Chapter 30. Experimental

Table of Contents

Dynamic Rosters
Problem Description
Syntax and Semantics
Retrieving Contact Data
Updating/Saving Extra Information About the Contact
Configuration

Artur Hefczyc <artur.hefczyc@tigase.net> v2.0, June 2014: Reformatted for AsciiDoc. :toc: :numbered: :website: http://tigase.net/ :Date: 2010-04-06 21:22

The guide contains description of non-standard or experimental functionality of the server. Some of them are based on never published extensions, some of them are just test implementation for new ideas or performance improvements.

Dynamic Rosters

Problem Description

Normal roster contacts stored created as so called dynamic roster part are delivered to the end user transparently. The XMPP client doesn’t really know what contacts come from his own static roster created manually by the user and what contacts come from dynamic roster part that is contacts and groups generated dynamically by the server logic.

Some specialized clients need to store extra bits of information about roster contacts. For the normal user static roster this extra information can be stored as private data and is available only to the this single user. In some cases however clients need to store information about contacts from the dynamic roster part and this information must be available to all users accessing dynamic roster part.

The protocol defined here allows exchanging information, saving and retrieving extra data about the contacts.

Syntax and Semantics

Extra contact data is accessed using IQ stanzas, specifically by means of a child element qualified by the 'jabber:iq:roster-dynamic' namespace. The child element MAY contain one or more children, each describing a unique contact item. Content of the element is not specified and is implementation dependent. From the Tigase server point of view it can contain any valid XML data. Whole element is passed to the DynamicRoster? implementation class as is and without any verification. Upon retrieving the contact extra data the DynamicRoster? implementation is supposed to provide a valid XML element with all the required data for requested 'jid'.

The 'jid' attribute specifies the Jabber Identifier (JID) that uniquely identifies the roster item. Inclusion of the 'jid' attribute is REQUIRED.

Following actions on the extra contact data are allowed:

  • 'set' - stores extra information about the contact
  • 'get' - retrieves extra information about the contact

Retrieving Contact Data

Upon connecting to the server and becoming an active resource, a client can request the contact extra data. This request can be made either after or before requesting the user roster. The client’s request for the extra contact data is OPTIONAL.

Example: Client requests contact extra data from the server using 'get' request:

<iq type='get' id='rce_1'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster-dynamic'>
<item jid='archimedes@eureka.com'/>
</query>
</iq>

Example: Client receives contact extra data from the server, but there were either no extra information for the user or the user was not found in the dynamic roster:

<iq type='result' id='rce_1'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster-dynamic'>
<item jid='archimedes@eureka.com'/>
</query>
</iq>

Example: Client receives contact extra data from the server, and there was some extra information found about the contact:

<iq type='result' id='rce_1'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster-dynamic'>
<item jid='archimedes@eureka.com'>
<phone>+12 3234 322342</phone>
<note>This is short note about the contact</note>
<fax>+98 2343 3453453</fax>
</item>
</query>
</iq>

Updating/Saving Extra Information About the Contact

At any time, a client MAY update contact extra information on the server.

Example: Client sends contact extra information using 'set' request.

<iq type='set' id='a78b4q6ha463'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster-dynamic'>
<item jid='archimedes@eureka.com'>
<phone>+22 3344 556677</phone>
<note>he is a smart guy, he knows whether the crown is made from pure gold or not.</note>
</item>
</query>
</iq>

Client responds to the server:

<iq type='result' id='a78b4q6ha463'/>

A client MAY update contact extra information for more than a single item in one request:

Example: Client sends contact extra information using 'set' request with many <item/> elements.

<iq type='set' id='a78b4q6ha464'>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster-dynamic'>
<item jid='archimedes@eureka.com'>
<phone>+22 3344 556677</phone>
<note>he is a smart guy, he knows whether the crown is made from pure gold or not.</note>
</item>
<item jid='newton@eureka.com'>
<phone>+22 3344 556688</phone>
<note>He knows how heavy I am.</note>
</item>
<item jid='pascal@eureka.com'>
<phone>+22 3344 556699</phone>
<note>This guy helped me cure my sickness!</note>
</item>
</query>
</iq>

Client responds to the server:

<iq type='result' id='a78b4q6ha464'/>

Configuration

DynamicRoster implementation class should be configured in the init.properties file. As it’s an extension to the Presence and Roster plugins class should be configured either for both plugins:

sess-man/plugins-conf/jabber\:iq\:roster/dynamic-roster-classes=<class list>
sess-man/plugins-conf/presence/dynamic-roster-classes=<classes list>

or globally:

sess-man/plugins-conf/dynamic-roster-classes=<classes list>

<classes list> is a comma separated list of classes.