Remove dependency on unique nick names

[blenderskool]

The unique nicknames rule was originally added to prevent multiple sessions from the same browser window. It is used in some places to identify a peer in the room. This dependency on the unique nicknames should be removed and auto-generated unique id must be used.

Update
This description was not clear in terms of when peers would be allowed in the room or not. Here are the cases that can happen:

• Should peers with the same nicknames be allowed in the same room?
  Yes, peers with the same nicknames would be allowed in the same room (assuming they have unique ids).
• Can the same peer join the same room from a different tab?
  No, this shouldn't be allowed. This would cause two peers with the same id in the same room which isn't needed.
• Can the same peer join two different rooms from different tabs?
  Yes, this should be possible.

[omnone]

Hey I am interested on this, can you provide some more information ? Thanks!

[blenderskool]

Hi @omnone,
A quick way to see the issue is by going to Blaze from two different tabs and join the same room. There will be a message stating User with the same name exists in this room. This is because Blaze expects the name of the user to be unique in a room.

The best place to start working on this issue is to:

• go to socketConnect.js and check what data we are sending right now while joining a room. Maybe add an auto-generated id here.
• check the WebSocket server in server/index.js and update it to use the above id instead of name in some places. Especially in room.broadcast method.
• Update the frontend to make use of the above id too. Most of the code in the frontend uses name or peerId for identifying the peer right now, All of these need to be refactored accordingly.

All in all, this issue has a large impact area.

[omnone]

Awesome i will give it a try thanks!

[blenderskool]

Sure @omnone 😄

[omnone]

Will users be still able to select their usernames or will uuids be used everywhere?

[blenderskool]

@omnone yes users will still be able to use nicknames. The flow does not change for a user in anyway. Only internally users would be identified by the unique id

[blenderskool]

Closing this. There's no need for this right now and I think it'll cause confusions to the user(seeing two-three peers with same nickname). We are adding a way to change nickname so that should also solve issues for people incorrectly setting same nicknames on all their devices.