I have been working on GCM xmpp implementation for my chat functionality, but about a week, I am not getting online help to start with , I have got this XMPP GCM Android tutorial, but I see xmpp is not fully implemented, and upon seeing their code, it is very unclear to understand the functionality
firstly. my current structure is
Android client app for chat functionality.
java backend, app server jboss hosted in openshift cloud platform.
and according to this google gcm-xmpp image.. I see client interacts directly to gcm, which I get confused, intern gcm connects app server.
as per my implementation, I get gcm regid from gcm and send http request to app server which intern send notifications to client devices through gcm. this is reverse of what we see with gcm flow diagram
secondly, since I have already set up app server Jboss, which can handle http request for my client request other than chat functionality. now I need to implement xmpp for handling asynchronous, bidirectional, upstream messaging with another servers like openfire or ejabberd which supports xmpp.
currently I am in state where I don't know how to start with xmpp, I have got above queries, in the hope getting some directions to start with.
Related
Do XMPP Servers such as Openfire require implementation of their own in order to handle messages. Do I need a web language such as PHP in order to handle messages with Openfire?
Because according to posts such as this How to make Chat Application in Android Using XMPP and GCM, I do not need to write PHP scripts in order to handle messages, Openfire (it being a XMPP server) will do all the heavy lifting. So when creating a messaging program is the only thing I need to worry about the client side code?
I've also run into contradictory information that I hope someone can clarify on. It was to my knowledge that one needed to use a XMPP server along side GCM; as GCM is not reliable in delivering messages by itself and requires an XMPP server to fully be reliable. Is this true, the above link suggests that it isn't, but according to this it is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wXGcu9H91s
Some clarification would be great, thanks.
GCM allows you to use both HTTP and XMPP to send messages down from your application server through GCM to your devices.
Only with XMPP though can you send messages from your device through GCM to your server. This allows your device to send acknowledgment messages back up to your server. This does not necessarily make GCM more reliable but it does allow you to have a better audit of what messages were actually received by devices.
Openfire is a server that supports XMPP so you will still have to implement the protocol maybe using Smack.
Note that you could skip GCM and have a connection directly between your app and your XMPP server, however this is not recommended since your app would have to be constantly connected to your server which would be very hard on the battery of the device. This is where GCM comes in, allowing your app to receive messages even when it is in the background but still being kind to the battery of the device.
I am trying to understand the concept of gcm upstream messaging.
Well what I came to know till now after browsing for hours is this :
1)My client app sends upstream message to gcm server.2)GCM server then sends it to my 3rd party app server.3rd party app server responds to it my sending ACK to GCM server.3)Then GCM server echoes the message to the recipient device(recipient Id is included in the upstream message sent from the app).
I don't if its what actually happens.
Now that I am sure that in some step GCM server sends mesaage to my server, how actually GCM server
sends message to my app server. How does it come to know about my app server as there is nowhere where we put my server's address
I have searched the whole Internet but couldn't find anything about this.I have gone through several SO questions but I couldnot find my answer.
I want to know the entire series of steps what happens during this entire process. I am very confused.I want to know the entire concept and what's going on behind all this.
Any detailed explanation with all steps will be appreciated.
To inform I have read the Google docs.
You have much of the flow correct but I think another read of the Docs will clear things up.
Your application server must act as an XMPP client, and connect to CCS (GCM's XMPP server). Your server connecting to CCS is how GCM knows the "address" of your server.
Cleaning up the flow you suggested:
Your app server connects to GCM's CCS.
Your client app (android app) gets a registration token.
Your client app (android app) sends that token to your app server.
Your client app send upstream message to GCM.
GCM fwds that message to your application server.
Your application server send Ack to CCS.
Your application server handles the received message.
Note the above flow is a possible one, there are many others, also downstream messages are not part of the flow. Again refer to the docs for more details.
hi this is just for knowledge. i will try to explain as much as i can what is my question.
Usually i call on an Async Service every amount of time i.e updates on the server part for example are not reflected as soon as they change. whatsapp for example reflects the updates almost instantly. for example when a user is typing, it shows to the other user that he is typing.
In short what protocols do they use and how do they use it.
thank you.
What protocols do they use?
Application like Whats app,G-talk ,facebook etc they uses XMPP protocol for IM services.
What is XMPP?
The Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is an open
technology for real-time communication, using the Extensible Markup
Language (XML) as the base format for exchanging information. In
essence, XMPP provides a way to send small pieces of XML from one
entity to another in close to real time
As per latest version of specifications XMPP provides below services
Channel encryption [RFC3920]
Authentication [RFC3920]
Presence [RFC3921]
Contact lists [RFC3921]
One-to-one messaging [RFC3920]
Multi-party messaging [XEP-0045]
Notifications [XEP-0060]
Service discovery [XEP-0030]
Capabilities advertisement [XEP-0115]
Structured data forms [XEP-0004]
Workflow management [XEP-0050]
Peer-to-peer media sessions [XEP-0166]
This are the core services available in XMPP
Below are some Applications where XMPP can be used
Instant messaging
Groupchat
Gaming
Systems control
Geolocation
Middleware and cloud computing
Data syndication
Voice over IP (VoIP)
Identity services
Like HTTP XMPP also require server-client implementation
Below are some popular XMPP servers
Ejabberd
Openfire
Prosody
Tigase
You can find more information on xmpp server on this link
Different platform has their different XMPP client library you can more information on this link
If you want to implement XMPP client for android then you can use Smack 4.1 ,it is an open source XMPP client library written in java.
I have tried to list down basic feature of XMPP here but if you getting started with xmpp ,then there are lost of things to learn , free to ask any doubt regarding XMPP I will try my best .
Thank you
Note::
for the user who are still using aSmack should Upgrade to Smack 4.1 as aSmack has been deprecated!!
aSmack Deprecation Notice
aSmack to Smack Upgrade guide
You could implement the Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) service, as the GCM site says:
Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) for Android is a service that allows you
to send data from your server to your users' Android-powered device,
and also to receive messages from devices on the same connection...
This way you can inform from one client a status change, the backend then send the propper message to the desired clients and finally those clients app updates the status.
https://developer.android.com/google/gcm/index.html
Can anyone explain how to make a basic IM client with my old PC as a server, client can be on IOS or android? And also please explain how to work with IM and servers simultaniously.
For android you could use Google Cloud messaging and a similar messaging service for IOS. When a client send's a message, it should be sent to GCM via upstream service and GCM will push the message to the server. The server will house the deviceId's of the client's and can push a message whenever required to the client by making a API call to GCM with the message and the deviceID.
Check the documentation for GCM and you will get a clear idea.
There are also other services like GCM which can work for android as well as IOS
The reason for using such a service is that it ensures that the messaging is full proof. Even if the client is not having internet connectivity or is switched off, it shall receive the message on getting internet connection. You do not have to handle those troubles!
I am trying to create a chat application. The communication is based on RESTful web services(Jersey). The client communicates with the server sending HTTP requests. My problem is how to send messages from server to client without the client send a request first. I read about C2DM notifications, I suppose using this way, when the client receives the notification from the server then (the client) has to send a request to the server in order to receive the data. I also was thinking about using sockets but I don't know if it is possible as I am using Rest. I mean in the server side can I also use sockets(sockets run in lower level) with the REST code? The only thing I have though that could work using sockets is to create another server with socket(two servers RESTful and socket), but is this a good solution? Also could I put some server code in the client side and some client code in the server side. Would it be correct and effective? What do you think? Which solution would be the best?
C2DM has been officially deprecated as of June 26, 2012 by google. Existing C2DM developers are encouraged to migrate to the new version of C2DM, called Google Cloud Messaging for Android (GCM).
Check out this link for more info
http://developer.android.com/guide/google/gcm/index.html
The scenario you describe sounds ideal for C2DM. If you build your own sockets set up you will drain battery and CPU resources doing something the phone is already doing - maintaining an open socket to receive messages.
C2DM is relatively straightforward to set up, and in my experience is pretty reliable.
This is the best tutorial I have seen on it:
http://www.vogella.de/articles/AndroidCloudToDeviceMessaging/article.html
But you also need to read the official docs:
http://code.google.com/android/c2dm/
Your server-side code will need to send an HTTP request to the C2DM servers to send a message to a device. To tell it where to send the message, your server needs to specify the Registration ID (which represents your app running on one specific device) and so when your app sets up on the Android device, it registers with C2DM, and then needs to send its C2DM Registration ID to your server to be stored, ready to be used to send messages to.