Why Spark is bad for business corporate usage

Spark Spark Support
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When you read the project it says “Cross-platform real-time collaboration client optimized for business and organizations.”
There is a lot of stuffs not working for that, remember the concept of corporate is the program has to work has the corporate wants, it´s not a personal home chat client, it´s a compay chat client.
1- The spark does not auto start up when windows initiates
if it´s gonna be the main comunication system in a PC it have to auto start up,
2- The save password option, automatic login are disabled by default
3- Log in has invisible, Log in anonymously, ¿are u serious?, this is a corporate chat everybody have to be visual!!
4- Account, give to a client the posibility to create an account?? that buttom shuld not exist
5- Client do not support html text (Color bold and styled text)
6- Need a plugin to set directives to client, directives about how the client it´s gonna work, what options it´s gonna be enabled or disabled.
7- sounds are default disabled, they shuld be enabled
8- Too much use of RAM memory 80.8Mb, my antivirus NOD32 uses 61mb

If someone need that´s options can use a personal client has Pandion, it´s much better than spark for a personal xmpp client use, but Pandion it´s not recomendable for corporate

few years ago i used the spark, i have to abandon it because this, it´s some little details but thouse details are the one who separate a personal client from a corporate, i migrated to BigAntSoft, a real corporate chat solution, the server have not all the posibilities of a XMPP server, but the client is awesome, the server aplicate directives to client to control how the chat client it´s gonna work, you can even control a remote computer by the chat www.bigantsoft.com/ it have a android client too. I´m still waiting the spark client for android maybe in the year 2044??

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First of all, you are comparing commercial software (BigAnt Soft) to open source project which hasn’t had normal full time developer for 10+ years. Spark has issues, but the most important one is the lack of developers or anyone wanting to work on it. To create an Android client version you need at least a few devs team and if you even want it to look and work similar to desktop client, it will be even more complex task. You can’t simply port Spark to Android. It uses Java, it uses ancient Swing technology. There are a number of Android clients already available, some are even based on Smack, like Spark. But they will look and behave differently. For one thing, because mobile apps look differently than desktop apps. I think there will probably never be a mobile Spark version. So you can stop waiting and explore the options that are there (Conversations, Xabber, aTalk, etc.).

That flavor text on the project’s page is probably old and it was left there since the times when JiveSoftware was still running these projects. Maybe Spark is not ideally optimized for business anymore, but i wouldn’t say it is that bad. For one thing its simplistic and clean interface is a one big plus towards business optimization. No stickers, no gifs, no other silly nonsense. Although it seems now everyone is adding it to business software. Apparently new generation can’t live without stickers even at a workplace :slight_smile:

1- It is. If you set it. And it by default sets itself to autostart on Windows startup. It starts in the system tray as every normal Instant Messenger does (say Skype for Business can start in the system tray).
2-You are probably using older Openfire version with older version of Client Control plugin. New Spark version has support for disabling certain features, and if old plugin is in use, it doesn’t provide correct commands to Spark, therefore you see some settings disabled. You should update to the current versions of Openfire and Client Control plugin.
3- Spark is optimized for business usage, but not limited to it. Anyone can use it as a personal xmpp client also. So having common xmpp features like Login as invisible is fine (some might even want to use it at companies to check on their employees secretly). Login anonymously can be used in Kiosk scenarios, when one PC can be used by many users, etc. Anyway, both these settings can be disabled through a Client Control plugin.
4- You can disable account creation on a server, so this option won’t do anything (at least for your server). But if you want to remove that setting, you can do it in Client Control plugin.
5- Lack of developers.
6- Client Control plugin.
7- Personally i hate when software does sounds, it’s distracting. It can be enabled easily, so i don’t see huge problem here.
8- It is Java based, so nothing can be done here as JVM will always “eat” a chunk of your RAM when operating.

I have tried Pandion in the past. Didn’t like its interface and it often didn’t work as i wanted. So, everyone has personal taste. In our company after using Openfire/Spark for 10+ years we have switched to Skype for Business. Because we needed more powerful client with easy to use audio/video tools and integration with other Office 365 services. But not every company can spend money on real business oriented tools. So, some might live with a few issues with Openfire/Spark and use if free of a cost.

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If you have come here to advertise your favourite chat product and start a flame war, please go away. Comparing a commercial product with an open source project supported by volunteers is mischievous and suspicious. What are exactly are you trying to achieve with such subjective and negative comments?

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> 7- Personally i hate when software does sounds, it’s distracting. It can be enabled easily, so i don’t see huge problem here.

8- It is Java based, so nothing can be done here as JVM will always “eat” a chunk of your RAM when operating.

SOUNDS: This is not about personal choises, and not all the users of my company know how to enable it, not everybody have your IT experience and knowledge, its a simple thing to enable for you but its someting that a human resourses worker of 45 years old doasent have idea about how to enable. Spark does not start up by default when is instaled, it have to be opened after instaled and enabled user by user, or set a key in windows register (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run) i have 167 computers on my company, i cant do that one by one, whe need a .msi package so it can be instaled by windows directive. You din`t responsed me about the html text.

I love OpenSoft, but when i use it happens like Linux Mint:They promess to be the more easy to use OS of linux with a simple UI, but when i tryed to set a proxy i had to change 4 diferents options in 3 diferents places, a total pain in the *ss with no solution, in 15 relases they could not fix that and it still have problems

A lots of my IT parters LOVE Openfire Personaly I love it but they just dont like to use Spark has a client. I will like to help with the dev of Spark. My programing knoledge limits to Php, MySQL, Javascript, C++ i will like to help, Spark have potential to be one of the best corporate clients of XMPP, but you people need to stop thinking “7- Personally” and do corporate.

That client control plugin RULES!, that is someting i haven`t found in another XMPP client, and that is exacly what a corporate client shuld have, it shuld control more of the spark client.

Thanks for having time to answer my quesions and please, again, when whe are going to have html text (i mean put some color and style to the text)

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A post was split to a new topic: Server to server connection not working as intended

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I have moved your last post into a separate topic. No need to pile not related questions into a single one.

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I said “personally” to provide different perspective, that some users (and i am one of them, although i work in IT) might not like sounds by default. I will compare to Skype for Business again. By default it shows popup when your group members become online. I bet Microsoft thought this is useful and should be enabled by default (and it is). Yet it is the most often asked to disable thing in our organization, because it is annoying. I don’t remember a lot of requests in these forums or elsewhere to make sounds enabled by default. I bet, if we make them enabled, we will see a few posts here asking to make them disabled by default. Until there is a strong demand, i don’t think we should change the default that was here for many years. Spark is already showing popups and blinking in taskbar for new messages. Also, as an IT providing a service to your users you should provide instructions about common features and settings which should be easy enough for your users.

Spark needs a good Java/Swing programmer.

I will repeat. Spark doesn’t have and haven’t had for a long time a single active developer (apart from occasional contributors). I would also like to have more options in Client Control or other features, but it can’t be done without someone working on it. So, if you must have html text or other stuff, then look into other clients. I can’t answer when it will have html text. Maybe never.

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9 posts were split to a new topic: How to setup Spark source in Eclipse?