Add cookies / arbitarry http headers via url?

[powellnorma]

I know it's possible to set the referer by using this format:

const hls_proxy_url  = `${proxy_url}/${ btoa(`${video_url}|${referer_url}`) }${file_extension}`

But in my case, I would need to add some "dynamically generated" cookies via the M3U8 URL - is that possible?

I am currently starting the server via hlsd.

If not, what about supporting using this format?

const hls_proxy_url  = `${proxy_url}/${ btoa(`${video_url}|{arbitraryJsonAttributes: 123}`) }${file_extension}`

It could be backwards compatible be checking if the first character after | is an {

[warren-bank]

not possible..
the best option is to start the server with: hlsd --copy-req-headers
and then configure your video player to send the desired request headers to the proxy server,
which will forward them in requests to the video server.

[powellnorma]

Hm, what do you think about supporting using this format?

const hls_proxy_url  = `${proxy_url}/${ btoa(`${video_url}|{arbitraryJsonAttributes: 123}`) }${file_extension}`

It could be backwards compatible be checking if the first character after | is an {

and then configure your video player to send the desired request headers to the proxy server,

I would need to inject cookies into the web client that have nothing to do with the web client itself, I don't like that.

[warren-bank]

well.. you make a valid point.. because browsers disable setting certain HTTP request headers in XHR (and fetch);
for this reason, the following pseudo-code would not work:

  function generate_dynamic_cookie() {
    return 'foo=bar'
  }

  var player = new Clappr.Player({
    ...
    playback: {
      hlsjsConfig: {
        xhrSetup: function(xhr, url) {
          xhr.withCredentials = true; // do send cookies
          xhr.open("GET", url, true, username, password);
          xhr.setRequestHeader('Cookie', generate_dynamic_cookie())
        },
        ...
      },
    },
  });

references:

• https://github.com/clappr/hlsjs-playback
• How to set custom headers for JWT (how to send cookies, tokens through requests) clappr/clappr#1604
• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/XMLHttpRequest/open
• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/XMLHttpRequest/setRequestHeader
• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Forbidden_request_header

I'll give this a think..
your suggestion about being able to encode an arbitrary object of header name/value pairs seems the most flexible..
I'll get back to you about this soon

[warren-bank]

v3.6.0 has been published to npm..
it adds support for the querystring parameter: headers..
which accepts a base64-encoded JSON object that maps request header names to values..
the README adds a simple example of its usage.

I did some very basic testing to make sure that (a) it works, and (b) I didn't break anything.
Everything looks good, but please let me know if you encounter any issues.

Thanks for the suggestion to add this feature. 😃