Blog Posts From Ignite Realtime Blog Tagged With spark

Spark 2.7.0 beta 1

communityadmin@igniterealtime.org — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 19:46:37 GMT

Dear Community,

after some more weeks of testing, debugging and developing, we would like to ask for your support and publish the first beta of Spark 2.7.0. Ultimately, we would like to move Spark to Java 7, but that is currently not implemented via the installers. This will change in January after an update to the lastest version von Install4j provided by ej-Technologies.

You can find the nightly build for Windows here: http://bamboo.igniterealtime.org/browse/SPARK-INSTALL4J-543/artifact/JOB1/Instal l4j

About Java 7: Spark 2.7.0 will run with Java 7. Please interchange the bundled JRE (located at Spark-install-folder\JRE) against a Java 7 JRE or use the installer named spark_2_6_3_12555_online.exe and install Java 7 as default on Windows. Using Java 7 will stop Spark from stealing the focus, when a new message is received.

Important Note: Oracle has introduced a bug in Java 1.6.0 u 25-27 that prevents Spark from closing automatically during the log-off on the Windows plattform. This is not Spark related. This affects all users that install the Spark version without an included JRE.

About file transfer: Spark 2.7.0 beta 1 is fixing an big bug with file transfer. Spark 2.6.x has an programmatic error that was making IBB file transfer very unstable. Tim Jentz deserves a big credit for finding this after weeks of debugging. Great job Tim!!!

Spark 2.7.0 will also move to a standard implementation for IBB file transfer. As a result of moving to the standard IBB implementation, you may have issues with transfer between Spark 2.7.0 and Spark 2.5.8 on IBB. This is an unavoidable result of obeying the standard. IBB is the fall back implementation, if Bytestream is not an option. Hence IBB is not the regular transfer method as it is much slower than Bytestream.

About plugins: There were large scale changes in the way Spark is dealing internally with plugins/extensions. All Plugin developers are kindly ask to review, if their plugins are still working. This applies also to Fastpath. Feedback regarding issues with this are highly appreciated.

About GUI: The Spark developers are only supporting JTattoo Luna. There are several reports that other skins are not working properly. This applies especially to Substance. If you are experiencing any GUI bug, please check if JTattoo Luna is also having this issue and report it.

As a general statement, I would urge all professional users to use the customizing options of Spark to get rid of Substance in corporate environments. The dev team may ultimately decide to remove Substance for 2.7x in a future release.

About Mac and Windows7 64 bit: The next Mac release is NOT secured. We are looking for a developer who can provide a Mac beta release. The integration to Windows7 64 bit is ok, but the flashing notification in the tray may or may not work. A tester and developer (MS C++ Code) for this is also needed.

The change log for this beta is:

~~SPARK-1465~~ Checkboxes appear bigger then normal since the jtattoo update

~~SPARK-1464~~ When user accepts group chat invitation, status is always online

~~SPARK-1460~~ No group context menu on a right click

~~SPARK-1459~~ Update to the latest JTattoo version (Nov 2011)

~~SPARK-1452~~ If conferences tab is hidden, then Fastpath tab is hidden also

~~SPARK-1451~~ Vcard popup is not always showing up on mouse hover

~~SPARK-1450~~ When network connection is lost, chat window cannot be closed

~~SPARK-1449~~ UNC Path does not link to folder

~~SPARK-1445~~ Selecting 'Start a chat' in a group chat room opens an incomplete chat window

~~SPARK-1444~~ Subscription dialog shows the id value instead of the nickname

~~SPARK-1443~~ Privacy plugins cannot be accessed if we log into Spark through the IP address of the server

~~SPARK-1465~~ Checkboxes appear bigger then normal since the jtattoo update

~~SPARK-1464~~ When user accepts group chat invitation, status is always online

~~SPARK-1460~~ No group context menu on a right click

~~SPARK-1459~~ Update to the latest JTattoo version (Nov 2011)

~~SPARK-1452~~ If conferences tab is hidden, then Fastpath tab is hidden also

~~SPARK-1451~~ Vcard popup is not always showing up on mouse hover

~~SPARK-1450~~ When network connection is lost, chat window cannot be closed

~~SPARK-1449~~ UNC Path does not link to folder

~~SPARK-1445~~ Selecting 'Start a chat' in a group chat room opens an incomplete chat window

~~SPARK-1444~~ Subscription dialog shows the id value instead of the nickname

~~SPARK-1443~~ Privacy plugins cannot be accessed if we log into Spark through the IP address of the server

~~SPARK-1442~~ JabberVersion.java uses hardcoded value "Spark IM Client" for version name

~~SPARK-1441~~ ContactItem in shared group - right click popup menu performs copy when move is selected

~~SPARK-1440~~ Bug in ConferenceUtils.java that can break smack communication

~~SPARK-1439~~ Plugins are loaded in random order - plugins with no dependency has to be loaded first

~~SPARK-1438~~ Avatars are not scaled in user login/logout notification dialog

~~SPARK-1437~~ Bug in PrivacyManager that can break smack communication

~~SPARK-1429~~ Update French translation

~~SPARK-1427~~ Default Appearance/Colors cannot be overwritten through plugin;Group-Chat colors are hard-coded

~~SPARK-1423~~ typo error in LayoutSettings.java

~~SPARK-1422~~ persist vcard may throw file not found exception when jid is empty

~~SPARK-1421~~ Application version and application name are hardcoded

~~SPARK-1420~~ The messages in the set status message window is not getting deleted

~~SPARK-1419~~ Chat room configuration shows wrong roles for which presence is broadcast

~~SPARK-1418~~ Update simplified Chinese translation

~~SPARK-1414~~ Chat window is not flashing when receiving new message on Windows 7 64 bit

~~SPARK-1413~~ Update build.xml to check for Java 7

~~SPARK-1411~~ Sometimes file transfer indication is not updated on the receiving side

~~SPARK-1408~~ Remove "#" character next to Accounts button on the login screen

~~SPARK-1405~~ Improved last activity recognition

~~SPARK-1403~~ Enhance ability to extend core classes like ContactItem, ContactGroup, etc through plugin

~~SPARK-1400~~ Update to latest version Exe4J

~~SPARK-1381~~ Group Chat - Actions/Start a conference menu: propose bookmarked room (if any) instead of adhoc (random) room name

~~SPARK-1379~~ Support for XEP-0147

~~SPARK-1326~~ Make tabs position optional: TOP or BOTTOM; make search input appearance optional

~~SPARK-1324~~ SparkToaster showing avatars in real size

~~SPARK-1313~~ Enhance ability to overwrite spark properties values through plugin

~~SPARK-1215~~ Log out doesn't log out, it shuts down spark

~~SPARK-891~~ Typing notifications would be easier to see if also displayed near typing area

The beta release also includes a new Smack library that is based on Smack 3.2.1 plus the following bugfixes:

~~SMACK-362~~ smack throw NoSuchElementException if the muc#roominfo_subject has no values

~~SMACK-354~~ Provide milliseconds in timestamp colum debugwindow

~~SMACK-353~~ Thread leak in the FaultTolerantNegotiator

~~SMACK-350~~ Bytestream is not working in Spark 2.6.3 from XP to W7

~~SMACK-349~~ Smack's IBB sends too much data in a packet

~~SMACK-348~~ Documentation error - broken link

~~SMACK-346~~ Bug in return code for rejection handling in FileTransferManager

~~SMACK-343~~ Make Smack jar an OSGi bundle.

~~SMACK-338~~ IBB filetransfer doesn't work as expected

SMACK-336 There is an empty element in a SASL response

SMACK-335 Need to set file size and name for outgoing file transfer from input stream

SMACK-324 Investigate SASL issue with jabberd2 servers

SMACK-322 NPE in XMPPConnection

SMACK-263 Set file info in all send* methods

Expect a second beta in the first quarter 2012 that will include the latest final release of Smack

Please report issues in the Developer Forum

Seasonal Greetings

communityadmin@igniterealtime.org — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 07:04:05 GMT

Dear Community!

Another year has passed for this open source project and various developers have contributed significantly to nearly all of our projects. We were able to finally release Openfire 3.7 and Spark 2.6.3 under Apache 2.0 license. The most important Smack library has also seen several releases and last but not least the good old instant messaging gateway Kraken returned to us. Some great innovations were presented like SparkWeb/Redfire, Websocks and Candy. I really would like to thank all developers involved by contributing code and all users and system admins that went through this year. A very special thank you goes to Daryl Herzmann who keeps the servers healthy and Wroot for outstanding work in the forum. I would also like to single out Guus der Kinderen for his insights in Openfire architecture and the release of Openfire 3.7.

Merry Christmas to all of you and a happy, healthy and sucessful 2012

ej-Technology grants install4j license to the Spark community

communityadmin@igniterealtime.org — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 19:34:26 GMT

ej-Technologies has granted a multi-plattform license of install4j to the Spark community. The community developers gladly accept the donation to the project. This will give all core developers of Spark the opportunity to use the features of install4j for during the development of the Spark installer.

Install4j is the installation plattform for Spark since many years and has helped to provide multi-plattform support and great integration in the operation systems.

About ej-Technologies:
ej-technologies GmbH was founded in 2001 as a privately held company and specializes in solutions that help programmers make the most of their own applications. With its focused expertise in the areas of performance and deployment, ej-technologies is developing the next generation of enterprise application development tools.

If you have any questions regarding install4j and it's usage during the Spark development, please contact me via community mail.

Kind regards,

Walter Ebeling

Smack 3.2.2 alpha: Fixes IBB transfer

communityadmin@igniterealtime.org — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:53:36 GMT

again an experimental Smack to fix IBB transfers for Spark 2.6.3. This is an experimental build with patches based on the Smack 3.2. branch. The patch itself is published in SMACK-351

The Smack code is not using IQ Stanzas for IBB file transfer since the implementation is not correct. Smack 3.2.1 also breaks file transfers via IBB to Spark 2.5.8. This alpha should fix:

~~SMACK-350~~ Bytestream is not working in Spark 2.6.3 from XP to W7

~~SMACK-349~~ Smack's IBB sends too much data in a packet

~~SMACK-263~~ Set file info in all send* methods

~~SMACK-335~~ Need to set file size and name for outgoing file transfer from input stream

Copy into the lib folder of the Spark installation folder and report results.

Walter

P.S. Also fixes SASL against jabberd2 since http://issues.igniterealtime.org/browse/ ~~SMACK-324~~ is included.

Release of Spark 2.6.3

communityadmin@igniterealtime.org — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 17:47:43 GMT

Dear Community,

due to several issues, we have released a 2.6.3 on July 1st. The following issues were fixed

~~SPARK-1383~~Login screen shows disabled fields.
~~SPARK-1394~~ Search in history is not working
~~SPARK-1395~~ NPE when exiting a chat window with ESC
~~SPARK-1396~~ Send Broadcast Window doesnt show when not using JTattoo
~~SPARK-1379~~ Support for XEP-0147 (URI handling)
~~SPARK-1392~~ Check if Spark is really checking for updates even if that option is turned off

A new Feature was added:

Expand ability to customize spark if you want to build your own branded version

You can download the release in the download section of the igniterealtime web site.

The Spark development will be reduced until the 4th quarter this year.

There has been a significant demand for help about the packaging of custom editions for Spark. I would like to ask all users who have done custom packages to report their approach in the forum. The project files of the packager (e.g. appdeploy) are really welcome.

Walter Ebeling

Release of Spark 2.6.2

communityadmin@igniterealtime.org — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 17:43:59 GMT

The community is happy to report that Spark 2.6.2 has reached final status. The release contains several bug fixes and new features and enhancements for Spark. It is a hot fix release for a regression bug introduced in 2.6.1. Details can be found in the changelog.

Main features for this release are:

OTR (off-the-record) support for encrypted chat between clients
New notification mechanism
New splash screen
Support for animated GIF as avatar
Plugin blacklisting
Documentation for Spark customizing (lot's of option now)

More than 30 bugs were fixed, including

New default look and feel for Mac
File transfer is using IBB as fall back for VPN network connections
Scroll to end in chat window

The downloads for all supported plattforms can be found in the download section of Igniterealtime.org.

Red5 is not included in the release as well as games were not included. These can be found in the forum for those of you interested.

A big "Thank You" to Holger and Wolf who spend numerous hours in writing features and debugging code. And of course to all the users who have reported issues, provided feedback and contributed code.

Walter Ebeling

Moving SparkWeb Forward

communityadmin@igniterealtime.org — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 23:35:10 GMT

This is an update from ignite realtime community about where we are with SparkWeb

There is an Open Source HTML version of SparkWeb based on the original commercial Jive Software version and now released under the Apache 2.0 license just like Spark and Openfire. It can be found on the ignite realtime community here.

Knight Raider has worked on the Flash version of SparkWeb and has made it compatible with the ignite realtime latest version of XIFF. His version compiles with Flex Builder using Flex SDK 3.0 for Flash Player 9 and above. It can be found on the ignite realtime community here.

I have made a few more changes to make it compile with the latest Flex SDK 4.5 for current Flash Player 10.3 and above and uploaded it to the SparkWeb SVN. The code can be checked out using

https://svn.igniterealtime.org/svn/repos/sparkweb/trunk/SparkWeb2

Knight Raider has volunteered to work on this. We plan to to add Jingle-based audio, video, file transfer, screen sharing, etc and make it look better than this

Finally, work has started on RedSpark which is yet another web client for Spark, but is tightly integrated into Redfire and will be compatible with the Redfire plugin for Spark. It is extending XIFF with the new RTMP/RTMFP connection classes and has a Facebook/Google type chat user interface that combines both HTML5 and Flash to support a softphone (red5phone), audio/video in both 2-way and multi-user chat with screen sharing (red5-screenshare) and p2p file transfer using RTMFP.

Spark 2.6.0 Released!

communityadmin@igniterealtime.org — Mon, 09 May 2011 15:35:43 GMT

The ignite realtime community would like to announce the final release of Spark 2.6.0.

After more than 3 years, we have moved the product quite a bit and it has to be noted that the contributions came from all over the world to make this release possible. Numerous issues and feature requests were adressed duringt the development phase:

Removal of commercial libraries
Move to Apache 2.0 license
Introduction of different skins
Small enhancements of the interface
Support of a privacy/invisible mode
Enhancements of the conference room features
Ability to set default data in ini files for corporate customizing (requires repacking)
New Smack (version 3.2) library
Reworked reconnection mechanisms
Nummerous technical enhancements

More details can be found in the attached changelog.html

The download links for the release 2.6.0 are on the Downloads page.

Further development

The next release 2.6.1 will follow within the next 8 weeks and include some more graphical and functional enhancements. We would appreciate contributions to the source code.

Known Issues

Missing Phone button. Resolution: This is caused by a missing STUN server to help the start of the phone connection. If you want to use this feauture you can activate it in Openfire and add the property "stunFallbackHost" to the file spark.properties. You can add your Openfire server or some external stun server like "stun.xten.net" which used to be a hard coded default in Spark.
File transfer does not work. Resolution: Use a nightly or wait until 2.6.1 is released.
Mac Version: Look and Feel is not native. Resolution: Use the Preference Menue to Switch Appreance to "Max OS X". This resolved this issue. There will be a hot fix release for Maac to adress this issue.
Mac Version: Sound does not work. Resolution: Make sure that Spark is executed in 32 bit mode.

Spark 2.6 RC2 Released

communityadmin@igniterealtime.org — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 18:46:46 GMT

The IgniteRealtime community would like to announce the second release candidate of Spark before the final 2.6.0 release. Much more detail on this release and files for download can be found here:

http://community.igniterealtime.org/docs/DOC-2157

We will continue to work on Spark 2.6.0 for the next 4 weeks. The release date for 2.6.0 is tentatively set to April 30th, 2011. Please test and provide feedback!

Spark 2.6.0 RC1 has been released

communityadmin@igniterealtime.org — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 13:57:01 GMT

Spark 2.6.0 RC1 has been released on November 17, 2010. It was a long period of silence since the last Beta 2 release and even longer since the latest Final release. But the work was continued, one project leader changed the other. There were a lot of changes in the code, both seen in the UI (color changes, additional options and buttons) and under the hood (lots of proprietary code replaced with open source analogs). Some new features were introduced, bugs fixed, and of course some new bugs introduced As i said, the work is constantly continued by 3-6 volunteer contributors. The plan is to release RC2 in December and then the Final release next year in January. Meanwhile we ask the community to try out RC1 and report about the issues in the forums.

There is no official changelog still, so i will just give a link to a list of 2.6.0 bugs in the tracker, 90% of them are fixed already.

Downloads for different platforms can be found on Beta Releases downloads page

Important note before upgrading! In 2.6.0 RC1 user's profile path has been changed to ..Username\Application Data\Spark (Windows XP), ..Username\AppData\Roaming\Spark (Vista/Win7) or $HOME/.Spark (Linux). If you want to use same preferences and have old history, copy user's profile folder to a new location and Spark will pick it up. Old location was just the ..Username\Spark. There is no automatic import option in the installer so far and it is not known if there will be one. So keep this in mind.

Flash-based Audio and Video in Spark, SparkWeb and Openfire

communityadmin@igniterealtime.org — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:08:54 GMT

When SparkWeb became open-source, I took a look at the source code and found it had more features than the Flex-based XMPP client I was co-developing for the Red5 Plugin. It therefore made sense to migrate the Flash audio and video features we had developed for our client to SparkWeb and make it compatible with the Spark and Openfire Red5 Plugins and package it as part of the Red5 plugin. The downside to this that the modifications to the Red5 version of SparkWeb makes it out of sync with the official SVN and it could possibly become a fork requiring a name change later on.

So what does the Red5 SparkWeb offer?

A plugin container for SparkWeb. I noticed that quite a number of users are asking for a plugin to deploy SparkWeb. My advice would be to try the Red5 Plugin.

Configure Index.html and point your users at

http://your_server:nnnn/red5_webapp_name/sparkweb

Where nnnn is your HTTP-BIND port number (default 7070) and red5_webapp_name is your default red5 web application name (default red5)
Enables use of the Red5 plugin audio and video features with both Spark and SparkWeb. You can't do video messaging and the video roster is replaced with visual presence (see below). You can make audio/video calls and share your desktop with your contacts. Each call record is logged in openfire and can be queried by the administrator with the Openfire SIP plugin.
Makes SIP phone calls between Spark and SparkWeb users. All SparkWeb SIP calls are logged with the Openfire SIP plugin as well.
Provides webcam support. If you have a webcam installed on your PC, it will be automatically detected and will be used instead of your vcard photo. You can disable this in index.html. You can add or replace your vcard photo with a snapshot of your webcam when you edit your profile. You can also publish snapshots from your webcam as visual presence to all your contacts. What this means is that all your contacts will have a snapshot of your webcam in their rosters. The interval between snapshots is 60 secs by default and can be modified in index.html. See a draft copy of my proposal to extend XMPP with visual presence. Please feel free to post comments at the bottom of the document.

I also made a few cosmetic changes to my taste and added sound effects for incoming calls and instant messaging. I added some code to improve the loss of focus detection by tracking Flash application activation/deactivation messages and mouse movement. If you use Internet explorer and enable pop-ups, you will get a pop-up in the bottom right corner of the screen with a photo, name and first line of the incoming messaging if you are outside of SparkWeb when a new message arrives.

I am hoping to add fastpath support and a calendar to SparkWeb next.

Jivin' Gateways and More!

communityadmin@igniterealtime.org — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 18:25:04 GMT

You may or may not already be aware that I have been a full time member of the Jive family for a couple of weeks now! It's been quite interesting to see how different it is from my previous job in a university setting. It's been a lot of fun already and it's really exciting to have turned my favorite hobby into a career. =) My coworkers are great and I almost find myself wondering why I didn't do this earlier.

So what am I going to be doing? Well, the development of the IM Gateway plugin is part of my job now. We'll be setting solid goals and release dates instead of it being dependent entirely on my free time. That and Openfire are my main focuses. I'm really excited about playing a more direct role in Openfire development! One of my first tasks will be to improve the unix installers for Openfire. They have been lacking love for a while now and I have a strong unix background to bring to the table. In one of the next releases of Openfire we'll have improved packages, unix scripts, and better support for more operating system distributions. Overall, good things to come! =)

You may have heard that I have taken over as lead developer of Spark. It's been a long time since I have been involved in client development and I actually miss it. My very first XMPP related project was a client. Now, as you've heard from the Ignite Realtime post preceding this one, Spark is a low priority. My focus with it in terms of work with Jive is bug fixes, maintenance, and paying customer requirements. Beyond that, I'll likely be working on it on my own time when I need a change of pace. I am a Mac user primarily, so you may see more Mac focused fixes at first. If nothing else I'm going to make sure Spark is something I enjoy using, which coincides to a lot of things that the community has reported/requested anyway. I highly encourage folk who are interested to submit patches! The only caveat is that for patches of any size, I'll need you to sign contributor agreements, if you haven't already.

Now, since I'm involved in more than just the IM Gateway plugin now, I can't keep up with the forums as much as I did before. I try to spend some time each day looking over the forums, but with more than just the single forum, it's too much to keep up with entirely. Dawn is working hard on coming up with good ways to involve the community more and try to make sure things don't get missed! She has been speaking on this in the Jive Lounge, so please visit the lounge and contribute if you have some thoughts!

Anyway, I wanted to make sure folk understood that my role has changed and wave hi from within Jive! =) Any questions?

Our Client Strategy

communityadmin@igniterealtime.org — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 02:13:47 GMT

So, what's up with Spark? Many of you have commented on the fact that the pace of development has slowed and that Derek is less present in the community. Now that a major new version of SparkWeb is out, it seems like a good time to provide a more detailed status report on everything happening around client development.

First up, an announcement: Derek has taken a new position (Sales Engineer) inside of Jive. So far he seems to be loving it, but I'll let him comment on this blog post with further details. Unfortunately, that means that Spark has lost its lead developer. For the time being, other team members have stepped in to help out. We're committed to providing bug fixes and minor new fixes to Spark for the foreseeable future. It remains one of the best cross-platform XMPP clients available.

Since Spark development is slowing down, what's next? Most of Jive's XMPP client efforts are now focused on the web via the SparkWeb Flash client. We're using the same technology base to add real-time features to Clearspace. Further, the upcoming Adobe Air technology offers the intriguing possibility of building a new desktop client using Flash. To us, it all seems like the perfect triple play -- a single code base that can be used for Sparkweb, Clearspace features and a new Spark desktop client. Only Sparkweb is ready so far, but you'll see new real-time features in Clearspace soon and we'll keep everyone updated on a desktop client based on Adobe Air.

Change isn't always easy and I'm sure that some of you will be disappointed to hear that our approach to how we build Spark is changing. There may be some rough spots as we move from one technology to another, but we're pretty excited about where things are headed.