Hi All. I’ve been working on deploying a Openfire 3.6.4 server for a organization wide IM solution. We are using Pidgin as the main client because managment insisted we use a multi-protocol client. This server is authenticating to an Active Directory (AD) server. We are also using the Broadcast 1.7.0 plugin, which is running on a service called broadcast.jabberserver.com where jabberserver.com would be our jabber server domain.
Here’s where I am running into problems and would like some help. I would like the ability to add different JIDs to user’s rosters autimatically through the server. Since we are using LDAP authentication to provide connectivity to AD all our group configuration is done through a few AD groups and we cannot add JIDs through the Openfire Admin Console. I would like a way to add various broadcast JIDs like all@broadcast.jabberserver.com, group1@broadcast.jabberserver.com, and group2@broadcast.jabberserver.com. Additionally I would like to add Group Chat (MUC) rooms to the user’s rosters in the same way, except broadcasts would have it’s own group in the roster and MUCs would have their own group in the roster. Furthermore I would like to be able to delegate that only certain users see some groups and broadcast JIDs, although this isn’t necessary if it is too difficult. I would also like to force some settings if possible so for example all people in the group “Support Reps” would automatically join the “Support Reps Chat Room” (and possibly be forced to stay in this room). So at bar minimum I really need a way to add these special JIDs to two distinct groups which would be added to every users roster and provided by the server.
Also another issue with settings… somewhat related to deployment settings, I had originally planned on making “Private” MUCs for each group meaning all members of a certain group would be added into the members of that “Private” MUC and meaning this MUC would be members only. After consideration this was deemed to be too much administration overhead. Is there a way to have the members section for a MUC (Group Chat) to automatically be filled out based on membership of a shared group. Thanks for any help in advance. I would really like to get this project into the final stage for full-scale deployment and documentation. So far I have been impressed with Openfire overall even with the the setbacks and many issues I have had to problem solve. Unfortuantenly I could not find the answers to these issues myself but I feel Openfire has a strong community and that is one of the reasons I choose to work with Openfire. Keep up the good work folks. I don’t know how large the active community is but I hope someone can help me out. Thanks.
Wow. A lot of customization is requested. And even on the client side (autojoining and forcing to say in a room). I dont think you’ll find such a help here.
The last one sounds like JM-438. It is highly voted, but there is noone to work with Openfire. Jive is focused on their commercial product and we wait for them to give this project into our hands to be able to fix it and do our own builds.
I noticed it is possible to add new roster items by searching a user and clicking roster, then add new item. This brings up the Add Roster Item page where JID, Nickname, and Group fields can be added. I was thinking it might be possible to add code somewhere such as in the System Properties page or a config file in the file structure which would automatically add these roster items to all users (or better yet certain specified users). Another way I was thinking this might be accomplished is by using a script of some sort to automate this process. I want to keep administrations simple at the same time so some possible issues I might see is the code or scripts not automatically applying to new users as well, and with keeping it simple I would probablly stay with just applying the same JIDs to every users. It’s just too much work and overhead to manually add these JIDs for every users.
So does anyone know of a way such as code or scripts to automate this process, which seems to already be included in the Openfire Admin Console? Perhaps someone has already run into the situation I am having and has written some kind of script they can share? Writing code and making a script of this sort is a little beyond me right now. Thanks.
First Pidgin will only authenticate the XMPP (jabber) traffic to your openfire server. Other protocols go directly to their servers (Yahoo, AIM, etc). The kracken plugin will allow Spark to talk to the other protocols.
The broadcast plugin may not do what you intend it to, with pidgin. You were not real clear on this.
With the spark client and the Openfire client control plugin, and Shared groups you should be able to achieve your intended goal.
The client control plugin adds many features such as adding MUC bookmarks to Saprk with an option to auto join at login.
Spark can broadcast without any plugin on the server to individuals or groups. Groups can be manually configure or be published via group sharing in Openfire.
First Pidgin will only authenticate the XMPP (jabber) traffic to your openfire server. Other protocols go directly to their servers (Yahoo, AIM, etc). The kracken plugin will allow Spark to talk to the other protocols.
I don’t think this is an issue. Managment wants a multi-protocol client because they feel having MSN native clients on their machines poses too big of a security risk. Therefore users will be allowed to connect to MSN and GTalk which are the two protocols users in our organization are currently using. I know GTalk uses the XMPP protocol and apparently some users have connected sucsessfully to our local Openfire server selecting GTalk in the settings, although I have not seen or verified this. Sorry if I indicated that I was having any issues or problems with using multiple protocols. Adding these JIDs and settings have no relevence on using multiple protocols except for maybe compatibility issues which are coming from using Pidgin. Most users are not using any other protocols other than XMPP connected to our own local Openfire server.
The broadcast plugin may not do what you intend it to, with pidgin. You were not real clear on this.
The broadcast plugin works fine in Pidgin. I know Spark has excellent broadcast support with a more precise recipient selection without requiring an additional plugin; unfortunaently managment has decided that we will not be using Spark simply because it does not support multiple protocols. With the broadcast plugin I can send broadcast to all members and to individual groups by sending a message to the new JIDs made available by the plugin. The problem is these JIDs do not show up automatically in the user’s buddies list, which I would like to see to simply use for users. I would like to see it as easy as possible for users who are not that technically compitent or may struggle to learn how to use the software. That is one of the reasons I recommended we use Spark as a client for our organization, however this was not accepted.
With the spark client and the Openfire client control plugin, and Shared groups you should be able to achieve your intended goal.
The client control plugin adds many features such as adding MUC bookmarks to Saprk with an option to auto join at login.
This is interesting. I have not checked out the Openfire client control plugin because I thought it was basically for limiting which clients could be used. Would the same functions be available for Pidgin? What other features are availalbe with this plugin?
Spark can broadcast without any plugin on the server to individuals or groups. Groups can be manually configure or be published via group sharing in Openfire.
This is interesting. I have not checked out the Openfire client control plugin because I thought it was basically for limiting which clients could be used. Would the same functions be available for Pidgin? What other features are availalbe with this plugin?
Just install the plugin and check it yourself, it’s 100 KB worth. It’s only working with Spark. Main features is to control what clients are allowed, control broadcasting, file transfer, avatars, also setting MUC bookmarks with auto-join option available, setting URL bookmarks and also controlling the Spark version to push it to all clients to upgrade.
Just to be clear spark can do multiprotocol. You need simply install the kracken plugin into Openfire. You can then chat with MSN, Yahoo, Gtalk, etc…
Yes gtalk does not require this plugin to work. I have my gtalk buddies added to my roster without the gateway enabled.
Your openfire server has many features that target Spark and will not work with other clients. You really should take another look at it as solution, and present it to the pointy headed bosses.