Allow two clients interact without server

Question

Is it possible to allow two clients interact directly without a server?

I am referring to websites, for example is it possible to create a chat between two clients that are on the same website using only javascript on the client-side.

If not, what's the minimum server-side to make a chat work between active clients on a website? (eg: one PHP file and no database) ?

My idea: Storing the conversation would be easily done using localStorage on each client, the problem is how to send some data from client1 to client2 without storing anything (or at most that message) in the database. Also, note that "past" conversations should not visible, so no storage needed for that.

Note that I don't want any nodeJS or websocket solutions, I want something as simple as possible. So, what's the minimum code and files to make a chat between online users?

Answer 1

The WebRTC APIs will allow JavaScript to initiate a direct browser-to-browser connection, but a server is still required to serve the page and coordinate session initiation.

The APIs are still rapidly evolving and only available in bleeding-edge browsers, so it's not yet ready for real production use.

However—to be honest—for what you're trying to do, the easiest option is Node and socket.io:

var http=require('http'), express=require('express'), sio = require('socket.io')
    , app=express(), srv = http.createServer(app);

app.use(express.static(__dirname+'/static'));

sio.listen(srv);
srv.listen(80);

...and now you have a working websockets server in 5 lines. Put all your client-side stuff in the static folder and you're good to go.