Table of Contents
XMPP Chat
To support scalable text/audio/video chat through XMPP. Chat will be focused towards a taks(review or feedback).
Design
1. Each and every user is registered against an xmpp server when a user is created and his account does not exist already in the server.
2. Once a user opens a page he is connected to the xmpp server and the users with whom he can chat will have the chat related icons enabled.
3. Chats are context specific.
Screen designs
1. Chat (on the same page)
Manager initiates: http://invis.io/VQ38BE8XU
Employee replies:http://invis.io/R338BFQ5V
2. Chat (on a different page)
Manager initiates: http://invis.io/DR38BGIUG
Employee replies: http://invis.io/Y238C6XWS
Implementation
Following are used for the implementation.
1. https://www.ejabberd.im/ - XMPP server with BOSH support
2. https://github.com/sstrigler/JSJaC/ - XMPP JS client.
3. https://xmpp4r.github.io/ - XMPP ruby client
4. https://github.com/valeriansaliou/giggle - XMPP jingle library which is used for audio/video chats.
Other libraries/alternatives explored
To be done
1. Grouping chats by task and notifications.
2. Saving chat history.
Database Changes
Table Name: users (Following columns are added)
| Column Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| xmpp_login | String | xmpp login |
| encrypted_xmpp_password | String | encrypted xmpp password |
Setting up chat
Setup ejabberd
1. Download and install ejabberd (15.04 or above) https://www.process-one.net/en/ejabberd/downloads
2. while setting up, please give a hostname (ex - mylocal.com). This needs to be noted down.
3. Change the config settings. Config file can be found in your ejabberd directory under conf (ex - /opt/ejabberd-15.04/conf/ejabberd.yml)
Change “register:” (around line 481)
register:
all: allow
registration_timeout: infinity
Change “registration_timeout:” (around line 494)
registration_timeout: infinity //(yaml file level)
Enable “mod_ping”
mod_ping:
send_pings: true
ping_interval: 250
timeout_action: none
3. Start/Restart ejabberd
4. Create a shared roster for every one.
5. Add a host entry for the IP pointing to the URL.
Configuring chat server
1. Configure the settings in config/chat.yml and enable chat. Sample settings for development environment look like below.
development: server: http://192.168.2.118:5280 bosh: http://192.168.2.118:5280/http-bind websocket: ws://192.168.2.118:5280/websocket domain: mylocal.com enabled: true create_xmpp_user: true
2. Create xmpp_login for existing users and populate thread id for older review assignments.
rake backfill:create_xmpp_account_for_users
rake backfill:populate_chat_thread_id_in_review_assignment
