As a Java dev it pains me (a tad!) that Java on the desktop is such a mess but despite that is the user base of Spark large enough to warrant such significant effort?
I’d be curious to see the download figures for the Spark client over time…
I personally feel that a SparkWeb client written in HTML5 might be the way to go…
Not sure if we have such information. Maybe Daryl or Benjamin (from Jive) can provide some inshight on download stats. On the project page it shows only total number of downloads (4,604,629), but i don’t know is it accurate and is it updating at all. Though it doesn’t show the whole picture. I as admin download only once and then distribute it to hundreds of users in my network Web clients are not (yet?) so robust as desktop ones, so Spark with all its flaws is still better for me.
We’ve built a client in Adobe Flex (Flash) which uses the AIR runtime. Would that be of interest to anyone here?
It’s a bit rough round the edges but it supports muc, fastpath, bookmarks etc. and has a ‘plugin’ architecture. It also has telephony integration with Asterisk, Cisco, TAPI and basic video capability which we could quite easily extend with WebRTC.
It began life as a hack of the Spark flash client and over time morphed into its own little product. We only use it internally and for demoing server side functionality but we like it a lot.
Here’re a few screens:
Login:
Roster:
MUC Rooms (we call them channels):
Keyword type alerts are triggered here based on participant, keyword, MUC name:
Plugin pane:
Chat window:
Sure i think somebody would be glad to try this client. We’ve just migrated to Spark, so i don’t think we are going to do any moves for some time. But based on AIR this should be ligther than Java? People with low resources can use it then. Some years ago there was an incentive to move Spark to AIR, but it never took off. Interesting that you even have Fastpath. Probably even with some issues fixed that are still in the Spark? Then i think it sure will have some audience here. Some folks are struggling with Spark + fastpath scenarios.
It’s a pity we don’t have some dedicated download page for such stuff, because it may get lost in the forums if you just post it as a DOC, etc. Though we can do a blog post to get some attention or even create a forum space. If you are willing to provide support for dozens of requesters
Olajide? I saw this last name somewhere
SparkWeb (HTML5) version does exist. It could also do with some WebRTC love
Of course it will be useful to many of us. Just make it happen please !!!
We can always create a new JiveSBS space here at ignite realtime for any new project. I did that for Rayo and Jitsi Videobridge plugins. I have permissions to create child spaces off the Support space
Actually, if you look at what the Jitsi project has done plus what the Android folks are doing, there is much life left in desktop Java realtime communications.
We just need someone to get dirty with Spark and replace the abandoned JFM with FMJ
Isn’t the move to FMJ already done? SPARK-1065
Maybe it is just outdated or not done properly. Because after moving to FMJ people reported sound stuttering problems and i was able to reproduce it myself, though it was a few years ago, but i don’t remember anyone fixing something about voice chat, so it is probably the same.
I didn’t realise that had been done. That makes it even easier to make Spark libjitsi compatible.
Jitsi.org are contributers to FMJ and are actively developing it. Spark might need a refresh
Our company uses Spark 2.5.8, and we can not give it up! Why?
We use Sip Phone Plugin + SSO GSSAPI + Asterisk IM, and it is important for us!
Spark 2.6.3 - Sip Phone Plugin dead.
Jitsi - does not support LDAP authentication.
I am looking for a solution, the client who knows SIP + LDAP + Jabber, but never found.
Another cy for help with voice chat in the forums http://community.igniterealtime.org/message/234870#234870
Well, this isn’t a massive issue, but such thread pop in the forums few times per year. Probably many users are still using Spark 2.5.8 for this reason.
I’m not a programmer Java, and can not help the project.
I voted for http://issues.igniterealtime.org/browse/SPARK-1563
Just an update for the curious ones. I have marked the download numbers of Spark on January 14 and after a month it growed by 56,971 (and i think it only counts official 2.6.3 release downloads). Very surprising to see such numbers
Holy cow that’s about 56,970 more than I had expected!!!
I think it’s safe to say there’s a lot more life left in Spark!
There are still great wasy to contribute back to the community without needing to be a programmer!
All projects here, especially Spark could use a big hand in updating documentation, translations, user guides, the text blurbs on the website about each project, even new screenshots!
No contribution is too small or unworthy. Even if you contribute spelling fixes in code comments, we want them!
Everybody has something to contribute!
Leon this is great looking!
How difficult did you find it was adapting your UI to work with Spark? Did you implement this as a plugin or did you replace the Swing components in the core with the AIR UI?
@wroot - I think it might be good to setup a sub-projects page someplace for things like this if Leon wants to contribute it.
Webspark could def. use some sweet love!
For a desktop Spark, JavaFX is the way to go here. JavaFX is the successor of Swing and is standard in Java8, but you can already use it with java7 (you just have to bundled the fxrt.jar with your project, i think new java7 releases may come with that lib, but just not loaded in the classpath).
JavaFX uses CSS natively for styling, can use FXML for a very easily building a UI layout (even non-programmers can hack on the FXML, it’s an XML with special nodes).
Also it retains a 100% Java Spark.
The only problem is retro-fitting Spark to use JavaFX instead is a large task in itself…
(disredarg anything < JavaFX 2.2, especially JavaFXscript, > JavaFX 2.2 has been standardized and is fantastic)
@jason, as Leon implied, it started life as SparkAir (Air version of Sparkweb which was in turn loosely based on Spark). It is all ActionScript with MXML UI descriptors.
I can setup a project page for Globility Messenger assuming that will be the project name.
