Instant Messaging

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Using an Instant Messaging system as a delivery mechanism for Wireless Data Server requires some careful configuration. This chapter covers the requirements for the Instant Messaging server used, and changes that must be made to Wireless Data Server configuaration files.

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Configuring the IM server

Currently, the only IM server certified for use with Wireless Data Server is Jabber, although Jabber does provide its own interface to Instant Messaging systems from other vendors, including Microsoft, AOL, ICQ and Yahoo!. For more information and complete documentation on Jabber servers and clients, see http://www.jabber.org. Consult the Wireless Data Server release notes available on-line at Steltor's Web site (www.steltor.com) for the recommended Jabber server version.

It is possible to use the public Jabber server at www.jabber.org to deliver messages from your Wireless Data Server; however, for performance and reliability reasons it is recommended that you install your own Jabber server instead.

You must configure a separate Jabber user account for each Wireless Data Server connection you intend to configure.

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Setting up IM services

Each connection is configured inside its own section of the /etc/config/wds.ini file. These sections may have any name, but it is suggested that you name each section according to the connection it configures. For example, two sections connecting to IM user accounts named WDS_1 and WDS_2 on jabber.org could be named accordingly, [JABBER_ORG_WDS_1] and [JABBER_ORG_WDS_2]. For more information on the specific configuration of each connection, see the appropriate section below.

Multiple Instant Messaging connections may be required due to potential limits on roster size enforced by the Jabber server. You are free to use as many Instant Messaging connections as you choose at the same time, on their own or along with your choice of connections to the wireless network.

You must include the names of these sections in the value of the wds.ini [WDS] imconnections parameter in order to tell Wireless Data Server to initiate the connections on startup.

In addition, you need to specify what type of connections these are, and therefore what plug-in Wireless Data Server should load, by setting the [WDS] implugin parameter. Currently, as only Jabber IM servers are certified, the only accepted value for this parameter is imjabber, preceded by the path to your Wireless Data Server's /bin directory, and on UNIX platforms the string lib, and terminated with the library's platform-specific file extension (.dll for Windows, .sl for UNIX). For example, /wds/bin/libimjabber.sl.

Configuring IM connections

IM server address and port

Specify the IP address and port of the IM server using the wds.ini [<IM>] address and port parameters.

Wireless Data Server IM user ID, resource and password

Specify the Jabber user ID and resource for this Wireless Data Server connection with the [<IM>] username and resource parameters. Set the [<IM>] password parameter to the password for this Jabber user account using the cspasswd utility.

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Other considerations

User mapping and delivery preferences

When the calendar server invokes the smsnotify utility to send a notification or reminder to Wireless Data Server, it specifies the intended recipient through the user's mobile phone number. When using Instant Messaging for delivery, therefore, Wireless Data Server needs a way to map between these MSISDN numbers and the IM user IDs corresponding to those users.

Currently, this mapping is done in the /etc/config/sms_im_map.ini configuration file. You must create a new entry in this file for each user that wants to subscribe to the IM service. Each entry consists of the following:

<phoneNumber>,<userID>,<WDSuserID>,<IMtype>,<Policy>

where:

• <phoneNumber> identifies the current recipient. This field is not limited to users' phone numbers when third-party content sources are used; any unique identifier could be used. However, when the calendar server invokes the smsnotify utility to deliver a reminder or notification, it identifies the intended recipient through his or her mobile phone number. Therefore, when using the calendar service, this field must be set to same value as the user's mobile phone number as set on the calendar server.
• <userID> specifies the IM address of the intended recipient.
• <WDSuserID> specifies an IM address used by Wireless Data Server.
• <IMtype> specifies the type of IM server to which Wireless Data Server is connected. Currently, the only accepted value for this field is 1, signifying a Jabber server.
• <Policy> specifies a delivery policy for this user. This value can be any one of the following:

  0 -- Never deliver any messages to this user. You can use this value to disable a user's wireless privileges.

  1 -- Always deliver messages to this user via SMS; never use IM.

  2 -- Always deliver messages to this user via IM when the user's client is on-line; never use SMS. When the user's IM client is not on-line, all messages will be discarded.

  3 -- Always deliver messages to this user via both SMS and IM when the user's client is on-line. When the user's IM client is not on-line, Wireless Data Server will deliver the message via SMS only.

  4 -- Before delivering a message, check whether the user's IM client is on-line. If it is, deliver the message via IM. If not, deliver the message via SMS.

Signing users up

Once a user has an account on the Jabber server, that user will have to send you his or her Jabber user name and choice of delivery preferences. Before the user can activate their Instant Messaging calendar service, you will have to stop Wireless Data Server, create an entry for that user in the sms_im_map.ini file, and restart Wireless Data Server. See "User mapping and delivery preferences" above.

In the entry, you will have to specify a Jabber server account name used by Wireless Data Server. This address must match the value of the address parameter in one of the wds.ini sections that configures an Instant Messaging connection.

When this is completed, send the user the Wireless Data Server Jabber user name that you specified in the sms_im_map.ini file. That user can sign up to receive notifications by adding a Wireless Data Server Instant Messaging address to his or her roster.

Wireless Data Server will automatically respond by asking the user permission to add him or her to its own roster. When the user grants this permission, Wireless Data Server will be able to send reminders and notifications to the user's Jabber client chat window.

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