Start Zoom Meeting when launching Zoom

API and Webhooks
1

Hi. I’d like to write a bat or similar executable file that will start Zoom with my personal meeting ID and video enabled. Is this possible? If so, can you point me in the right direction?

Thank you

2

Hey @cgeo13,

Checkout this article: https://medium.com/zoom-developer-blog/zoom-url-schemes-748b95fd9205

Let me know if that helps!

Thanks,
Tommy

3

You are a genius Tommy! A wealth of information. It worked flawlessly!
Two questions:

  1. Is there a parameter to join conference with video enabled?
  2. Is there a similar protocol for ending the meeting without having to press “End Meeting For All”?

Thank you again!

2 Likes
4

Haha glad it worked @cgeo13! :slight_smile:

The video should start by default if the Zoom User settings allow in the Web Portal, and the Zoom App.

To end the meeting, use our End Meeting API. Simply pass in a JWT Token as the authorization bearer.

Thanks,
Tommy

5

Thanks again. I have “Turn off my video when joining meeting” unchecked in the desktop app. I don’t see any other options.

In the web portal for the meeting host I’ve tried a couple of different things.

1 https://zoom.us/profile/setting - I have “host video” and “participants video” both checked to blue (on)
2. I have “Join Before Host” on as well.

That didn’t seem to work so I went to https://zoom.us/meeting/schedule

  1. I scheduled a recurring meeting with “no fixed time”
  2. I enabled “join before host”
    3, Join with host video on
  3. Join with participant video on

Then I tried the script with a different username on my account but the system seems to ignore all web portal settings. I put in a tech ticket because I suspect it’s a technical issue. I am also noticing that contacts that I’ve removed still appear in the contact list.

Anyway it goes, I’ve made TREMENDOUS progress in my goals with your help!

any more tips? thanks

6

Hey @cgeo13,

I am guessing the camera is ignoring the on settings for privacy purposes since you are using a URL Scheme instead of user clicked meeting link. Thanks for reaching out to our support team for this.

What is your use case here? Are you using this for digital signage or a conference room solution?

Happy to hear you are making great progress! :slight_smile:

Thanks,
Tommy

7

Thanks again for the reply. I’ve never thought about using it for digital signage which is kind of a cool idea. My use is for a conference room solution.

Essentially, I have an unattended instance on a server which feeds audio/video into a third party system. This is necessary. Our participants then log onto the Zoom meeting so their audio / video is fed into our third party system.

Since the one instance is unattended, I am just trying to set up some fail-safes to ensure we can get some automation going in the event that the unattended instance crashes, disconnects, or anything else like that. The other issue is that one of the participants needs to log in with the Host Key. We have other solutions for implementation to fall back but they have their pros and cons. I’m just kind of experimenting with this solution.

  1. Unattended Instance starts the meeting via a bat file with video on and as a participant (not a host) of the meeting. I can accomplish this without issue except for turning the video on. (join before host function enabled).

  2. The participant who is heading the conference enters the host key so they can have host access to mute/unmute/remove participants.

The unattended instance could technically start the meeting as the host if there was a way for a participant to enter a host key to take over host controls. I can fire up a meeting from a batch file with video on this way but I don’t see a way for a participant to enter a host key.

It seems like we’re ALMOST there but we keep running into roadblocks. Regardless, we’re overcoming them.

Do you have any thoughts on making either solution work? Either

A - entering a HOST key when there is already a host in the video conference

or

B - joining a meeting via bat file with video on.

Thanks again!

8

Hey @cgeo13, thanks for sharing this! :slight_smile:

What do you mean by a Host key? Do you mean the meeting ID?

I am not sure this is possible.

That being said, have you taken a look at our Zoom Rooms conference room solution? It is pretty cool, you can accomplish what you need, and it integrates with calendar and scheduling services like Google Calendar.

Thanks,
Tommy

9

By entering a “Host Key”, I mean the “Claim Host” function.

So is there anyway that you might be able to think of to trigger the “Start Video” button? Would the SDK have this functionality? I know it can be done by hotkey but that’s too clunky to run smoothly every time.

I could solve the problem by writing a bat file that first joins the meeting, then triggers the app to hit the “start video” button if it’s possible.

Thanks again for your input!

10

Hey @cgeo13,

I see. You could try the Web SDK, or just start the meeting with the start link zoom.us/s/{meetingNumber} which will open the Zoom App.

Thanks,
Tommy