signal-client

node-signal-client

This is a client library for Signal, the secure messenger app by Open Whisper Systems.

It works by means of a dirty port of the Signal Chrome App to Node.js. This is cloned by npm during npm install. Despite being designed for Chrome, the environment is appropriately patched to allow the program to run in Node.js, unhindered.

Warning

When you require this library, a bunch of things happen on the global scope! In order to port the Chrome app, this had to be done -- just be aware of this in case your application also deals with globals. If so, you'll probably want to communicate with it through IPC or something instead of requireing it directly.

install

npm install signal-client

Try it out by executing node run.js

usage

The following is copied from the example run.js

const SignalClient = require('signal-client');
 
const client = new SignalClient("nodejs");
 
// triggered when you receive a message on signal
client.on('message', (ev) => {
  console.log('received message from', ev.data.source, ev.data);
});
 
// triggered when a sent message synced from another client
client.on('sent', (ev) => {
  console.log('sent a message to', ev.data.destination, ev.data);
});
 
client.on('receipt', (ev)=>{
  var pushMessage = ev.proto;
  var timestamp = pushMessage.timestamp.toNumber();
  console.log(
    'delivery receipt from',
    pushMessage.source + '.' + pushMessage.sourceDevice,
    timestamp
  );
});
 
 
client.on('contact', (ev)=>{
  console.log('contact received', ev.contactDetails);
});
 
client.on('group', (ev)=>{
  console.log('group received', ev.groupDetails);
});
 
client.on('read', (ev)=>{
  var read_at   = ev.timestamp;
  var timestamp = ev.read.timestamp;
  var sender    = ev.read.sender;
  console.log('read receipt', sender, timestamp);
});
 
client.on('error', (ev)=>{
  console.log('error', ev.error, ev.error.stack);
});
 
client.start();

storage

The client stores keys and other information in two places.

Two sqlite databases, and a data/ directory are created in the current working directory.