Only allow intra-group messaging

Hello all,

I am running Openfire server 3.8.1. We are looking for a way to allow registered users to ‘only’ communicate to those who are in the same group as them (i.e. have that particular user already on their roster), and drop all other attempts at communication. This would be global for the server and apply to every user. We are not using LDAP - every user and group will be created within Openfire.

We looked at the “Packet Filter” plugin (http://www.igniterealtime.org/projects/openfire/plugins/packetfilter/readme.html) - This will not fill our needs from what I can see. Instead of blocking on a group by group bases, we need this to be a solution that automatically affects all users. We will have a large volume of groups, so adding a rule for every permutation of groups is infeasable.

There is a similar request here that hasn’t been filled: http://issues.igniterealtime.org/browse/OF-296

A similar post here with no answer: http://community.igniterealtime.org/thread/41562

The option exists to develop a plugin - A post with a code example about a somewhat, but not entirely, similar issue is here (http://community.igniterealtime.org/message/137815#137815) – However, I’m not sure where to begin on the development of something along those lines.

Is there an obvious option within openfire that I’m missing for this functionality and/or a plugin to do it? Any advice on a direction to take will be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!