connect private XMPP account through gtalk

2
votes

Recently started at a new small company that has the following infrastructure:

  • Private XMPP Openfire server that hosts @chat..com
  • Google Apps for email, chat, docs, etc. with account of @.com

The company uses the private/internal chat server heavily for communication. However that requires me to install and run a client on my machine like Adium/Psi and then chat history is stored locally etc.

Since getting the entire company to move away from their beloved internal chat server and use gtalk that comes built-in with google apps is not an option, the hope was to register the @chat..com account with gtalk and then handle all communication through gtalk similar to what folks have done with AIM, Facebook, and other transports. Benefit would be the following:

  • All chat history stored server side on gtalk side and serchable
  • Other people in the company do not need to change behavior
  • Android phone that is already sync'd with Google services will not be able to leverage the chats without the need to install another XMPP client.
  • No need to have a thick client installed on the desktop/laptop

I have researched the XMPP transports and tried to the registering but they do not seem to cover my situation. I have investigated two routes thus far with no luck:

Guidance and/or experience from someone who has accomplished this would be appreciated.

1
xmppopenfiregoogle-talk

1 Answers

0
votes

I've used Spectrum (v1 and v2) to connect Openfire to Gmail and Facebook. It shows up in the users' clients as a discoverable service. It requires that a remote roster plugin be added to Openfire and that Spectrum be run on the same box as Openfire.

In short, it acts similar to a web proxy. Your users don't have to change their account on your system but to Gtalk users, your users appear to be other Gtalk users. Any of your users who access Gtalk will be using their own Gtalk authentication so you don't need to maintain any extra authentication schemes.

Take a look at it at http://spectrum.im. The remote roster plugin for Openfire is attached to the bottom of the first message in http://community.igniterealtime.org/thread/46580 (it's filename is "gojara.jar").