More info on XIFF and j2sgtalk

Xiff+Flash to Gtalk
- Still none existed (none found even in their developers forum)
- they always persistence in their own MUC client - http://xiffian.sourceforge.net/test/
- There are some cross-domain issues that didn't allow flash clients to connect to other jabber server
- Flash-based apps has advantage both in easy-deployment, as well as rich graphical, vector-based content, proven when the Gtalkr guys are being hired by google. But I didn't found any statement that google will have them use XIFF (Correct me if I'm wrong). There's a possibility that they'll use internal google own library (will continue researching on this)


Why need Tomcat to run js2gtalk?
- It uses Java Backends (Smack) to connect to GTalk server. Only Tomcat can execute those Java codes.
- Tomcat uses the Jasper converter to turn JSPs into servlets for execution.
- "It's wise to keep Java code out of your JSPs as much as possible, and put it in either Java taglibs, or in Java beans of EJBs. Your servlet should act primarily as a "traffic copy", receiving requests from the user and directing those requests to the appropriate methods defined in Java beans or EJBs, and then forwarding the response to the appropriate JSP to render the proper view. This design pattern is called "Model-View-Controller" and was made famous in the book "Design Patterns". I strongly recommend this book to anyone serious about moving beyond "hacking code" and doing serious program architecture and design." - http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=531586&messageID=2561649

- Possibility: Chat app need open socket connection for message transfer to work. For non-web-based app (JAVA+Smack), the OS handles this. but for web-based app (AJAX), the server is the one responsible for this. In our case, Tomcat uses servlets that has been "deployed" as part of it engine, to open connection to gtalk server. This relates to how Punjab works, by "deploying" itself using the python engine.


Next, I'll be focusing my reseach on xmpp4moz and creating Firefox add-ons.

Comments are appreciated :D

Design thoughts

There seems to be a few ways to get a browser app to talk to gtalk.

1. Ajax ------ punjab/tomcat/java servlet ------- Gtalk

The intermediary is because Ajax / Html is stateless and gtalk/jabber requires a statefull system. One success is by using java2script library which Hazrat has shown can connect to gtalk. One issue will be the latency introduced by the middle servlet module in java2script system.

(note the java2script client is on the left)

We will also need to build a conference bot to simulate chat in gtalk and the hops will be:

Ajax ------ tomcat -------- gtalk --------- conference bot

which will add additional latency.


2. Flash ----- Gtalk

Not sure if this needs an intermediary since Flash should be able to maintain state.
Potential libraries are Ignite's XIFF API and jabberflash.
They can talk to jabber servers, but not sure about gtalk yet. Hazrat ?
Since google's gtalk gadget is written in flash, this might be the way to go.

article on XIFF

3. Firefox extension ---- Gtalk

This has potential, though the application development could be tougher because parts of it have to be built in XUL & C (verify ?)
Potential library xmpp4moz.
Verify if it can talk to gtalk. Hazrat ?
Interesting links on programming Firefox

4. Java -- Gtalk
Ignite's Smack API
Interesting Bolinfest article on it.

This would be like the original OnChat and will suffer from the problems
of developing an attractive small java applet for the browser - not so keen on this approach.