Settings to enable only audio both

[voidspacexyz]

It would be a very important feature to have the option to either enable audio or both audio + video as a plugin settings that can applied application wide. This is useful when we want to use the system just for audio call, and not always need video.

[orblivion]

Just to make sure I don't have you wrong here: It sounds like you want one setting (let's say "audio-only") that is true or false, which completely disables video on the platform? By contrast, the "enabled": false doesn't actually disable ep_webrtc; it just makes the video/audio chat turn off initially when you load a page.

[JohnMcLear]

what happens when you click disable video? does it kill audio too? afaik it might? I think OP is asking for a method to do audio without video, which afaik you can't?

[orblivion]

BTW it seems like at this point, the solution to #23 will cover this. Let's keep an eye on #23 from here.

[JohnMcLear]

@orblivion this is interesting

Ok... with the camera physically unplugged, but with a working microphone confirmed working live by the OS, I do not get the "allow video.etherpad.com to use your camera and microphone" request and the WebRTC column does not open.

With the microphone physically disabled but with the camera plugged in, I do get the prompt and can use the camera.

This means that if you only want to do audio you wouldn't get the popup request.

[orblivion]

With what's now in master, based on my experience if I disable my camera and load the page it will give me a pop up error message telling me that there's no suitable camera. Did this person get that error message? (it may take a second or two)

Now, if you use my changes in #43, you can set "video_allowed": false in settings.json (i.e. admin decision), and it will only ask for microphone in the permissions prompt. I tried this with my camera disabled. Unlike before, it didn't stop me from starting a conversation (except in one version of Firefox where the microphone seemed to stay muted. Firefox is inconsistent and weird in general here.).

However, if I'm a user without a camera and the admin hasn't disabled video, my changes in #43 will not let me use the "video disabled on start" feature to only request a microphone, since "disabled" in this sense is like "muted". Video should still be ready to go; you should be able to turn the camera track on with a click.

[orblivion]

Done via #43 ?