External components and PEP

Is it possible to use PEP with external components? I have a component that I would like to receive PEP notifications from users and have currently been unable to make it work.

I’m going to half-answer myself: I had a very brief glimpse at Openfire source and it might be that the server notifies only local users.

So the real question is can this be implemented (I could do it) and does the spec allow it? My understanding is that external components should receive the notifications the same way as users should. On the other hand, components do not get the automatically created virtual pubsub service that users get.