Set up XMPP for chat & presence

You must have a running XMPP server. In the chat context, the XMPP server acts as a centralized chat node that collects chat sessions and forwards them to the Zylinc solution. Search the internet if you want information about how to set up an XMPP server, or view the XMPP community's own list of XMPP servers.

There are many XMPP servers, which one is best? That depends on your needs and usage scenarios. The Zylinc solution will work with any standard XMPP server. However, ejabberd has generally proven to be a very scalable and reliable solution.

You must also have installed two Zylinc modules: the XMPP User Proxy (for presence) and the XMPP Chat Queue Handler (for chat queues). You typically install those modules on your Zylinc system's Windows Application Server, through the Zylinc Deployment Manager.

XMPP User Proxy

XMPP User Proxy lets you view XMPP presence. You use application user and user endpoints to retrieve the presence data from the XMPP server.

XMPP Chat Queue Handler

The only purpose of XMPP Chat Queue Handler is to provide XMPP chat queue functionality. XMPP Chat Queue Handler uses trusted application endpoints to provide the XMPP chat queue functionality.

If you don't use the XMPP chat queue feature, you don't need to install XMPP Chat Queue Handler.

When you create chat queues, you must also create trusted application endpoints along with the queues, so that each chat queue can use its own specific endpoint. You can enter the SIP URI for an endpoint in the User field when you set up a chat queue. This is similar to when you enter a phone number for a voice queue.

When XMPP Chat Queue Handler starts, it connects to the Zylinc database ZyDB to get its configuration. It then begins to listen to the network port that you've specified. Queue Manager (the standard Zylinc service that also handles voice queues) will then start a connection to the XMPP Chat Queue Handler network port, and together the two services can then provide XMPP chat queue functionality.

When an incoming chat inquiry arrives to an XMPP chat queue, XMPP Chat Queue Handler immediately answers the inquiry with predefined standard texts, for example a welcome message, and the queue position is announced to the user. Meanwhile, Queue Manager tries to find an available agent. When an agent becomes available, XMPP Chat Queue Handler starts an outgoing chat session to the agent, and it then relays the two chat sessions, so that the agent and the user who made the inquiry can begin to chat.

1. In the Administration Portal menu, select NETWORK > XMPP Configuration.

2. Specify XMPP Server Settings:

   • XMPP Address: IP address or hostname of your XMPP server.
   • Port: Typically 5222.
   • TLS: Select required security method. If in doubt, select Auto.
   • Service Domain: An XMPP server can serve multiple domains, so you need to specify which domain you want to use. Enter a value that matches a domain that you've set up on the XMPP server.

3. Specify XMPP User Proxy settings:

   • User Proxy Server: IP address or hostname of the server that you've installed the XMPP User Proxy on, typically your Windows Application Server.

   • Port: Typically 35029.

   • Notification Port: Typically 443. This is the port that the Zylinc solution will listen on to get presence events.

     HTTP notify messages will only be sent to known HTTP ports, like 443, so the client application should specify this port in its URL when it registers an HTTP endpoint.

   • Logging: In File Count, select the maximum number of cyclical logs that you want. Cyclical logging, also known as circular logging, means that a set of log files can only grow to a certain limit before the oldest log file is automatically overwritten. This helps save disk space. In Size, specify the maximum total size of log files that you want. 50 MB is a typical value.

4. Specify XMPP Queue Handler settings:

   • Queue Handler Server: IP address or hostname of the server that you've installed the XMPP Chat Queue Handler on, typically your Windows Application Server.

   • Port: Typically 35030.

   • Logging: In File Count, select the maximum number of cyclical logs that you want. In Size, specify the maximum total size of log files that you want. 50 MB is a typical value.

5. If you want to be able to view presence information, activate Presence Subscriptions:

   • User: Specify the user name and password of the XMPP application user that you've specified on the XMPP server.

     The XMPP application user must be a member of the groups that you select for your Subscription Whitelist (see the following), and have rights to view information about all other users.

   • End user: Specify the name of the dedicated user who's used solely to get presence information about all the other users.

   • User Mapping: Select where the Zylinc solution should find people's and other resources' user IDs in the database.

     Most often, a person's or resource's XMPP user name is the same as their E-mail address, but some installations (for example Cisco CUP installations) use their Windows Account Name (that's the same as their SamAccountName from Active Directory) instead. For BroadWorks installations, select a PBX ID.

   • Subscription Whitelist: Use the arrow buttons to select a positive list of groups that you want to subscribe to presence information about.

     To view a group's members, select the group and then click the preview group link.

     Remember that the XMPP application user that you specified in the previous must be a member of all the groups that you select. Also, make sure that you only subscribe to groups that you really need, because that'll give you shorter startup times on the interface between the Zylinc solution and the XMPP server.

6. If you want chat functionality that you can use on a chat queue, select Activate chat relay.

   The Activate web chat check box is currently not in use, but it may in the future be used if your organization creates its own solution for embedding chat functionality in web pages.

7. Click Save.