Description
I am trying to use the Zoom web SDK on my website. I have used a sample app and it is working fine for me. I hope I will be able to inject the Zoom meeting on my website.(Correct me if I am wrong).
Now, I want to add the ability for users to share only specific documents only and not the whole screen.
Issue
I tried researching options but couldn’t find a way to restrict the sharing of documents to specific documents only. (Say the only PDF with some name maybe.)
Hey @tommy, thank you for your response. And sorry for the delay in response! This is true. This is one option we have. But can we restrict it completely to specific documents? In the option, you provided, sometimes users may end up accidentally sharing sensitive information by choosing the wrong window.
Is there any way I can completely restrict it to specific documents only?
On a similar front, is it possible to force the share to only share what has been selected and have the share continue to share only that item (app/document/window) regardless of whether or not the host switches windows on their pc? In other words, can we force Zoom to share one item on the host’s machine regardless of what is on the host’s screen at any given time? Everything I have tried (in Zoom and beyond) just reverts to sharing whatever is on the host’s screen, regardless of whether or not the share content was selected as you suggest above. Any help would be most appreciated. I’ve gone through the sample code and can’t see anything related to our ability to ‘set’ the shared stream in this way.
If you select ‘Application Window’ from the share screen (see Tommy’s example above) and select a given application to share via the web SDK, this will only share that application, even if the sharer opens another window or starts viewing something else on their main screen.
If this isn’t the share experience you’re seeing, can you provide the steps to reproduce what you’re experiencing or maybe a screencast/screenshot?
Wow Will, that’s exactly what we are looking to do. So it’s only in the Web SDK? The desktop client does not behave this way, so I’ll have to check out the Web SDK.
In looking at the Web SDK I see its for low bandwidth, or otherwise limited clients that can’t use the Zoom Client. This is not our scenario. By referencing the Web SDK, are you saying the Desktop SDK does not support this functionality? We are trying to accomplish exactly what you indicate is possible via the Web SDK, but we want to do it in the Desktop SDK.
I have been asking in desktop, for a couple weeks now, in addition to ISV sales, engineering etc. If you use the Zoom client, you will see that it shares whatever is currently on the host’s screen, even if they originally shared a single document like you describe above. Once the host is viewing something else (alt-tab to another app, window etc) the Zoom client will share that newly viewed content from the host. We would like to see if there is a way to force the Zoom client to continue to share what was originally shared, regardless of whether or not the host switches to viewing another window etc. So far I have been told it is most likely not possible, and I have not seen in the code where it is possible. It seems to me Zoom client is sharing whatever the host’s computer says is the currently viewed screen on the host’s computer. If someone could point us to the code (not the Zoom client share window) where we could force zoom to hold onto the originally shared document - regardless of what the host subsequently views - that would be wonderful. If it is not possible, that answer would also let us come to a conclusion so we can move onto next steps.
Is there anyone there that can answer this question? It seems that the folks who are familiar with this part of the SDK internals would know or be able to check directly. I cant see the source, so we have to ask you folks.
Thanks, and I know you are trying to help, but this question seems to keep getting answered by ‘check out the docs’ or ‘here’s what the client share screen looks like’ etc. but the actual question just keeps getting left for others to address. Please help us.
After speaking with our Desktop SDK engineers, you use the interface startAppShare to share a specific window or application. This interface accepts a window handle (HWND) as the parameter so you need to pass the window handle of that application that the user would like to share to this interface in order to share the specific app. If the you do not share any window, then the primary monitor will be shared.
We do have the app share window picker in the Zoom default UI, but if you would like to do this on your own and share the application programmatically, then you will need to handle the part that picks the window/application
This helps a lot, thanks Tommy and Team! I will try to POC this and let you know how it went. I am familiar with the UI selection for sharing a single-window etc. Unfortunately, the moment the host switches to another item, the share abandons whatever was selected to be shared via the UI, and the primary monitor is shared. I’m really hoping this SDK method you guys shared with me acts differently with regard to holding the HWND, as that is the goal.
