Planet IM

Artur Hefczyc: Tigase XMPP Server 5.0.0-b2103 Beta

2010-03-09T00:46:45+00:00

I am happy to announce release of a new version of the Tigase XMPP Server. This is the first version of the 5.x line and the code is still under intensive tests. As most of the tests are already passed and the code runs on a few live installations I consider this to be Beta ready.

Packages are available from the download page. As usually the test page has been updated with automatic tests' results for the published version.

Changelog list is quite long and modifications fall into a few categories:

Protocol:

A new implementation for handling external components connections, supporting XEP-0114, XEP-0225, with protocol auto-detection, multiple connections on a single port, multiple connections for a single external domain, etc…..
Full support for stringprep added. The use of the full stringprep processor is optional (off by default) and the JID processing can be changed via pluggable framework. 3 processors available now: full stringprep - very resources expensive, simple (regex based) - default, empty - no processing at all.
Roster changes: fixed issue with buddy name set to 'null' in some cases , multiple roster elements are now allowed for set requests, stringprep optimisations, support for extended buddy information to be stored with roster data in DB.
Fixed a problem with s2s connections for external components connected to the server - they are automatically detected by s2s component and all the traffic is routed properly
Fixed problem with not sending stream closing tag in some cases when the connection to the client is closed
Fixed rare issue occurring if there are multiple user connections with the same resource that the older connection with the resource was not closed.
Number of bug fixes and optimisations in s2s implementation, still no TLS support yet though.
Stream compression can be now activated at any time, it is up to the client to decide

Administration:

Server configuration code reworked, fixed an old issue with init.properties and tigase.xml configuration files, tigase.xml is no longer used by default (still possible though), configuration can be stored in the database and configuration management available via ad-hoc commands and scripting API.
Configurable packet filtering for every component separately can be loaded as plugins (and API)
MySQL schema and stored procedures updates for UTF-8 encoding, changed a last_login, last_logout fields default values from 0 to some correct and sensible value.
To overcome problems with packets order on some system there is a configuration option to not use priority queues which may sometimes cause packet reordering.

Development:

Scripting API reworked, this is not the server built-in core feature and the scripting feature is now available to all components automatically
Component repository API - an easy to use framework for tigase component developers to store certain kind of data in database - the data can be also manipulated via ad-hoc commands and scripting
Added secure logging mode for XMPP stanzas to prevent privacy issue - XML element CData is replaced with text: 'CDATA size: NNN'
A new API for component tasks added - based on Java TimeoutTask but a single thread controls all the component tasks
Lots of JavaDoc documentation has been added and online guides on the website
All the core Tigase code to use new JID and BareJID classes instead of String
Packet API changed to optimise ways stanza to/from addresses (JIDs) are used.
New SM plugging processors API introduced and an abstract class which make it very easy to follow packet flow. This is to avoid confusing detection where from, where to the packet is going (from the user, to the user, to the server….)
User registration code changed to allow for storing any kind registration data, the user can provide an extended form with additional fields and they all are stored in the DB

Process One: Talkr.IM XMPP/Jabber server gets Apple Push notifications

2010-03-04T09:43:17+00:00

The free public XMPP/Jabber server Talkr.IM gets Apple Push notifications for iPhone.

The ProcessOne's free, open, public XMPP/Jabber server Talkr.IM is gaining a new feature: Apple Push notifications. This well enable users to get notified of offline messages when they arrive, as well as simulate a continued XMPP session on iPhone devices that still do not implement multitasking.

For the latter feature, since the iPhone still does not accept to run applications in the background, if you want to use another application, you will have to shutdown your XMPP client and thus disconnect from Talkr.IM. With the Push feature enabled on your XMPP client (if this one supports Apple Push notifications), you can tell your contacts you are still online when you are using other applications. You will then automatically receive notifications of new messages. And when you re-open your XMPP client, you will receive these messages.

OneTeam for iPhone has the Apple Push feature enabled: you will be able to use it on you Talkr.IM account. Just use you Jabber ID, like username@talkr.im, and for a simple configuration, go to the "Settings" tab, then "Push settings".

The Talkr.IM XMPP server will stop at 10:00am CET. This means:

01:00am Los Angeles
04:00am New York
12:00 Moscow
18:00 Tokyo

UPDATE: the Apple Push module is installed on Talkr.IM, and working fine. You can use it on OneTeam for iPhone. You can run a APNS module on your own ejabberd server with IMpush.

Process One: ejabberd tip: simple health check

2010-03-03T16:27:29+00:00

An ejabberd health check mechanism might be useful in your deployments, but using the HTTP file server might be overkill...

Some people want to do regular health checks on ejabberd, which is always a good idea. Doing a health check over XMPP might not be the solution, here is at least two reasons:

with a pure ad-hoc solution like a cron script, you might need an XMPP library you might not want to install on your servers
monitoring systems might not talk XMPP at all...

So people first think of the internal ejabberd HTTP file server, which then they have to configure through a specific listener and the right module... possibly with logs, they would have to manage (rotate, parse, clean, etc.).

Sometimes people just don't think there is already an HTTP listener on their internal BOSH Connection Manager. You would argue that BOSH uses the HTTP POST method. But the ejabberd BOSH Connection Manager replies to simple GET:

wget http://myserver.net/http-bind

And ejabberd will answer:

ejabberd mod_http_bind v1.2

An implementation of XMPP over BOSH (XEP-0206)

This web page is only informative. To use HTTP-Bind you need a Jabber/XMPP client that supports it.

Martyn Russell: Lanedo is hiring!

2010-03-02T16:16:10+00:00

We at Lanedo are currently looking at hiring people with development experience around GNOME and GTK+ related technologies again.

If you have this and are interested in working for us, please send your CV to jobs at lanedo.com.

Felipe Contreras: felipec

2010-02-27T19:38:39+00:00

After a bit more than two years of development we are proud to announce the first stable release of msn-pecan. The project started as a “fork” of libpurple’s msn protocol (read below why it’s not really a fork), but it has grown and soon will become a standalone library with support for Telepathy too.

Why?

I’ve been involved in Pidgin (formerly Gaim) since 2002, trying to improve it’s support for the MSN protocol which has been a very difficult task due to the reluctance of the Pidgin development team to take the issues seriously.

But don’t take my word for it, you can read an example of their excuses on John Bailey’s blog:

So yes, we have been “neglecting” Pidgin to a certain extent. Our time is a precious resource, and in many cases we simply have better things to do or simply don’t have the time to sit down and attack bugs to get them closed.

So yes, Pidgin neglects MSN, and yes, they need help; they themselves acknowledge that. IOW their MSN plugin is under-maintained.

The main reason for that is that the people who wrote the code have left the project. You can read all about it on this post; after several years of leaving the project my code still accounts for 42% of the code base.

The result of this bad maintenance is already visible in their bugzilla, but what is not visible is that many bugs are simply closed as invalid after two weeks of inactivity.

Despite all this, they rejected my help. And that’s how msn-pecan was born; I took my own code and carried development away from Pidgin. One way of looking at this is that Pidgin’s MSN has become the fork, and msn-pecan is the trunk

Advantages

Bugs are actually fixed

The main advantage of having the original development team (or person) is that the whole code base is maintained, which means that no bug will fall through the cracks due to lack of expertise.

Besides, all bugs are carefully evaluated and unlike Pidgin; they are not closed automatically. The result is that most bugs are resolved as fixed, and even verified. Even if it takes months for the reporter to verify, some bugs are that important.

This means if you report a bug to msn-pecan; you have higher chances of getting it fixed.

Performance

Since msn-pecan’s code is better organized, every operation is under control, which means less resources are wasted; faster login times, faster response times, etc. This might not be important to many people but in some platforms, like Nokia N900, it’s essential to maximize battery life, and minimize network bandwidth (e.g. 3G network).

Features

The main feature of msn-pecan is that it will always login. Many people have reported not being able to login to Pidgin’s MSN and they are with msn-pecan. We ensure this by prioritizing login issues as critical, and fix them ASAP. Currently there are only two login problems open in our tracker, and they will definitely be solved by 0.2, or sooner.

A very important feature is fast file transfers with p2p connections, it has been by far the most requested feature, and therefore basic support has been introduced in 0.1. It will work on most situations, but not all, further development would be needed to support more scenarios.

Other features include: winks, plus! sounds, and plus! tags.

Again, unlike Pidgin, we try to prioritize features based on user feedback. This way we ensure that the features we implement are actually relevant to our users. That’s how we found out that people wanted offline messages, and handwritten messages, and the next one to implement is multiple login support. In many cases we implement the features before Pidgin.

Future

We want to support as many clients and platforms as possible, therefore in our plans are:

Adium standalone plugin
Instantbird support
Native Telepathy support
Standalone library

Also in the scope is videocall support, but that might take some time.

The release

So in these two years the objective has been to reorganize the code, and stabilize it as quick as possible while developing the most wanted features. I believe we have reached that objective, therefore 0.1 is a release that is ready for mass consumption. Please spread the word.

These are the stats:
204 files changed, 50254 insertions(+), 15940 deletions(-)

Special thanks should go to Devid Antonio Filoni who has taken a big amount of tasks: translations, Ubuntu PPA, Adium builds, Instantbird support and porting patches from Pidgin, not to mention the usual development. Thanks Devid! Also important have been the contributions from Elliott Sales de Andrade, although his work goes to Pidgin, Devid makes sure we get the juicy patches. Single patches are also highly appreciated, please keep them coming

     1  Albert Cervin
     3  Alexandre André
     6  Andrea Piccinelli
     1  Chris Stafford
     3  Christiano Farina Haesbaert
     1  David Geary
    89  Devid Antonio Filoni
     1  Edgardo Fredz
     2  Eion Robb
     2  Elias Julkunen
    10  Elliott Sales de Andrade
     2  Erik Fredriksen
     2  Evan Schoenberg
   866  Felipe Contreras
     1  Geoffrey Antos
     1  Gulars
     1  Jisakiel
     1  John Bailey
     1  Jovan Turanjanin
     1  Ka-Hing Cheung
     1  Keir Lawson
     2  Luís Neto
     2  Marco de Moulin
     2  Mike Ruprecht
     3  Octavio Alvarez
     1  Peter Skov
     1  Sergei Zivukov
     1  Simo Mattila
     1  Simone Contini
     1  Tao Wei
     3  Thiago Silva
     1  Thomas Gibson-Robinson
     3  Víctor Manuel Jáquez Leal
     1  Wei Hsiang Hung
     1  Ying-Shiuan Pan
     1  ZyroBlue
     1  drummingdemon

Since we want to reach an audience as wide as possible, please vote up on sw sites:

Grab it while it’s hot! (usual place)

Google Talkabout: A smoother voice and video experience

2010-02-24T12:09:13+00:00

We have spent the last few months focusing on three things: quality, quality, and quality! For those of you with the Google voice and video chat plugin installed, you have recently received an automatic update that contains:

A fix that reduces crashes on newer macs (Mac OS X v10.6.2 specifically)
A fix for webcam compatibility on Windows (including HP webcams)
Several fixes to increase plugin stability
Several fixes to the infrastructure used to set up and connect your video calls.

From users who have chosen to “Report quality statistics” in their chat settings, we can see a substantial increase in call connection rates and a big decrease in the call drop rate (see chart below). We hope that this will result in more enjoyable conversations with our software.

As with all software, working on improving quality is a never ending process, so we hope that you will continue to report any issues you have in our user forum, and we will continue to work on improving connection rates and call quality.

Thanks to all of you who use our service -- and especially those of you who report issues!

Posted by Jessan Hutchison-Quillian and Mikael Drugge
Software engineers

Dave Smith: Using Innostore with Riak

2010-02-21T00:00:38+00:00

Innostore is an Erlang application that provides an API for storing and retrieving key/value data using the InnoDB storage system. This storage system is the same one used by MySQL for reliable, transactional data storage. It's a proven, fast system and perfect for use with Riak if you have a ...

Process One: Jingle Nodes on Talkr.IM

2010-02-18T15:08:01+00:00

A Jingle Nodes relay has been installed on the Talkr.IM XMPP service.

The public XMPP server Talkr.IM has received its own Jingle Nodes relay on: xmpp:jn.talkr.im. You can browse the Talkr.IM services via your Service Discovery interface in your XMPP client.

This new exclusive feature on Talkr.IM XMPP server enables Jingle calls by providing a public service for media relaying. Basically, this means that XMPP clients which can handle Jingle Nodes, will be able to join other Jingle Nodes enabled clients to establish voice calls even when both are hidden behind network barriers (like NAT, for the techies).

One many entities of the XMPP federated network (clients, servers) will have Jingle Nodes enabled, this will be possible to establish calls, in a totally P2P manner, much like Skype, but with much more features like the control of who can use your relay. Read the Jingle Nodes website and the Jingle Nodes XEP to know more.

This Talkr.IM Jingle Nodes relay is one of the very first step to a simpler Jingle user experience worldwide.

Visit the Talkr.IM website, and create your own Talkr.IM XMPP account freely: https://www.talkr.im/signup.

Dave Smith: 1.44 am

2010-02-18T09:40:37+00:00

It's 1.44 am. Woke up feeling weird; then my mind went running, afraid of what it might find. I was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma three weeks ago now. I'm blessed in a lot of ways. The cancer is slow moving, non aggressive -- or so it appears at this point. I ...

Process One: OneTeam for iPhone in version 3.2.5, with Facebook chat

2010-02-17T16:09:12+00:00

OneTeam for iPhone has been published on the AppStore in version 3.2.5, bringing bugfixes, and Facebook chat based on XMPP.

The version 3.2.5 of our XMPP client OneTeam for iPhone has hit the shelves of the Apple's application store. It is recommended that you upgrade it.

OneTeam 3.2.4 for iPhone had already fixed bug related to Multi-User Chats (also known as groupchats): in some cases, OneTeam used to crash on joining password-protected and members-only MUC.

OneTeam 3.2.5 for iPhone now allows OneTeam users to connect to the XMPP interface to Facebook chat. You can now connect with Jabber-ID set your "your_username@chat.facebook.com", and password set to your Facebook password.

Be careful, Facebook's XMPP chat interface does not offer MUC services, nor is federated, which means you still cannot chat with your friends on Talkr.IM or Google's Talk/GMail, but only with Facebook friends.

Check out OneTeam for iPhone on our website, as well as Apple's AppStore.