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Instant Messaging Systems
Computer Communications 27 (2004) 141 www.elsevier.com/locate/comcom
Book Review Instant Messaging Systems
With the evolvement of the Internet, Instant Messaging (IM or IMing) has become one of the most popular tools for people to communicate with peers over Internet. Originally, the messages were only text based, and IMs were delivered among users over the wired Internet. Nowadays, multimedia messages and messaging also happen over wireless networks, such as SMS. The most popular IM systems are AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, Windows Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, etc. However, they are not always interoperable. In order to build an open, interoperable IM system, standards should be followed. Jabber is an open, XMLbased protocol for IMing and presence. Nowadays Jabber IM has become one of the most powerful platforms for various messaging applications. As Jabber is an open source, its core protocols and the server have been developed and the source is available. IMing System, written by Dreamtech Software Team, provides a complete IMing application based on the existing Jabber server and Jabber protocols. The primary aim is to develop an IM solution that is capable of different platforms with clients. This IM application consists of the following components: Client which is the origin of all requests, and Local server acting as a complete service provider to the local client and an intermediate layer between the local client and Jabber server. These two components are well integrated with the existing Jabber server. IMing system makes the Jabber system a real distributed system consisting of distributed servers and distributed clients by the introduction of Local server. Several new techniques are also adopted such as Web service, etc. to extend the functionality of Jabber. So this book is well suitable for those IT programmers and developers of the intermediate to advanced level who want to learn this specific technology.
0140-3664/03/$ - see front matter q 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0140-3664(03)00128-2
This IM system follows the basic principle of Jabber system, i.e. its open source. The entire source code to create an IM system (client part and local server part) using both Java and C# is provided on the companion CD-ROM, as well as the development tools that are required to build the application. The code is of great help in terms of not only the better understanding the Jabber protocol, but also building up your own IM applications. The source code provided is fully tested at the Dreamtech Software Research Lab and is full operational. This book is well organised as follows: the concept and scope of the Jabber IM application are firstly provided, followed by the description of the designing process and a comprehensive picture of the IM application. Then, the principles and the development of the Java version and C# version of the local server model, and how they are integrated with the Jabber server are covered, respectively; based on those, the Java version and the C# version of the client model and its communications with server model are described, respectively. Finally the add-on feature of the application, such as the adaptation to suit handheld devices is covered in detail. As this book provides the total description and implementation of an IM system, it will take time to go through all the contents and the code. To fully understand the book, it is mandatory to have substantial knowledge of Java, C#, XML, ADO.NET and RDBMS such as SQL or Sybase. F. Xiang Networks and Distributed System Lab., Department of Electronics and Computer Science, The University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
Book Review Instant Messaging Systems
With the evolvement of the Internet, Instant Messaging (IM or IMing) has become one of the most popular tools for people to communicate with peers over Internet. Originally, the messages were only text based, and IMs were delivered among users over the wired Internet. Nowadays, multimedia messages and messaging also happen over wireless networks, such as SMS. The most popular IM systems are AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, Windows Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, etc. However, they are not always interoperable. In order to build an open, interoperable IM system, standards should be followed. Jabber is an open, XMLbased protocol for IMing and presence. Nowadays Jabber IM has become one of the most powerful platforms for various messaging applications. As Jabber is an open source, its core protocols and the server have been developed and the source is available. IMing System, written by Dreamtech Software Team, provides a complete IMing application based on the existing Jabber server and Jabber protocols. The primary aim is to develop an IM solution that is capable of different platforms with clients. This IM application consists of the following components: Client which is the origin of all requests, and Local server acting as a complete service provider to the local client and an intermediate layer between the local client and Jabber server. These two components are well integrated with the existing Jabber server. IMing system makes the Jabber system a real distributed system consisting of distributed servers and distributed clients by the introduction of Local server. Several new techniques are also adopted such as Web service, etc. to extend the functionality of Jabber. So this book is well suitable for those IT programmers and developers of the intermediate to advanced level who want to learn this specific technology.
0140-3664/03/$ - see front matter q 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0140-3664(03)00128-2
This IM system follows the basic principle of Jabber system, i.e. its open source. The entire source code to create an IM system (client part and local server part) using both Java and C# is provided on the companion CD-ROM, as well as the development tools that are required to build the application. The code is of great help in terms of not only the better understanding the Jabber protocol, but also building up your own IM applications. The source code provided is fully tested at the Dreamtech Software Research Lab and is full operational. This book is well organised as follows: the concept and scope of the Jabber IM application are firstly provided, followed by the description of the designing process and a comprehensive picture of the IM application. Then, the principles and the development of the Java version and C# version of the local server model, and how they are integrated with the Jabber server are covered, respectively; based on those, the Java version and the C# version of the client model and its communications with server model are described, respectively. Finally the add-on feature of the application, such as the adaptation to suit handheld devices is covered in detail. As this book provides the total description and implementation of an IM system, it will take time to go through all the contents and the code. To fully understand the book, it is mandatory to have substantial knowledge of Java, C#, XML, ADO.NET and RDBMS such as SQL or Sybase. F. Xiang Networks and Distributed System Lab., Department of Electronics and Computer Science, The University of Southampton, Southampton, UK