[JDEV] Developing a Jabber-Based application (Newbie guidance )

[John Sietsma]

I have been thinking something similar :) 

But my proposal would be a set of JavaBeans that can be used in other
clients. A sample client would be provided, but it
doesn't make sense to duplicate the effort or force people away from the
client they like.

A games protocol would have to be defined. Maybe something along the lines
of GamesML? There is nothing mature at the moment (that I'm aware of). It is
a pity that Jabber does not support message types (does it? any comments
please!). So the game info would have to be sent as a <message>.

It is an ideal platform for turn based game playing. I imagine a menu in a
client ->send text message, ->send chess move, etc.
When a chess (or game) move is received, the game board pops up and each
move made is sent as an im. Conferences would allow multiplayer games (ie.
bridge). Wonderful! It's a lot easier then going the yahoo games!

On a grander scale, it allows for massively multiplayer games. Games state
is kept btwn all clients in a small area (allowing for  scale). I was
inspired here by Crosbie Fitch and the articles he write for GamaSutra,
"CyberSpace in the 21st Century". This idea needs development.

I've been excited about this idea for a few months and have been
investigating the options. JabberBeans looks nice, thanks to David Waite who
is a member of the Jabber team (I think?). I think it should be supported by
developers as the library for the Java language.

I had a 404 trying to get the JabberApplet source as well. You'll need to
get it from cvs. See the cvs page for details.

I have not used Jabberoo or Net::Jabber. I have found reading the "Cheat
Sheet" and just playing with JabberBeans the best way to learn.

Re, your notes on the server. I don't think it would be needed. Just have
game beans that uses Jabber for presence and protocol.

I would love to develop this, I work full-time as a c++ developer and have 2
small kids. Oh crap, late nights for me.

Anyone else interested in this project?




"Ronald Gainey" <rongainey at hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:<mailman.991928646.25485.jdev at jabber.org>...
I apologize in advance if I haven't found the appropriate forum or if my
questions are all answered in some great doc(s) somewhere, I have spent some
time reading doc, but I am still finding my way around.

I'm interested in developing an online interactive game, and I believe
Jabber may provide a good platform for my project.  The game is of
turn-taking, board game style, and Jabber's presence, IM, and chat
facilities seem to be a great fit, as well as, of course, the underlying
messaging platform for my application-specific messaging.

I was hoping to leverage some of the existing application code base and
avoid reinventing the wheel, where possible.  My background is pretty solid
in C++, and I am just starting to seriously learn Java.  Is JabberBeans the
current state-of-the-art as far as a Java API for Jabber?  I first looked at
this a while back, and encountered a number of references to the JECI, but
that seems to be either dead or to have evolved into JabberBeans, is that
close to accurate?

On the client side, I am leaning towards an applet.  I had hoped to perhaps
use the JabberApplet as a base from which to begin coding, but when I go to
the SourceForge project for the applet, I get a 404 for the source download
page, is this code still available?  If not, are there any other open source
Java clients I might re-use or learn from?  Or do I just need to start from
scratch with the well-written "Jabber Client Developer's Cheat Sheet" by
Jens Alfke?

On the server side, I believe that my server component would be, from the
Jabber architecture world-view, just another client.  That is, if I
understand correctly, the Jabber protocol should allow me to pass around my
application-specific messages without any particular exentions to the core
Jabber messaging protocol.  So from my application perspective I'd have
distinct client/server components, but to Jabber these pieces would both be
peers to each other and client entities to Jabber.  Do I understand this
correctly?

Would Jabberoo be the C++ equivalent to JabberBeans?  Is either of these
more mature, robust, or full-featured?  How about Net::Jabber?  DJ Adams
"Fun With Jabber" is also a nice tutorial, but I don't know if the quickest
route for me is to learn perl, get up to speed with Java, or stick with C++.
I have been leaning towards Java on the server, since I'm pretty sure I want
to use it for the client anyway.

Many questions, I know, even a few answers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

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