converse.js/docs/source/index.rst

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============
Introduction
============

Even though you can connect to public XMPP servers on the `conversejs.org`_
website, *Converse.js* is not really meant to be a "Software-as-a-service" (SaaS) 
webchat.

Instead, its goal is to provide the means for website owners to add a tightly
integrated instant messaging service to their own sites.

As a website owner, you are expected to host *Converse.js* yourself, and to do some legwork to
properly configure and integrate it into your site.

The benefit in doing this, is that your users have a much more streamlined and integrated
webchat experience and that you have control over the data. The latter being a
requirement for many sites dealing with sensitive information.

You'll need to set up your own XMPP server and in order to have
`Session Support`_ (i.e. single-signon functionality whereby users are authenticated once and stay
logged in to XMPP upon page reload) you will also have to add some server-side
code.

The `What you will need`_ section has more information on all these
requirements.

==================
What you will need
==================

An XMPP/Jabber server
=====================

*Converse.js* implements `XMPP`_ as its messaging protocol, and therefore needs
to connect to an XMPP/Jabber server (Jabber is really just a synonym for XMPP).

You can connect to public XMPP servers like ``jabber.org`` but if you want to
have `Session Support`_ you'll have to set up your own XMPP server.

You can find a list of public XMPP servers/providers on `xmpp.net`_ and a list of
servers that you can set up yourself on `xmpp.org`_.


Connection Manager
==================

Your website and *Converse.js* use `HTTP`_ as protocol to communicate with
the webserver. HTTP connections are stateless and usually shortlived.

`XMPP`_ on the other hand, is the protocol that enables instant messaging, and
its connections are stateful and usually longer.

To enable a web application like *Converse.js* to communicate with an XMPP
server, we need a proxy in the middle that can act as a bridge between the two
protocols.

This is the job of a connection manager. A connection manager can be either a
standalone application or part of an XMPP server. `ejabberd`_ for example,
includes a connection manager (but you have to enable it).

The demo on the `Converse.js homepage`_ uses a a connection manager located at https://bind.opkode.im.
This connection manager is for testing purposes only, please don't use it in
production.

Overcoming cross-domain request restrictions
--------------------------------------------

The domain of the *Converse.js* demo is *conversejs.org*, but the domain of the connection manager is *opkode.im*.
HTTP requests are made by *Converse.js* to the connection manager via XmlHttpRequests (XHR).  
Until recently, it was not possible to make such requests to a different domain
than the one currently being served (to prevent XSS attacks).

Luckily there is now a standard called `CORS`_ (Cross-origin resource sharing), which enables exactly that.
Modern browsers support CORS, but there are problems with Internet Explorer <
10.

IE 8 and 9 partially support CORS via a proprietary implementation called
XDomainRequest. There is a `Strophe.js plugin`_ which you can use to enable
support for XDomainRequest when it is present.

In IE < 8, there is no support for CORS.

If you need to support these browsers, you can add a front-end proxy in
Apache/Nginx which serves the connection manager under the same domain as your
website. This will remove the need for any cross-domain XHR support.

Server-side authentication
==========================

Session Support
---------------

It's possible to enable single-site login, whereby users already
authenticated in your website will also automatically be logged in on the chat server,
but this will require custom code on your server.

Jack Moffitt has a great `blogpost`_ about this and even provides an `example Django application`_ to demonstrate it.


=========================================
Quickstart (to get a demo up and running)
=========================================

When you download a specific release of *Converse.js*, say for example version 0.3,
there will be two minified files inside the zip file.

For version 0.3 they will be:

* converse.0.3.min.js
* converse.0.3.min.css

You can include these two files in your website via the *script* and *link*
tags:

::

    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="converse.0.3.min.css">
    <script src="converse.0.3.min.js"></script>

The *index.html* file inside the Converse.js folder serves as a nice usable
example of this.

These minified files provide the same demo-like functionality as is available
on the `conversejs.org`_ website. Useful for testing or demoing, but not very
practical.

You'll most likely want to implement some kind of single-signon solution for
your website, where users authenticate once in your website and then stay
logged into their XMPP session upon page reload.

For more info on this, read `Session Support`_.

You might also want to have more fine-grained control of what gets included in
the minified Javascript file. Read `Configuration`_ and `Minification`_ for more info on how to do
that.


=============
Configuration
=============

The included minified JS and CSS files can be used for demoing or testing, but
you'll want to configure *Converse.js* to suit your needs before you deploy it
on your website.

*Converse.js* is passed its configuration settings when you call its
*initialize* method.

Please refer to the `Configuration variables`_ section below for info on
all the available configuration settings.

After you have configured *Converse.js*, you'll have to regenerate the minified
JS file so that it will include the new settings. Please refer to the
`Minification`_ section for more info on how to do this.

Configuration variables
=======================

animate
-------

Default = True

Show animations, for example when opening and closing chat boxes.

auto_list_rooms
---------------

Default = False

If true, and the XMPP server on which the current user is logged in supports
multi-user chat, then a list of rooms on that server will be fetched.

Not recommended for servers with lots of chat rooms.

For each room on the server a query is made to fetch further details (e.g.
features, number of occupants etc.), so on servers with many rooms this 
option will create lots of extra connection traffic.

auto_subscribe
--------------

Default = False

If true, the user will automatically subscribe back to any contact requests.

bosh_service_url
----------------

Connections to an XMPP server depend on a BOSH connection manager which acts as
a middle man between HTTP and XMPP.

See `here`_ for more information.

fullname
--------

If you are using prebinding, you need to specify the fullname of the currently
logged in user.

hide_muc_server
---------------

Default = False

Hide the ``server`` input field of the form inside the ``Room`` panel of the
controlbox. Useful if you want to restrict users to a specific XMPP server of
your choosing.

prebind
--------

Default = False

Use this option when you want to attach to an existing XMPP connection that was
already authenticated (usually on the backend before page load).

This is useful when you don't want to render the login form on the chat control
box with each page load.

When set to true, you'll need to make sure that the onConnected method is 
called, and passed to it a Strophe connection object.

Besides requiring the back-end to authenticate you, you'll also 
have to write a Javascript snippet to attach to the set up connection::

    $.JSON({
        'url': 'mysite.com/xmpp-authenticate',
        'success': function (data) {
            connection = new Strophe.Connection(bosh_service_url);
            connection.attach(data.jid, data.sid, data.rid, converse.onConnected);
        }

The backend must authenticate for you, and then return a SID (session ID) and
RID (Request ID), which you use when you attach to the connection.


xhr_user_search
---------------

Default = False

There are two ways to add users. 

* The user inputs a valid JID (Jabber ID), and the user is added as a pending contact.
* The user inputs some text (for example part of a firstname or lastname), an XHR will be made to a backend, and a list of matches are returned. The user can then choose one of the matches to add as a contact.

This setting enables the second mechanism, otherwise by default the first will
be used.



============
Minification
============

Minifying Javascript
====================

We  use `require.js`_ to keep track of *Converse.js* and its dependencies and to
to bundle them together in a single minified file fit for deployment to a 
production site.

To use the require.js's optimization tool, you'll need Node and it's package
manager, NPM.

You can then install install require.js for Node like so:

::

    npm install requirejs

The minified javascript file is then created like this:

::

    r.js -o build.js

You should now have a new minified file (the name which is specified in build.js).

You can `read more about require.js's optimizer here`_.

Minifying CSS
=============

CSS can be minimized with Yahoo's yuicompressor tool:

::

    yui-compressor --type=css converse.css -o converse.min.css




.. _`conversejs.org`: http://conversejs.org
.. _`require.js`: http://requirejs.org
.. _`read more about require.js's optimizer here`: http://requirejs.org/docs/optimization.html
.. _`here`: http://metajack.im/2008/09/08/which-bosh-server-do-you-need/l
.. _`HTTP`: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol
.. _`XMPP`: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xmpp
.. _`Converse.js homepage`: http://conversejs.org
.. _`CORS`: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-origin_resource_sharing
.. _`Strophe.js plugin`: https://gist.github.com/1095825/6b4517276f26b66b01fa97b0a78c01275fdc6ff2
.. _`xmpp.net`: http://xmpp.net
.. _`xmpp.org`: http://xmpp.org/xmpp-software/servers/
.. _`ejabberd`: http://www.ejabberd.im
.. _`blogpost`: http://metajack.im/2008/10/03/getting-attached-to-strophe
.. _`example Django application`: https://github.com/metajack/strophejs/tree/master/examples/attach