Session Recorder

System Overview

Session Recorder is a distributed audio recording system with three main components:

• C++ Chunk Source Client: Captures audio from ALSA devices and streams chunks via gRPC
• Go Backend Server: Receives audio chunks, manages sessions, provides API
• Vue.js Web Interface: User interface for managing recordings and sessions

Running Backend Server and Web Interface

With Docker

# Start all backend services
./docker-build.sh up --build

# View service status
./docker-build.sh ps

# Follow logs
./docker-build.sh logs

# Stop services
./docker-build.sh down

# Complete cleanup
./docker-build.sh clean

This starts:

• Web Interface: http://localhost:3000
• MinIO Console: http://localhost:9090 (admin/password123)
• Go Backend Services:
  • ChunkSink gRPC: localhost:8779
  • SessionSource gRPC: localhost:8780
• gRPC-Web Proxy: http://localhost:8080
• MinIO API: http://localhost:9000

Connecting Audio Sources

Build the chunk sink (recording device)

Before building the components, ensure you have the required dependencies installed:

dnf install cmake make gcc-c++ alsa-lib-devel avahi-devel grpc-data grpc grpc-cpp grpc-plugins grpc-devel protobuf-devel boost-devel

1. Generate Protocol Buffers

cd protocols
npm install
make clean
make all
cd ..

2. Build C++ Client

cd ./cpp/chunk-sink-client
cmake --build .
chmod +x ./chunk-sink-client
cd ../..

Execute

# Run from project root directory
./cpp/chunk-sink-client/chunk-sink-client --recorder-id <uuid> --recorder-name <name>
# ./cpp/chunk-sink-client/chunk-sink-client --recorder-id 10b26ce0-75ff-4548-84e1-c91d955b1151 --recorder-name "Living Room"

Configuration

Email Sharing (SMTP)

Email sharing allows sending session and segment download links via email. Configure with these environment variables:

Variable	Required	Description
SMTP_HOST	Yes	SMTP server hostname
SMTP_PORT	No	SMTP port (default: 587)
SMTP_USERNAME	Yes	SMTP authentication username
SMTP_PASSWORD	Yes	SMTP authentication password
SMTP_FROM	No	Sender email address
SMTP_FROM_NAME	No	Sender display name

If SMTP_HOST is not set, email sharing is disabled.

File Sharing

File sharing generates download links for sessions and segments. Three methods are available:

Method	FILE_SHARE_METHOD	Description
Direct	direct (default)	Presigned URLs from the main S3 storage
S3 Copy	s3_copy	Copies files to a separate S3 bucket for sharing
Dropbox	dropbox	Uploads to Dropbox with shareable link

Dropbox configuration:

Variable	Required	Default
FILE_SHARE_DROPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN	Yes	-
FILE_SHARE_DROPBOX_FOLDER	No	/SessionRecorder

To use Dropbox:

1. Create a Dropbox App:

   • Go to Dropbox App Console
   • Click "Create app"
   • Select "Scoped access"
   • Choose "Full Dropbox" (access to all files) or "App folder" (isolated folder)
   • Enter an app name (e.g., "Session Recorder")
   • Click "Create app"

2. Configure Permissions:

   • In your app settings, go to the "Permissions" tab
   • Enable these permissions:
     • files.content.write - to upload files
     • sharing.write - to create shared links
   • Click "Submit" to save permissions

3. Generate Access Token:

   • Go to the "Settings" tab
   • Scroll to "OAuth 2" section
   • Under "Generated access token", click "Generate"
   • Copy the token (it won't be shown again)

   Note: This generates a long-lived access token for development. For production, consider implementing OAuth 2.0 refresh token flow.

4. Set the environment variable:

   export FILE_SHARE_DROPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN="your_access_token_here"

5. (Optional) Custom folder path:

   export FILE_SHARE_DROPBOX_FOLDER="/MyRecordings"

S3 Copy configuration:

Variable	Required	Default
FILE_SHARE_S3_ENDPOINT	Yes	-
FILE_SHARE_S3_PUBLIC_ENDPOINT	No	Same as endpoint
FILE_SHARE_S3_ACCESS_KEY	Yes	-
FILE_SHARE_S3_SECRET_KEY	Yes	-
FILE_SHARE_S3_BUCKET	No	shared-files
FILE_SHARE_S3_USE_SSL	No	true

Dev Environment

1. Start Infrastructure (MinIO + Envoy)

# Start
./start-dev.sh

# Stop
./stop-dev.sh

2. Build & Start Go Backend

cd go && go build -o bin/chunk-sink ./cmd/chunk_sink && cd ..

./go/bin/chunk-sink \
  -s3-endpoint=localhost:9000 \
  -s3-local-endpoint=localhost:9000 \
  -s3-public-endpoint=<YOUR_PUBLIC_URL> \
  -s3-access-key=<ACCESS_KEY> \
  -s3-secret-key=<SECRET_KEY>

CLI Flags Reference

Flag	Env Var	Default	Description
-chunk-sink-port	CHUNK_SINK_PORT	8779	ChunkSink gRPC port
-session-source-port	SESSION_SOURCE_PORT	8780	SessionSource gRPC port
-s3-endpoint	S3_ENDPOINT	localhost:9000	MinIO/S3 internal endpoint
-s3-local-endpoint	S3_LOCAL_ENDPOINT	(s3-endpoint)	S3 endpoint for UI URLs
-s3-public-endpoint	S3_PUBLIC_ENDPOINT	(s3-local-endpoint)	S3 endpoint for external sharing
-s3-access-key	S3_ACCESS_KEY	(required)	S3 access key
-s3-secret-key	S3_SECRET_KEY	(required)	S3 secret key

3. Build & Start Web Interface

cd web

# Development mode
npm start

# Production build
VITE_GRPC_SERVER_URL=http://localhost:8081 npm run build
npx serve -l 4200 -s dist/web

4. Start Recording Device

./cpp/chunk-sink-client/chunk-sink-client \
  --recorder-id $(uuidgen) \
  --recorder-name "My Recorder" \
  --device default