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Local Setup

In this step, we'll configure your local development environment to use the Azure Communication Services (ACS) JavaScript SDK.

This tutorial walks these steps in order:

flowchart TD
    START["Local Setup"]
    N1["1. Install Node.js and npm"]
    N2["2. Initialize Node.js Project"]
    N3["3. Install ACS SDK Packages"]
    N4["4. Create ACS Resource in Azure"]
    N5["5. Get Connection String"]
    N6["6. Set Up Environment Variables"]
    N7["7. Verify with Simple Identity Token Creation"]
    START --> N1
    N1 --> N2
    N2 --> N3
    N3 --> N4
    N4 --> N5
    N5 --> N6
    N6 --> N7

1. Install Node.js and npm

Ensure you have Node.js 18 or later and npm (installed with Node.js) or yarn installed.

# Check Node.js version
node --version

# Check npm version
npm --version

2. Initialize Node.js Project

Create a new directory for your project and initialize it with npm.

mkdir acs-js-tutorial
cd acs-js-tutorial
npm init -y

3. Install ACS SDK Packages

Install the necessary ACS SDK packages via npm.

npm install @azure/communication-identity @azure/communication-sms @azure/communication-email @azure/communication-chat @azure/communication-calling @azure/communication-phone-numbers

4. Create ACS Resource in Azure

  1. Log in to the Azure Portal.
  2. Click Create a resource and search for Communication Services.
  3. Fill in the required details:
    • Resource Group: Create a new or use an existing one.
    • Resource Name: Choose a unique name.
    • Data Location: Select a location near you.
  4. Click Review + create and then Create.

5. Get Connection String

  1. Once the resource is deployed, navigate to it in the Azure Portal.
  2. Under Settings, select Keys.
  3. Copy the Connection string for the primary key.

6. Set Up Environment Variables

It's best practice to store sensitive information in environment variables.

# Linux/MacOS
export COMMUNICATION_SERVICES_CONNECTION_STRING="<your-connection-string>"

# Windows
# setx COMMUNICATION_SERVICES_CONNECTION_STRING "<your-connection-string>"

7. Verify with Simple Identity Token Creation

Create a file named identity_token.js and add the following code to verify your setup.

const { CommunicationIdentityClient } = require("@azure/communication-identity");

async function main() {
  try {
    const connectionString = process.env.COMMUNICATION_SERVICES_CONNECTION_STRING;
    if (!connectionString) {
      console.log("Please set the COMMUNICATION_SERVICES_CONNECTION_STRING environment variable.");
      return;
    }

    // Initialize the client
    const client = new CommunicationIdentityClient(connectionString);

    // Create a new user identity
    const user = await client.createUser();
    console.log(`Created a new user identity: ${user.communicationUserId}`);

    // Issue an access token for the user with 'chat' and 'voip' scopes
    const tokenResult = await client.getToken(user, ["chat", "voip"]);
    console.log(`Issued an access token: ${tokenResult.token}`);
    console.log(`Token expires at: ${tokenResult.expiresOn}`);

  } catch (error) {
    console.error(`An error occurred: ${error.message}`);
  }
}

main();

Run the script to verify your connection:

node identity_token.js

See Also

Sources