Chapter 1 introduces you to the importance and benefits of instant messaging over traditional communication methods. It also deals with benefits of hosting one's own EIM server. It then talks about Openfire real-time collaboration server.

In Chapter 2 you will learn how to install and configure the fully functional Openfire server environment for both Windows and Linux.

After reading Chapter 3 , you should be well equipped to run and administer an Openfire server in a single-office organization. You'll learn how to manage the administration console and some common network admin tasks.

Chapter 4 deals with the user organization in groups and populating the user's contact list in a variety of ways.

Chapter 5 shows how to sync your directory service with your Openfire server. Based on the directory service information, Openfire will let you migrate the users' contact information and other details, and use it to populate their profiles, as well as create groups.

Chapter 6 explores several ways of effectively administrating users irrespective of the size of the organization. You will learn how to import user data into their roster lists from any XMPP server to Openfire, and use tools that'll help members of the organization broadcast messages to their peers based on preset company rules.

Chapter 7 covers the Gateway plugin that allows access to a variety of IM services including Yahoo! Messenger, IRC, ICQ, MSN Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, and so on. Apart from just enabling access to these gateways, the plugin lets you configure several aspects of the service including restricting gateway access to all users or a particular group of users. It also covers how you can hook up Openfire to your Asterisk VoIP server.

Chapter 8 talks about uses and ways to archive conversations using iBall plugin. The chapter also deals with the Monitoring Service plugin's archived conversation searching interface. Some freely available archiving options are also discussed including Open Archieve.

Chapter 9 covers in detail the two ways in which a server can be configured to distribute loads—by forming a cluster of Openfire nodes, and by delegating connection managers to make connections to clients. This chapter also covers installing and deploying connection managers in both Windows and Linux environments.

Chapter 10 looks at how users can connect and interact with users on remote Openfire servers. Server-to-server communication is a very powerful feature of Openfire and it enables users who move between multiple Openfire servers to stay connected with each other easily.

In Chapter 11 we have a look at installing and configuring the plugins and using them to create an online helpdesk with several queues to manage a couple of products. It also talks about online chat facility using the Fastpath plugin. The last section of the chapter illustrates what a Fastpath session feels like to a user and the various tools (transferring calls, user history, personal canned responses, and so on) at his or her disposal to enable him or her to service the users better.

Appendix A offers a quick look at Spark (its features, tools, and plugins), the official Openfire client. This appendix takes a look at the pre-installed and available plugins that give Spark the ability to spell check messages, control indiscriminate file transfers, and translate messages into a variety of languages among other features while bouncing it between users.

We have explored comprehensive group chat mechanisms of Openfire in Appendix B. We have broken down Openfire's group chat options into three broad subheads—general room characteristics, user permissions, and occupant behavior. We have looked at each of these in detail, and tried to understand their individual functions and then put them to test. We have then explored Openfire's flexibility with impromptu multiuser discussions.

In Appendix C, we've broadly looked at what goes on behind the scenes in selecting an IM server, planning the deployment, and making sure the server maintains a 100% uptime. We've also looked at the various decisions you'll have to make as the admin, and brainstorm with the management and other departments to maximize productivity and add flexibility to the system

This book is for System Administrators who want to set up an in-house enterprise IM system using Openfire.

The reader will need experience in managing servers on any operating system.

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text are shown as follows: "This file will be under the webchat folder under your application server."

Any command-line input and output is written as follows:

type openfire_mysql.sql | mysql openfire;

New terms and important words are introduced in a bold-type font. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in our text like this: "To set some gateway-specific settings, click the Options slider button".

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