1<?% config.freshness.owner = 'hta' %?> 2<?% config.freshness.reviewed = '2021-04-12' %?> 3 4# The WebRTC API 5 6The public API of the WebRTC library consists of the api/ directory and 7its subdirectories. No other files should be depended on by webrtc users. 8 9Before starting to code against the API, it is important to understand 10some basic concepts, such as: 11 12* Memory management, including webrtc's reference counted objects 13* [Thread management](threading_design.md) 14 15## Using WebRTC through the PeerConnection class 16 17The 18[PeerConnectionInterface](https://source.chromium.org/chromium/chromium/src/+/main:third_party/webrtc/api/peer_connection_interface.h?q=webrtc::PeerConnectionInterface) 19class is the recommended way to use the WebRTC library. 20 21It is closely modeled after the Javascript API documented in the [WebRTC 22specification](https://w3c.github.io/webrtc-pc/). 23 24PeerConnections are created using the [PeerConnectionFactoryInterface](https://source.chromium.org/search?q=webrtc::PeerConnectionFactoryInterface). 25 26There are two levels of customization available: 27 28* Pass a PeerConnectionFactoryDependencies object to the function that creates 29 a PeerConnectionFactory. This object defines factories for a lot of internal 30 objects inside the PeerConnection, so that users can override them. 31 All PeerConnections using this interface will have the same options. 32* Pass a PeerConnectionInterface::RTCConfiguration object to the 33 CreatePeerConnectionOrError() function on the 34 PeerConnectionFactoryInterface. These customizations will apply only to a 35 single PeerConnection. 36 37Most functions on the PeerConnection interface are asynchronous, and take a 38callback that is executed when the function is finished. The callbacks are 39mostly called on the thread that is passed as the "signaling thread" field of 40the PeerConnectionFactoryDependencies, or the thread that called 41PeerConnectionFactory::CreatePeerConnectionOrError() if no thread is given. 42 43See each class' module documentation for details. 44 45## Using WebRTC components without the PeerConnection class 46 47This needs to be done carefully, and in consultation with the WebRTC team. There 48are non-obvious dependencies between many of the components. 49 50 51 52