XMPP no longer works

Bug Reports
#1

REPRODUCIBILITY (% or how often): 100% of the time
BUILD ID: everything since 3.0
HARDWARE (Jolla1, Tablet, XA2,…): i’ve tried on my xperia x and my moto g 2014
UI LANGUAGE: english
REGRESSION: (compared to previous public release: Yes, No, ?): no

DESCRIPTION:

i use xmpp all the time on android, but in the default messaging app on sailfish, xmpp doesn’t want to show up inside messages for some reason.

PRECONDITIONS:

you need an xmpp account set up in settings

STEPS TO REPRODUCE:

  1. open up messages
  2. start a new chat
  3. type in the xmpp id at the top
  4. type out your message
  5. look for the little arrow at the bottom to switch to xmpp
  6. it isn’t there
  7. bruh

EXPECTED RESULT:

the arrow is there and i can switch to xmpp and send my message to my friend.

ACTUAL RESULT:

the arrow isn’t there and now i am sad

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

i have the iq of the average oblivion npc so maybe i’m just missing something.

2 Likes
#2

I’m not experiencing this here, but I do notice a similar bug, so I’m wondering if it’s related. Just like you I start a new message and enter an XMPP recipient’s name. For contacts that are only associated with XMPP I can immediately write them an XMPP message and send. However, if there are other ways to communicate with them (e.g. SMS) then a list appears at the top of the page and I have to choose the XMPP address.

For me, that all works fine. However, if I have no SIM card, I notice that choosing a non-XMPP way in the first instance means that I then can’t switch to using XMPP afterwards in the way you describe.

So this sounds similar, but not the same. Do you have a SIM card in the device?

3 Likes
#3

yeah, I have a sim card, I’ll give it a go without one when I get home. perhaps the problem is that I don’t have any xmpp contacts? or maybe my xmpp server is acting up.

#4

It’s worth checking. I must admit XMPP contact management on the SF side is unintuitive, or rather, doesn’t really exist. You have to add the contacts through some other client and they should then be picked up by the People and Messages apps (to check, look for an XMPP entry in the relevant contact card in the People app).

1 Like
#5

additional precondition:

  • internet acces (mobile/WLWN)

I suggest to switch off XMPP inside android layer and send You a XMPP message from a different (test) account using another device. Telepathy should receive this message and the senders address becomes a contact into the phonebook (if linked to a existing contact, it will be shown as nickname with telepathy symbol).
If You want to send someone a message from telepathy, select the person from pervious conversations, then select receivers XMPP address by touching the down arrow before typing any message text. The receivers online status is stated there too.

At least sending and receiving messages with telepathy in Rokua 3.3.0.16 can I confirm working.

1 Like
#6

Sorry for the necromancy, just in case someone finds this thread, following the ancient answer on TMO I can’t find right now, manually adding an XMPP contact can be done using the People .vcf import.

  1. Create a vcf file like:

    BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:2.1
N:Example Jabber Contact;;;;
FN:Example Jabber Contact
X-JABBER:username@jabber.example.org
END:VCARD

  2. Save it to ${HOME}/Documents (NB: in sandboxed-enabled SFOS versions, People can not access $HOME or Downloads, causing the import to fail. Do use Documents)

  3. Launch the Settings app

  4. Go to Apps->People

  5. Select “import from contact file”

  6. Select .vcf file to import

  7. Close Settings and People

  8. Open People

  9. Search for your new contact and link it to the proper contact in your addressbook.

5 Likes
XMPP in Sailfish, how to start?
#7

What a great piece of smart hackery. Thanks @nephros. It makes me wonder why we don’t have a UI for this.

1 Like
#8

In case you like to have the jabber info inside your contact details (all together):

  • open contacts
  • pulley, select contacts
  • select one (or more) contact(s) and choose mail (or bluetooth if you like)
  • send mail to yourself and download (or open BT transfer) vcf attachment(s) to your PC
  • tedious to do on phone but possible: after receiving mail on phone you need to view/download the vcf attachment (-sfos will open with contacts and tell you nothing to do-) and then find latest new folder in Downloads/mail_attachments
  • edit vcf attachment as @nephros said and esp. add a new line X-JABBER:username@jabber.example.org
  • re-transfer modified vcf to phone (mail, bluetooth, usb) and just click it
  • contacts will open it and merge new Jabber info to existing contactj
3 Likes
#9

+1    

only for reference

2 Likes
#10

[quote=“flypig, post:7, topic:694”] It makes me wonder why we don’t have a UI for this.
[/quote]

I don’t know.

What I do know that a oneliner fix to buteo carddav plugin allows contacts synced from remote services to include the information in the corresponding addressbook :), i.e. makes the process described by @peterleinchen automatic on sync, if the remote service has that information.

1 Like
#11

For those who want to add XMPP contacts using a UI, there’s an app named PingYou, which has this functionality. However, it’s not available in the Jolla Store, only via Openrepos.

5 Likes
Support encryption, file transfer and groups for XMPP/Jabber
#12

Cool, I wasn’t aware of that app.

1 Like
#13

My pleasure.

PingYou was released in January 2017 and it says in the description

Development is focused on implementing features missing from the default xmpp client in SFOS

So adding XMPP-contacts was a “pain point” almost 5 years ago and it still is, so high time Jolla added this feature!

I should probably have added it to my Feature Request Support encryption, file transfer and groups for XMPP/Jabber.

3 Likes
#14

May I correct you?
>= 8 years
(similar to (first?) SIP request!)

2 Likes
#15

Thanks for the info! I was judging from the release date of PingYou, but of course I didn’t mean to deny the possibility, the problem existed even longer. :slightly_smiling_face: Anyway, that makes the whole thing even more severe!

1 Like
#16

To be fair, with both Google and Facebook having abandoned XMPP, and the creation of all the other messaging protocols and apps I can understand why it hasn’t been a priority for Jolla.

That doesn’t mean I don’t think XMPP is valuable (as is SIMPL), but really it is kind of a niche thing right now.

#17

On the other hand, it’s companies the likes of Google and Facebook, people try to get away from by using SailfishOS devices, right?
If so, it should be a priority for Jolla, because XMPP is the most widely used messaging protocol, which doesn’t make users dependent of a single company and that’s what their clientele wants.

3 Likes
#18

Well for the community that’s true but as we know enabling us is not Jollas business model.

Now what would be a selling point in the business world? I guess Cisco are the most prominent who still are invested in Jabber but supporting it would only make sense if you can make WebEx work as well I guess.

1 Like
#19

If I’m perfectly honest, I find it hard to understand what you’re talking about.

  1. XMPP is an open protocol (it’s an IETF standard), meaning unlike the protocols used by Google or Facebook, it’s not limited to and/or dependent on a certain provider.
  2. How many business users do you think there are, who don’t want to rely on an open protocol for messaging, but putting their money on Sailfish OS?
  3. There are literally thousands of XMPP servers available (you can even set up your own!) and in contrast to those using proprietary protocols, they all talk to each other, which means if your provider becomes unavailable, you can switch to another one and continue communicating, much like changing your e-mail address. I don’t see where big companies investing into it come into play.
  4. We’re not talking about an extensive software project here. SailfishOS already supports XMPP and implementing basic features like adding users shouldn’t mean a big investment. I think there’s even Open Source code for this kind of functionality out there and if so, that would only mean integrating existing code into SFOS.
2 Likes
#20

Test post, please ignore