Wrong forum This is strictly IM Gateway field. And there were discussions about LCS/OCS support. http://www.igniterealtime.org/community/message/175103#175103 No solution so far. There is no java API to work with, so it could be incorporated into IM Gateway. I would say you are loosing currently. It would be hard to argue with MS junkies. The strongest argument is, that with MS software you have to pay, pay and pay again.
Maybe you can answer some questions then if you’re of a mind.
The IM gateway. Does that allow me to use my server to interact with other chat software? It seems to be with the description but it doesn’t seem to quite work.
In other words can I install Openfire/Spark in my network, open the necessary ports in the firewall and have my folks inside my network able to chat with outside chat users, such as G-talk or MSN? These are both listed as part of the IM gateway but I’m not sure if thats exactly what it does.
Or instead does it just make it so that I can utilize the g-talk chat software to communicate with my Openfire server?
the question should be whether you want to use proprietary protocols and formats or standards. A lot of companies did realize that XML allows them to exchange, validate, edit and complete data much better than .doc or .xls files do. They do likely not use XMPP but (s)FTP, FTP(s), HTTP(s) or JMS to exchange the data, these are all standards.
As there is afaik no MCS2XMPP connector/gateway available one may want to write one.
But your management needs to decide which way the company wants to take - proprietary or standards.
Yeah, sadly thats not a decision they’re going to make on their own-if they have to decide they’re sticking with MS.
So its my job to come riding in and say “look, we can do everything for free rather than pay.” But before I can do that I need to
Be able to port Spark outside
Be able to understand the gateway a whee bit better.
Anybody able to explain the process-using g-talk for example - of what the IM gateway does because I think I have a bit of a misunderstanding of its exact function.
In other words can I install Openfire/Spark in my network, open the necessary ports in the firewall and have my folks inside my network able to chat with outside chat users, such as G-talk or MSN?
This is the right guess. Your users will be able to chat with Gtalk/MSN contacts via Spark. Though i dont know exactly about firewall stuff. At my network it was working without any ports opening. In Gateway setings there are ports specified, so this probably could be useful for firewall settings.
What you could do in the interim, is treat the OCS/LCS server in the other group as if it were an external company. Enable the Public IM Gateway in both OpenFire (you will need to manage a jabber to public im network id relationship) as well as on the LCS/OCS server.
I currently am abel to IM via Spark/Openfire/IM Gateway to a friend at another company who is using OCS. I see his JID as user@company.com@msn.openfireserverdomain My friend sees me as either just my public msn account. With this setup each user would have to manually add roster entires though. I hope this helps.
Do the users have to have spark logins that are outside of our chat server? Or do our users need to have msn or Microsoft Communicator logins? I’m very unfamiliar with the whole gateway configuration and would welcome any help.
The remote users do not need to have an account on your Openfire server. You will need to install the IM Gateway plugin in Openfire though. Start out configuring it for your own JID to allow you to see some of your conacts for a public IM service. Once you have that part working, install and configure whatever gateway LCS/OCS uses for the same functionality. Verify both sides are able to see and im with external contacts. In my case, the LCS/OCS user had to add my external MSN contact into his contact list, then I had to accept the add to roster request on my side.