Next Release of Spark

Spark Spark Dev
21

Just wanted to weigh in here a bit (sorry guys! I’ve been extremely busy with work and end of universtity semester and have not had much time to focus on spark as-of-late! Summer should change this! I owe the Spark project severl patches by now!)

@homeofeconomy - Just run the embedded JRE. There are NO known exploits in Java other than the Applet issues that keep reoccuring (reoccuring because Applets should be removed from Java standard Library but can’t). Just to repeat, NO known exploits. I want to hammer that home because the misinformed tech press has been going nuts about Java, saying things like remove it, etc etc. Simply disable Java in your browser and you are fine. Any program can be written insecurly, but the Java language is not full of holes.

Applets are left-over archaic relics of decade-old technology that should-never-have-been. There once was a time and place for Applets, but that is long gone (replaced by javascript, flash, and now html5, etc). So basically any Applet you run across in modern time is likely some old crusty program that probably is inheriently insecure in it’s own right (best practices of today weren’t the same back in the day). Oracle cannot simply kill Applets becasuse there are still too many in the wild (and even more buried in corporations)… so they have provided a means to completely disable Java from running in the browser if you do not need it (in windows you go to the Java Control Panel (located in windows control panel) --> Security tab). I recommend disabling it in your browser unless you know you need it (such as if you maintain dell servers and use the DRAC IPMI cards, etc)

So, you should install Java 7 on a computer, then copy the JRE folder to your Spark installation folder making sure to change the name of the existing one (if present) to something other than “jre”.

I personally have deployed Java 7 bundled Spark to approx 50 machines at my company with no issues at all. You can take it a step further and compile/package your own installer to auto-deploy it with the proper embedded JRE (look into Advanced Installer Free Edition).

@Joey I’m not sure if SparkWeb is maintained anymore? It’s a nice concept, and I"ve played around with it a bit. It’s not full featured like Spark is, but get the basics done.

22

Thanks for the link, i’ll use offline installer, and come back with news if something is wrong.

Next, i like to ask if on bug list is that with plugin MotD(mesage of the day), if is plugin fault or spark, if not coming all the time on the screen when user login. I setup to automaticaly login in 2 conference room, for all users, but broadcasting motD, is not showing every time.

I love utility that show “x is doing something else” or “x is paying attention”.

Hope this solve my big problems, chat window not maximize on click in task bar, not reconectig at internet loss.

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I don’t recall such bug in the tracker. I think it should be plugin’s issue rather than spark.

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So to be clear, do i need java 7 to be installed, or if no need for other applications, just to use spark as is with java inside?

Some bugs occured on version 17may:

-if i have spark open, sometimes when i shutdown windows, i receive “end now program”.(win xp and 7)

-for some clients,custom mesages on status not apearing at others, for “online” (ex.), and if i put on “free to chat”, is working.

-still eat like 70-110mb ram , on some old stations(1,2ghz cpu and 1gb ram, win xp) i have to use pidgin- like 28-30mb ram using.

-some clients have problem to be auto-joined on conference room, solved deleting spark folder from app data and reinstalled, removing any java 6

-i like to see in next version automatic picture resizing for avatars, instead of taking one by one to resize manualy, every time someone change his avatar.

In other hand, file transfer now is ~900kb/s, instead 150kb/s, not so much disconnections(openfire fault i think, and of corse internet time outs), no maximize problem too

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You can have Java 7 installed and still use Spark with the bundled Java 7 (i use it this way).

Haven’t seen problems with Windows shutdown, though i recall a few reports about that. Walter had posted a cause for that problem when using specific Java 6 version http://community.igniterealtime.org/message/217218#217218

I believe this has to do something either with the Java version you are using or other software running on this PC (like antivirus, firewalls, etc.)

I’ve been able to reproduce the issue with the custom statuses SPARK-1535 If you set the custom status manually every time, it will work ok. But if you select some saved custom status, it will not append the custom status to the default one.

It will never “eat” less RAM, because this is a Java apllication and JVM needs more memory to allocate for its operation. Even a minimalistic client like JBother still uses 60-80 MB, because it is java based too. Actually RAM is not an issue on XP with 1 GB RAM. On Vista with 3 GB RAM it runs ok in my environment and freezes on XP with 2 GB RAM. The problems is the CPU. XP has older Core 2 Duo mobile processor, yet Vista is on newer Core i5 CPU. With more powerful CPU youwill have no freezes in Spark. So, yes, you will have to use something like Pidgin (i prefer Psi, it uses even less i think and UI is better).

1 Like
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Thanks for quick response. You reproduced the issue with custom message, exactly how it happens to us. Today i observed, if i exit, and delete custom_mesages.xml, and back online, and set again a status, will work, ok. So, better return to manualy writing mesage from beggining, because our users, must write how much they do few times a day, and editing saved mesages was a good escape. In official version, is still working ok this.

Is new for me this freezing because of cpu. Indeed , we have few older pc with mono cpu 1,8ghz(i know is antiqe), and few laptops same generation like you said , xp on Core 2 Duo,and users said pc freeze only when open/use spark. On mine, win 7 on Dual Core 3ghz, no problem.

I’ll compare pidgin and Psi, (heard of that too, from openfire client list), and install on older pc’s. I need and file transfer between those, anyway, spark<->psi or spark<-> pidgin.

Later edit:

I choose pidgin, has more tools. File transfer is working but, only with nightly build from 17 may of Spark. Conferences working as well, and how Spark has auto-join directly from openfire, pidgin has a checkbox on conference room, for auto-join. We use that because we used before, windows live, and when someone was writing something on group, all receive a open window. Here in spark, i have to setup from openfire(someone thinked in advance there!) avery group users to join theyr conference room. Pidgin has no status problem.

Message was edited by: Vasi

27

Could we get a feature request to display the spark status presence behind their name in the control+F search window? Right now it’s just the status icon, I think that would be a pretty major new feature (at least it would be internally here).

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Fair enough. SPARK-1536

29

I’D like to ask for clarification, does Jason’s response above indicate that the development team is dropping the Online build of Spark?

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I don’t see anything in his comment implying this. Online builds are built automatically with the other builds, so no point to drop it, and probably some users prefer to download smaller size installer. Another thing is to make sure it will work without the bundled jre. Not sure if this can be improven (especially when there are many Java version out there and even some bugs may show up because of different Java version).

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Perhaps I was reading in too far to “Just run the embedded JRE”. The long post that follows seems like an attempt to justify why the online installer doesn’t need to work.

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Regarding the custom status messages. There is a fix for this in 596 build http://bamboo.igniterealtime.org/browse/SPARK-INSTALL4J-596/artifact/JOB1/Instal l4j/ But i have found out that presence updates are not working if you are logged into some additional transports like Gtalk, MSN, etc. This additional issue will be investigated later, hopefully.

1 Like
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Well, this is a good news. Since we don’t use additional transports, seems this will be a good fix for me. I’ll install this and come back with news. Ty.

As for invisibility, i dont see a use neither. We dont want our colegues to stay on invisible, since Spark is an important tool for us.

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Hello,

To clarify, I was simply defending Java as a language in my post. It seemed to be under fire regarding the series of exploits that have surfaced lately, and a lot of non-Java developers aren’t fully aware of what the details meant. In your post you had mentioned you were not comfortable running something with a possibly out-dated JRE bundled… and my response purely was a counter to why it should be OK to do so (I do so in my corporate environemnt, with Java disabled in the browser of course :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: )

In the corporate world as I’m sure you know, it’s commonplace to accumulate old legacy software that can’t/wont be updated. At my day-job we actually have several JRE 1.3 (circa 2000) integration programs still in production (that we don’t have source to and uses embedded JRE’s). These programs aren’t inherently insecure just becasue they are old Java versions (they can be insecure for a number of other reasons including poor programming and practices). New Java versions typically bring refinement or new features to the language.

Anyways, all of this was simply to say that by running the embedded JRE you are not really opening up new attack vectors so long as you employ standard security practices and disable Java from running in the browser.

sorry for any confusion… and the long-winded post :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

35

Adding a video conferencing feature would be a great addition, one thats built into the client and dosnt require a whole host of third party plug ins to be installed on the server to get it working correctly. I think thats the only thing Spark/Openfire is really missing.

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I see that this thread becomes another “feature request” thread In some cases video conferencing is a must. We at our company don’t need it, so it is not so important for us as some other issues or features. I don’t mind for this to be included, but this is not a few lines of code. Though something may come up in the future. This is the closest thing (using WebRTC, but needs Chrome running) http://community.igniterealtime.org/blogs/ignite/2013/04/19/a-video-plugin-for-s park-using-webrtc

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Yeh i understand it’s not just a five minute job and would require a fair bit of work. It’s just i’ve been asked numerous times by my company to try and distribute a good free video conferencing solution that our staff could use, but I always get asked the same question “Will it work with our existing IM service?” and I always have to tell them no and they don’t want two IM services running side by side. I did try the Red5 plug-ins a few years ago, but they never seemed finished and looked unproffesional, and it only supported one to one video chat.

I just think it’d be a great feature for spark to have, a free video conferencing solution with all of the features of openfire and spark would give the project a lot of interest imo, there really isnt that many free solutions out their at this point in time.