I did a technical review for O'Reilly's XMPP: The Definitive Guide by Peter Saint-Andre, Kevin Smith, and Remko Tronçon. In return, O'Reilly sent me two copies of the book, and as I only need one copy I decided to do a drawing for my extra copy. This book is a great introduction to XMPP; I fully recommend it for learning all of the main concepts for building realtime applications in XMPP. Furthermore, they use SleekXMPP for their code examples!
To enter, send me an email (nathan fritz at gmail.com), Jabber (fritzy at netflint.net), comment to this blog post, or identica/twitter me with a link to a project that you've done with XMPPHP, SleekXMPP, or Seesmic-AS3-XMPP along with a brief description. You may enter up to 3 times (using separate projects). You must be the author. I'll do a random drawing from the entries at a later date and get the winner's mailing address to ship it then.
I'm now doing XMPP and AMQP consulting, so if you'd like to contract me for help with your company's project, please send me an email. Best of luck in the drawing!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Introducing XMPPHP
Well, I've finally done it. I finally took two evenings and wrote a replacement to Class.Jabber.PHP that I had been promising for eons. It'll work with XMPP 1.0 servers, it does TLS, has persistent connections, is event driven, etc. I'll try to get some more documentation in the coming days, but the examples included give you a pretty good idea. Check it out at svn://netflint.net/xmpphp and http://code.google.com/p/xmpphp.
This is based largely on my experience building SleekXMPP, and I'll certainly be taking some things and applying it there (threadless mode, and simpler handlers).
The only thing missing from Class.Jabber.PHP is Rosters and Registration, which I'll get to in the coming days. Please take a look and provide any feedback you might have. Also feel free to ask for my help in implementing it. I'm off to bed!
This is based largely on my experience building SleekXMPP, and I'll certainly be taking some things and applying it there (threadless mode, and simpler handlers).
The only thing missing from Class.Jabber.PHP is Rosters and Registration, which I'll get to in the coming days. Please take a look and provide any feedback you might have. Also feel free to ask for my help in implementing it. I'm off to bed!
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
A Project Management Epiphany
We hired a friend of mine in October of last year to help with sales and programming. He's moved to programming full time, and I've taken on the role of Project Manager since. I still do code, but my focus is on code architecture now. Since then, I've been learning the ropes of project management, and I've been looking for tools to help me with the job.
We were already using Subversion for revision management, and upon hiring Garvin, we've added Flspray for road mapping and task management. Its really a task management system in and of itself. I've recently come across Crucible for code review. This is quite a gem! It integrates with Subversion in such a way that you can mark revisions and and effected files for code review. Invited participants may start threads within your code, with each thread relating to specific lines of code that are simply highlight. It's very slick for organizing code review, especially with out-of-office employees.
The thing it was missing to me was integration with a project management system like Flyspray. Well, how would it integrate with something like that without them having to write a project management system specifically for Crucible? It wouldn't be simple. Then it struck me; why not have a feed daemon for Flyspray the same way Subversion has svn:/? A standard could even be made that multiple task management systems could use and thus be integrated easily with other applications like Crucible. I just don't think RSS feeds are enough, because it only goes one way. Is there something out there that already does this? If not, I'm tempted to write up a specification and daemon.
We were already using Subversion for revision management, and upon hiring Garvin, we've added Flspray for road mapping and task management. Its really a task management system in and of itself. I've recently come across Crucible for code review. This is quite a gem! It integrates with Subversion in such a way that you can mark revisions and and effected files for code review. Invited participants may start threads within your code, with each thread relating to specific lines of code that are simply highlight. It's very slick for organizing code review, especially with out-of-office employees.
The thing it was missing to me was integration with a project management system like Flyspray. Well, how would it integrate with something like that without them having to write a project management system specifically for Crucible? It wouldn't be simple. Then it struck me; why not have a feed daemon for Flyspray the same way Subversion has svn:/? A standard could even be made that multiple task management systems could use and thus be integrated easily with other applications like Crucible. I just don't think RSS feeds are enough, because it only goes one way. Is there something out there that already does this? If not, I'm tempted to write up a specification and daemon.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
XMPP Catchup
Quite a few things have happened in my XMPP world since my last post. My server losing it's drive caused me to accomplish next to nothing for about 2 weeks+. I still have not reached my goals with 0.1 for SleekXMPP, but I'm mostly missing just a few bug fixes and some testing. However, work on SleekBot has begun! Its a framework for people to build any type of bot, and will include a hopefully quite complete set of bot plugins. For example, remember Edgar? Edgar will be brought back to life as a Sleekbot plugin as will many other bots out there.
Sleekbot, along with SleekXMPP, now has Ad Hoc Command support.
Ad Hoc is a major feature for Sleekbot, because it will allow complete administration of the bot from an XMPP client. For example:
controlling admin lists dynamically loading plugins bot roster management plugin specific configuration
I would love to include community contributed plugins and plugin ideas. Eventually I will want to make a Sleekbot community page. Feel free to check out and play with the code at svn://netflint.net/sleekbot
In another news, I was accepted as an XMPP member this quarter, which I am very excited about!
Sleekbot, along with SleekXMPP, now has Ad Hoc Command support.
Ad Hoc is a major feature for Sleekbot, because it will allow complete administration of the bot from an XMPP client. For example:
I would love to include community contributed plugins and plugin ideas. Eventually I will want to make a Sleekbot community page. Feel free to check out and play with the code at svn://netflint.net/sleekbot
In another news, I was accepted as an XMPP member this quarter, which I am very excited about!
Friday, April 6, 2007
Lost a Drive
My little 1U, Sherman, has lost it's main drive this evening. I won't be able to access the machine until midnight tonight. I'm starting to think about all of the directories /not/ on automated backups. My jabberd 1.4.4 spool directory is one of them. This could really, really suck. You won't be able to check out any of my SVN repos tonight anyway. I hope the drive will mount as a secondary long enough for me to pull most stuff off of it. I'm in for a long night.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
SleekXMPP 0.1 Plans
See my previous post if you don't know what SleekXMPP is.
Well, before my first release, there are a handful of things to do:
1. I'm really not happy with how stream:features works in my lib; it's messy.
2. Possibly add post-send handlers.
3. Write a data-forms (XEP-0004) plugin.
4. Stabilize the API so that it doesn't keep changing on developers.
I should be able to take care of that this weekend so that I can start on the bot framework. The bot framework will be all about configuration. You'll be able to register chat commands, command help, command context. And then, of course, comes the events, and MUC support. After all of that, I will begin developing a bot plugin system (separate from the protocol plugins) for drop in and configurable Edgar, Thinkbot, RSS feed readers, voting bots, etc. People will be able to drop in as many plugins as they want and configure them how they want. Ideally this will be doable by non-programmers.
Several people have asked me about licensing of SleekXMPP. To answer the question, 0.1 will likely be GPL. I'm sorry, but that's the way it is as I don't have enough time to research licenses between now and then. 0.2 will likely be a much less restrictive license, and hopefully everyone is happy with it. Current candidates are MIT, BSD, and Apache.
In other news, I applied for XSF membership today. I'll know on the 15th (Tax Day) whether I'm in or not.
Well, before my first release, there are a handful of things to do:
1. I'm really not happy with how stream:features works in my lib; it's messy.
2. Possibly add post-send handlers.
3. Write a data-forms (XEP-0004) plugin.
4. Stabilize the API so that it doesn't keep changing on developers.
I should be able to take care of that this weekend so that I can start on the bot framework. The bot framework will be all about configuration. You'll be able to register chat commands, command help, command context. And then, of course, comes the events, and MUC support. After all of that, I will begin developing a bot plugin system (separate from the protocol plugins) for drop in and configurable Edgar, Thinkbot, RSS feed readers, voting bots, etc. People will be able to drop in as many plugins as they want and configure them how they want. Ideally this will be doable by non-programmers.
Several people have asked me about licensing of SleekXMPP. To answer the question, 0.1 will likely be GPL. I'm sorry, but that's the way it is as I don't have enough time to research licenses between now and then. 0.2 will likely be a much less restrictive license, and hopefully everyone is happy with it. Current candidates are MIT, BSD, and Apache.
In other news, I applied for XSF membership today. I'll know on the 15th (Tax Day) whether I'm in or not.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
SleekXMPP
As a self-taught, professional programmer, I have a few habits that many more formally educated peers of mine do not. One of those habits is to apply knowledge I've learned to "pet projects." Every time I learn a new technique or come up with a new idea, I tend to apply them to one of my pet projects, often requiring a full rewrite. Naturally, I see no end in sight as far as being able to improve upon my skills, however, this time I think that I've arrived somewhere.
SleekXMPP is an XMPP library for Python. Why have I written my own when there are at least 2 others out there? Well, the first write was for a company that I worked for, and subsequent rewrites have simply been out of obsession with Jabber/XMPP. Who knows, maybe I can even use my knowledge and libraries to make money. I have purposely avoided even looking at the code of other Python XMPP implementations in order to maintain solid copyright.
The idea is that the Jabber/XMPP community could use this to test new XEPs (XMPP Extension Protocol) very, very quickly and easily. In fact, my goal is to implement every draft XEP in existence as plugins. This ensures that I write my code in a very extensible fashion, making it easy to extend the class in any way. I am writing the core RFC's as part of the main classes, and XEPs as plugins.
Beyond protocol testing, what am I trying to accomplish? Once I hit version 0.1 (not quite there yet), I will begin working on a bot framework. The bot framework will use the SleekXMPP lib, and in it's own right, be extensible. Bot behaviors will be configurable and extended with plugins like Thinkbot, Edgar, Mapbot, etc. Kevin Smith, of Psi fame, has promised to write a plugin for eggdrop scripts. Ideally, this framework will enable people who are not programmers to customize and run a bot. Maybe there'll be some optional GUI plugins to boot. In a related train of thought, why have I not seen more bots take advantage of data forms?
Here is some output from what I've been working on so far:
Some of the astute amongst you may notice that I've implemented XEP-0076 as a plugin, following right behind Psi.
Before an 0.1 release, I would like to add a well thought through plugin for XEP-0004 (Data Forms) as well as solidify some of my naming scheme for class variables and methods a little better. I should be there by this weekend. After that I will start reviewing patches and hopefully receiving contributions in the form of additional plugins. Keep in mind that a plugin does not have to be a XEP.
Feel free to check out the code using subversion at svn://netflint.net/sleekxmpp . Any feedback would be welcome.
SleekXMPP is an XMPP library for Python. Why have I written my own when there are at least 2 others out there? Well, the first write was for a company that I worked for, and subsequent rewrites have simply been out of obsession with Jabber/XMPP. Who knows, maybe I can even use my knowledge and libraries to make money. I have purposely avoided even looking at the code of other Python XMPP implementations in order to maintain solid copyright.
The idea is that the Jabber/XMPP community could use this to test new XEPs (XMPP Extension Protocol) very, very quickly and easily. In fact, my goal is to implement every draft XEP in existence as plugins. This ensures that I write my code in a very extensible fashion, making it easy to extend the class in any way. I am writing the core RFC's as part of the main classes, and XEPs as plugins.
Beyond protocol testing, what am I trying to accomplish? Once I hit version 0.1 (not quite there yet), I will begin working on a bot framework. The bot framework will use the SleekXMPP lib, and in it's own right, be extensible. Bot behaviors will be configurable and extended with plugins like Thinkbot, Edgar, Mapbot, etc. Kevin Smith, of Psi fame, has promised to write a plugin for eggdrop scripts. Ideally, this framework will enable people who are not programmers to customize and run a bot. Maybe there'll be some optional GUI plugins to boot. In a related train of thought, why have I not seen more bots take advantage of data forms?
Here is some output from what I've been working on so far:
fritzy@peabody:~/dev/sleekxmpp$ ./example.py -d -c myconfig.xml
INFO Loading config file: myconfig.xml
INFO Logging in as [address-removed]@gmail.com/sleekxmpp_
DEBUG Loaded Plugin (XEP-0030) Service Discovery
DEBUG Loaded Plugin (XEP-0076) Malicious Stanzas
DEBUG Loaded Plugin (XEP-0078) Non-SASL Authentication
DEBUG Loaded Plugin (XEP-0092) Software Version
DEBUG Connecting via client method to talk.google.com:5222
DEBUG Starting TLS
DEBUG Starting SASL Auth
DEBUG Requesting resource: sleekxmpp_
INFO Node set to: [address-removed]@gmail.com/sleekxmpp_A4E39FDC
DEBUG Established SessionSome of the astute amongst you may notice that I've implemented XEP-0076 as a plugin, following right behind Psi.
Before an 0.1 release, I would like to add a well thought through plugin for XEP-0004 (Data Forms) as well as solidify some of my naming scheme for class variables and methods a little better. I should be there by this weekend. After that I will start reviewing patches and hopefully receiving contributions in the form of additional plugins. Keep in mind that a plugin does not have to be a XEP.
Feel free to check out the code using subversion at svn://netflint.net/sleekxmpp . Any feedback would be welcome.
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