On-the-fly XMPP client to connect with Google App Engine

0
votes

From looking at App Engine's XMPP docs at https://cloud.google.com/appengine/docs/go/xmpp/

It seems that Google only offers a client to be hosted on appengine, but not the XMPP server itself. For that, one needs to use a different host (such as GTalk)

  1. Am I understanding this correctly?
  2. If so- does that mean I must host my own xmpp server (ejabbered) if I want on-the-fly session-based clients?
  3. If that is also true- then is there a mechanism in ejabbered for lightweight session-based clients? (i.e. many to be quickly created and destroyed- only needs to respond to presence requests for the duration of the session, will never be used again)
  4. Is there a stable, scalable host out there that can do this for me so I don't need to worry about the ejabbered server going down (whether it's hosted on AWS,GCE, etc. the beauty of AppEngine so far was I never had to worry about that)

Thanks!

1
google-app-enginexmppejabberd

1 Answers

0
votes

To address your questions:

  1. Am I understanding this correctly?

You use to have to use Google Talk XMPP service, but I guess, yes, now you need to deploy your own server.

  1. If so- does that mean I must host my own xmpp server (ejabbered) if I want on-the-fly session-based clients?

Not sure what "on-the-fly" session means, but yes, it seems you need your own server.

  1. If that is also true- then is there a mechanism in ejabbered for lightweight session-based clients? (i.e. many to be quickly created and destroyed- only needs to respond to presence requests for the duration of the session, will never be used again)

Not sure what you mean by this. XMPP is a connected protocol. It means the session is linked to having a TCP connection opened. That said, ejabberd SaaS allows to maintain the session for a while if you do lose the connection (designed for mobile). You can simply reattach to it. And by the way: In XMPP, you do not "respond to presence request". This is the reverse: Your presence is broadcasted to your contact (roster)

  1. Is there a stable, scalable host out there that can do this for me so I don't need to worry about the ejabbered server going down (whether it's hosted on AWS,GCE, etc. the beauty of AppEngine so far was I never had to worry about that)

The easiest (and arguably cheapest) way to use ejabberd is to use ejabberd SaaS, managed by ProcessOne, developer of ejabberd (I am developer of ejabberd and founder of ProcessOne).