),
"breakout_room_features" => array(
"is_allow" => true,
"allowed_number_rooms" => 2
),
"display_external_link_features" => array(
"is_allow" => true,
),
"ingress_features" => array(
"is_allow" => true,
),
"speech_to_text_translation_features" => array(
"is_allow" => true,
"is_allow_translation" => true,
),
"end_to_end_encryption_features" => array(
"is_enabled" => false,
),
"default_lock_settings" => array(
"lock_microphone" => false,
"lock_webcam" => false,
"lock_screen_sharing" => true,
"lock_whiteboard" => true,
"lock_shared_notepad" => true,
"lock_chat" => false,
"lock_chat_send_message" => false,
"lock_chat_file_share" => false,
"lock_private_chat" => false // user can always send private message to moderator
)
);
Step 3: The Logic Flow - Check, Create, Join
The following code blocks implement the core logic.
3.1 Check if the Room is Active
First, we call the API to see if a room with the specified $roomId already exists and is active.
$isRoomActive = false;
$output = new stdClass();
$output->status = false;
try {
// Check if the room already exists on the server
$res = $connect->isRoomActive($roomId);
if (!$res->getStatus()) {
$output->msg = $res->getResponseMsg();
} else {
$isRoomActive = $res->isActive();
$output->status = true;
}
} catch (Exception $e) {
$output->msg = $e->getMessage();
}
3.2 If Not, Create the Room
If the room is not active, we proceed to create it using the parameters we defined earlier.
if (!$isRoomActive && $output->status) {
try {
// The room doesn't exist, so we create it now.
$create = $connect->createRoom($roomId, "Test room", "Welcome to room", 0, "", $roomMetadata);
$isRoomActive = $create->getStatus();
$output->status = $create->getStatus();
$output->msg = $create->getResponseMsg();
} catch (Exception $e) {
$output->msg = $e->getMessage();
}
}
3.3 Generate the Join Token
Once we have confirmed the room is active (either because it already existed or we just created it), we can generate a secure, single-use join token for our user.
if ($isRoomActive && $output->status) {
try {
// The room is active, now we can generate a join token.
$join = $connect->getJoinToken($roomId, $user_full_name, $userId, true);
$output->url = $config->plugnmeet_server_url . "?access_token=" . $join->getToken();
$output->status = $join->getStatus();
$output->msg = $join->getResponseMsg();
} catch (Exception $e) {
$output->msg = $e->getMessage();
}
}
Step 4: Redirecting the User
After successfully generating the join token, the complete meeting URL will be in the $output->url variable. You can now redirect your user to this URL to join the meeting.
if ($output->status) {
header("Location: " . $output->url);
exit;
} else {
echo $output->msg;
}
Next Steps
This quick start guide uses the simplest method to get a user into a room. For a more deeply integrated experience, you can build a custom client interface using the getClientFiles() API method. This allows you to host the client on your own page without using an iframe.
See the conference.php file in our PHP-SDK for a complete example.