Sunday, April 28, 2013

FXTalk , a Java(FX) based gtalk / jabber client

 FXTalk is a  cross-platform rich UI chat client demonstrating the abilities of JavaFX platform.

1. Resources

1.1 Sources

The source code is in Github .

1.2 Executable bundles

1) Mac OSX(built on Lion, but works on Snowleopard, Lion and mountain lion). On Mountain lion however due to Gatekeeper intervention you need to run the app with Cntrl+Click for the 1st time and subsequently you can launch the app normally.
           DMG
           App

2) Windows (32 bit)
           Msi
           Exe


2. Addressing the short comings of Smack library


We rely on a 3rd party open source library called Smack V 3.2.2. This library though is wonderful has some shortcomings which we address by fixing the smack library and re building it to meet our needs.

1) Most proxies may not allow connecting to it via itself . So setting proxy and creating a socket to proxy will try to route through itself and fail.

  Fix:
    org.jivesoftware.smack.proxy.HTTPProxySocketFactory in the method httpProxifiedSocket() change the following line
             Socket socket = new Socket(proxyhost,proxyPort);
to
             Socket socket = new Socket(Proxy.NO_PROXY);
             socket.connect(new InetSocketAddress(proxyhost,proxyPort));
2) When creating an SSL socket behind firewall & proxy there must be provision for HTTPS socket creation with an understanding there is a proxy in between
Fix:
org.jivesoftware.smack.proxy.ProxyInfo
    1) Add new enum ProxyType.HTTPS and method forHttpsProxy()
    2) Within getSocketFactory() method create HTTPSProxySocketFactory() if the ProxyType is HTTPS.
    2) Implement your own HTTPSProxySocketFactory which creates a normal HTTP connection to the proxy and then tunnel SSL through it.
We have built our own version of Smack library. This can be contributed to the  Smack source code base.

3. Quick look at Features

  1. Supports user subscription,friend request, setting avatar(Avatar editor pops up when you click your image), changing presence, set status, signout, set default account,delete accounts,set proxy, etc.
  2. Supports File transfer (by default we enable only IBB) hence please do not try to transfer large files.
  3. Password is encrypted by key which is secure randomly generated when ran the first time. Any one who can read your home folder can read the key and hence can decrypt your password.We disable read/write/exec access for any user other than the one who runs the App hence this approach is "Safe enough" . If you still think it is not enough for you (OR) your machine is shared machine then do not save the account.
  4. Tested successfully on GTalk and Oracle(Jabber) systems.
  5. Tested on MacOSX(lion) and Win 7(and native bundles are available for download see Resources Section 6).

4. Features planned for future releases

  1. Group chat
  2. Themable chat bubbles
  3. Sock5 based file transfer.
  4. Jingle based Voice chat.

5. Snapshots

6. Native Bundles


Generating native bundles is not straight forward as the bundling skips ext from jre and hene fetures like https access will not be available. To circumvent this we use custom configuration scripts for deployment.
  • Set environment variable JAVAFX_ANT_DEBUG to true
  • Create windows script    package/windows/FXTalk-post-image.wsf
  • Create shell script for MacOSX script    package/macosx/FXTalk-post-image.sh
  • Copy your custom resources to
    package/macosx
    package/windows
    package/linux

  • Run    
    ant -lib . jfx-build-native

6.1 Windows (FXTalk-post-image.wsf)

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<package>  
   <job id="postImage">  
    <script language="JScript">  
     <![CDATA[  
        var oFSO = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");  
        var oFolder = oFSO.getFolder(".");  
        var from1 = "C:\\Program Files\\Java\\jdk1.7.0_17\\jre\\lib\\ext\\sunjce_provider.jar";  
        var from2 = "C:\\Program Files\\Java\\jdk1.7.0_17\\jre\\lib\\ext\\access-bridge.jar";  
        var from3 = "C:\\Program Files\\Java\\jdk1.7.0_17\\jre\\lib\\ext\\jaccess.jar";  
        var from4 = "C:\\Program Files\\Java\\jdk1.7.0_17\\jre\\lib\\ext\\sunpkcs11.jar";  
        var from5 = "C:\\Program Files\\Java\\jdk1.7.0_17\\jre\\lib\\ext\\dnsns.jar";  
        var from6 = "C:\\Program Files\\Java\\jdk1.7.0_17\\jre\\lib\\ext\\localedata.jar";  
        var from7 = "C:\\Program Files\\Java\\jdk1.7.0_17\\jre\\lib\\ext\\sunec.jar";  
        var from8 = "C:\\Program Files\\Java\\jdk1.7.0_17\\jre\\lib\\ext\\sunmscapi.jar";  
        var from9 = "C:\\Program Files\\Java\\jdk1.7.0_17\\jre\\lib\\ext\\zipfs.jar";  
        var to1 = "C:\\Users\\srikalyc\\Documents\\NetBeansProjects\\FXTalk\\dist\\bundles\\FXTalk\\runtime\\jre\\lib\\ext";  
        var to2 = ".\\FXTalk\\runtime\\jre\\lib\\ext";  
        if (!oFSO.FolderExists(to1)) {  
          oFSO.CreateFolder(to1);  
        }  
        if (!oFSO.FolderExists(to2)) {  
          oFSO.CreateFolder(to2);  
        }  
        to1 += "\\";  
        to2 += "\\";  
        oFSO.CopyFile(from1, to1);  
        oFSO.CopyFile(from2, to1);  
        oFSO.CopyFile(from3, to1);  
        oFSO.CopyFile(from4, to1);  
        oFSO.CopyFile(from5, to1);  
        oFSO.CopyFile(from6, to1);  
        oFSO.CopyFile(from7, to1);  
        oFSO.CopyFile(from8, to1);  
        oFSO.CopyFile(from9, to1);  

        oFSO.CopyFile(from1, to2);  
        oFSO.CopyFile(from2, to2);  
        oFSO.CopyFile(from3, to2);  
        oFSO.CopyFile(from4, to2);  
        oFSO.CopyFile(from5, to2);  
        oFSO.CopyFile(from6, to2);  
        oFSO.CopyFile(from7, to2);  
        oFSO.CopyFile(from8, to2);  
        oFSO.CopyFile(from9, to2);  
     ]]>  
    </script>  
   </job>  
</package>              

6.2 Macosx (FXTalk-post-image.sh)

If you edit the following script in Windows there is high probability that it will cause weird failures and errors(due to \n \r characters), just recreate it on Mac OSX and redo it.
- Do not forget to change the info.plist for jdk.
#!/bin/bash

#The following are required for DMG image to have the ext folder
cd ../images/dmg.image/FXTalk.app/Contents/PlugIns/jdk1.7.0_17.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib
mkdir ext
cp -p /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_17.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/ext/sunjce_provider.jar ext
cp -p /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_17.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/ext/dnsns.jar ext
cp -p /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_17.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/ext/localedata.jar ext
cp -p /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_17.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/ext/sunec.jar ext
cp -p /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_17.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/ext/sunpkcs11.jar ext
cp -p /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_17.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/ext/zipfs.jar ext

#The following are required to patch the .app package
mkdir /Users/srikalyc/NetbeansProjects/FXTalk/dist/bundles/FXTalk.app/Contents/PlugIns/jdk1.7.0_17.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/ext
cp /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_17.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/ext/sunjce_provider.jar /Users/srikalyc/NetbeansProjects/FXTalk/dist/bundles/FXTalk.app/Contents/PlugIns/jdk1.7.0_17.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/ext
cp /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_17.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/ext/dnsns.jar /Users/srikalyc/NetbeansProjects/FXTalk/dist/bundles/FXTalk.app/Contents/PlugIns/jdk1.7.0_17.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/ext
cp /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_17.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/ext/localedata.jar /Users/srikalyc/NetbeansProjects/FXTalk/dist/bundles/FXTalk.app/Contents/PlugIns/jdk1.7.0_17.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/ext
cp /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_17.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/ext/sunec.jar /Users/srikalyc/NetbeansProjects/FXTalk/dist/bundles/FXTalk.app/Contents/PlugIns/jdk1.7.0_17.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/ext
cp /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_17.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/ext/sunpkcs11.jar /Users/srikalyc/NetbeansProjects/FXTalk/dist/bundles/FXTalk.app/Contents/PlugIns/jdk1.7.0_17.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/ext
cp /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_17.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/ext/zipfs.jar /Users/srikalyc/NetbeansProjects/FXTalk/dist/bundles/FXTalk.app/Contents/PlugIns/jdk1.7.0_17.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/ext
 
 

Please leave your suggestions, comments and feedback here.

3 comments:

  1. Hello, Sri kalyan,
    I am very interested in your project,
    and I download your source code from Git website.
    After I decompressed this zip file, I found a problem.
    There are many corrupt png files in a folder named "assets".
    Same situation also occurred on the GIT website,
    (https://github.com/srikalyc/FXTalk/tree/master/FXTalk/src/fxtalk/assets)
    Many png files can't preview online.
    Could you upload the png files again, Please.
    Thank you very much.

    ReplyDelete