I'm currently looking into XMPP and I would like to know if there is a way to create dynamic XMPP rosters. I want the contact list of any user be automatically generated by the server / component / plugin.
Can components access and modify rosters?
I know that some servers (like OpenFire) use an external database to store these information but if I modify the database, I don't think the users will be notified in realtime.
Are some people already doing that or do you have an idea how to create it?
Thank you for your time.
In most XMPP servers this is called "shared roster groups".
I can't comment on Openfire in particular because I haven't used it for a long time, but I don't think I know of a server currently in which external roster changes are instantly transmitted to clients. Usually the client will simply pick up the new roster when it next logs in.
It would be possible to push the updates instantly to clients using what XMPP calls "roster pushes". This would require quite some work on the server though to identify what the changes are between what each client knows the roster to be, and what the new roster is, and then transmit just the changes.
If you really need this then a server plugin would probably be the way to go, or pester your server developers for the feature (I know that as a Prosody developer I've already been pestered, and this is something I'm planning to work on).
As for whether components can access users' rosters - this is dependent upon the server implementation and configuration.
Related
This is what I want
A user(bot) that always shows status Online
When a message comes for the user, I will hit a webhook associated with the user
The response from the webhook request will be sent as reply to the sender
This user will be able to intercept any message (let's say for profanity moderation)
This user will be able to send message to anyone (let's say broadcast)
This user will come in every users roster as default(like echo bot of skype)
I can't seem to find any resource on how to achieve this. I've found a way to intercept the incoming packet in openfire but I don't see any easy way to do this with MongooseIM. I haven't started diving deep into the source code yet, still looking for a way to do this without touching the source code and locking myself to a specific version of MongooseIM.
Disclaimer: I'm on the MongooseIM core team.
There are multiple ways this could be achieved. The easiest way to achieve this depends on your familiarity with Erlang, the programming language MongooseIM is written in.
You won't need any Erlang to use the event pusher module with its HTTP backend and the default settings, but you'd need some Erlang to control what messages get forwarded to the HTTP service or to make more complex setups. To send messages back, you'd either need to use the MongooseIM REST API or connect as an ordinary XMPP client to the server using one of the many XMPP libs available out there. This is probably the best approach to achieve your goal.
You can skip using the event pusher and just connect your bot as an XMPP client written in any language whatsoever. The bot might have your business logic within or can forward messages it gets to the HTTP service.
If you're comfortable working in Erlang, then the mechanism to extend the server is called Hooks and handlers and is described in the official MongooseIM documentation. This requires writing code in Erlang and building from source, but does not necessarily require modifying upstream MongooseIM code.
You could use the XMPP component protocol, which allows to extend the functionality of an XMPP server, yet structure it as multiple services. The components may be written in any technology you want and the most popular XMPP libraries should support the component protocol out of the box.
Depending on your choice from the above list and the language and environment you prefer, you might have to pick an XMPP library to use. There are XMPP libs available for iOS (ObjC and Swift), Android (Java and Kotlin), Python, JavaScript, C, and even some emerging ones for Rust, Dart and possibly more.
From the spec —
7.14 Exiting a Room
In order to exit a multi-user chat room, an occupant sends a presence
stanza of type "unavailable" to the <room#service/nick> it is
currently using in the room.
Example 80. Occupant Exits a Room
<presence
from='hag66#shakespeare.lit/pda'
to='coven#chat.shakespeare.lit/thirdwitch'
type='unavailable'/>
This implies that as soon as the user disconnects from the XMPP server, he is removed from the group on the server side. The issue is simple — I don't want this behavior; I want a behavior that is similar to what Whatsapp does, i.e. even if the user goes offline, he is still part of the MUC room (which is configured to be persistent on the server side) and will receive messages from other occupants.
Given the spec and the documentation for XEP-0045 and XMPPFramework for iOS, I have no idea how to accomplish this or if it's possible to accomplish this in the traditional ejabberd server.
XEP-45 was designed more then 10 years ago. Back then, the designers had something like IRC channels in mind. Everything of XEP-45 is designed based on the assumption that a user enters and leaves a room when he/she starts/terminates its client.
WhatsApp Groupchats are different: A user joins a groupchat is is able to view the (complete) history of that chat. Even if the users client is offline/unavailable, he is still considered part of the groupchat.
The XMPP community currently works on a new XEP that provides such functionality. It is called XEP-0369: Mediated Information eXchange. It is the spiritual successor of XEP-0045, providing the features one would expect from modern groupchats.
You could emulate something quite like this by using server-side history of the MUC (Message Archive Management, XEP-0313), so that when a client logs in they're able to request the history of the MUC while they weren't in it.
If you also want to be able to show the offline pseudo-occupants of a room, the easiest way to do this is probably to map a pubsub node per room to store the list of these pseudo-occupants that clients could read to supplement the usual occupancy list.
There are probably other solutions here, but those that come immediately to mind for me involve changing the behaviour of the server in non-standard ways, such as allowing normal occupants to query a membership list, which normally only admins can do.
The Whatsapp model is much simpler than you imagine - they just maintain user session online even if user disconnects, and re-sends messages when he "reattach" session. XEP-0198 introduce similar concept to traditional XMPP sessions. You only need to configure longer inactivity period (typically XEP-0198 assume 300 seconds, but whatsapp-like messengers holds session 24+ hours)
Yes you can make your group persistent by setting its configurations this way:
NSString *var = [field attributeStringValueForName:#"var"];
if ([var isEqualToString:#"muc#roomconfig_persistentroom"])
{
[field removeChildAtIndex:0];
[field addChild:[NSXMLElement elementWithName:#"value" stringValue:#"1"]];
}
I'd like to use XMPP as the message bus for a desktop application. As the application would use the users existing XMPP account (GTalk or the like) and doesn't provide IM service I would like to make instances of my client invisible to other XMPP clients.
To do this I'm considering using client service discovery and privacy lists to block outgoing presence notifications to the full JIDs of clients other my own. I do however doubt the scalability and robustness of this approach. Is there a better way of accomplishing this?
EDIT:
I'm now thinking the closest I can get to this behaviour is to set a presence of away with a negative priority. This will hopefully minimise user confusion and work fairly universally.
XEP-0126 doesn't have the tools you need, since there's no way you'll find out about the other clients to which you have to direct presence... because they're invisible.
How about if all of your clients join a MUC room?
I am builing a win application that has user access control against a sql db, all the data is stored in this db as well.
This project is to be installed in one site on 30-40 machines (I mean to say that it's not web, it's all in one place, maximum call it intranet).
I want that while the program is logged on, the logged-in user should be able to chat to the other logged in users.
Any recommended approaches in C# & VB?
I would appreciate any idea, link or tip.
Please share me with your experience
Thanks!
NOTE: The program is in Wpf if it does matter.
Architecturally, it seems like a publisher-subscriber message bus would be a good pattern for you. You would have a centralized server that each client would register with that will distribute notifications from publishers to subscribers.
Each client will register for notification of the client list upon starting. Each client can register interest in being notified when another client publishes a message. Each client would publish messages to the bus to be delivered to any subscribers for that client.
There is a good example of a pub-sub message bus written in WCF in MSDN: WCF ESSENTIALS What You Need To Know About One-Way Calls, Callbacks, And Events. You could get this up and running fairly quickly.
Beside the obvious person to person instant message chat, What else have you used a Jabber server's functionality to enable?
Edit: links to working code to really show it off are particularly useful - and will be more likely to be voted up.
There are unlimited uses for XMPP/Jabber.
Take any message/data you want to send somewhere else and you can use jabber. Run a centralised logging service for distributed services? You can jabber the massage.
You want to check if your services/programs are running? XMPP presence will tell you. If you add custom status messages you can see exactly what is going on.
This is why Cisco has got into the game. Picture a server farm where each blade has a built in mini jabber client. On boot up it will register it's presence to the central server as awaiting work. The central server fires off some work in it's direction and it then changes it's status to "Busy". Another blade finished it's work and changes it's status back to "Available"... rinse and repeat.
When you combine the actual jabber messages with it's Out Of Band abilities, these servers can post where the results of the job can be found.
Anything you can think of needing to pass a message can be done with XMPP to some degree. Be this person to person, program to program, or any combination.
You could use a Jabber server to handle/broker messages between a client application and another server application.
It can actually be pretty effective.
Not me but Martin Woodward used jabber to control a "build bunny" that displays the current status of the build server.
http://www.woodwardweb.com/gadgets/000434.html
XMPP is good for sending messages back and forth between computers that don't need to be broken into chunks. They also can't be terribly big. If you use the right library, it can be pretty easy to set up.
Sending messages to a web page. Proof-of-concept: esagila.com
I plan to use it to receive notifications from my system, such as:
Process did not finish
Report was not generated on time
User needs help
I already receive many of these messages as email. But receiving an IM could be much more effective.
You might want to look at Vertebra which is...
a framework for orchestrating complex processes in a Cloud. It is designed with an emphasis on security, fault tolerance, and portability.
From the knowledge base:
Why was XMPP chosen for Vertebra?
XMPP based instant messaging can be a good alternative to search engines for information that is small, complete in itself and required frequently and repeatedly. For example, your daily horoscope - you require it daily and it is not large.
To see an example of this add astro#askme.im to your list of contacts in your jabber client (Gmail Chat/Gtalk/or any other Jabber client) and then initiate chat with this contact by sending the word "help".
Also see www.askme.im for a whole list of chat based solutions.
I've used Jabber in the past to get email notifications. Nowadays I use it for low-priority nagios notifications, it is very useful and way cheaper than SMS:
We use xmpp as both a 'bus' and a real-time API at http://superfeedr.com
Iowa State University Department of Agronomy has created this with Jabber: http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/iembot/
If you're a weather freak like I am, this is VERY cool stuff!
Apple implements mobileme's push service using Jabber/XMPP's subscription services to send push notifications. That is the most widespread use of Jabber for non-IM purposes I know of. This article has more details.
My friends have also built a Jabber python bot, which is kinda cute but not all that useful :-)
Edit
The most recent Next Big Thing, Google Wave, uses Jabber under the hood. Further illustrates the power of the protcol.
We have used XMPP and BOSH to enable users to communicate with a webbrowser directly and in realtime from their phone.
For example Code you can view our open source API
The vooices site also has live examples where you can control a map and play a game using your phone via your web browser: http://www.vooices.us/
I've always thought XMPP would be a good way to deliver SNMP data. OIDs are really painful, much of the system is insecure, and the SNMP traps never work quite like you want them to. With an XMPP server in the middle and a smart component to make some choices, you can use it to send out jabber or other notifications, kick off restart jobs, update web pages, or whatever else you need.
The XML data is pretty small in this case, and you can have the one XMPP server both talk to humans in message stanzas, or computers with the same protocol.