Ejabberd VS Openfire VS "handmade"

This month, I have a project from my laboratory about Smart Gateway. What smart gateway is it? It's a smart gateway system that allows multi-client chat not only using the internet but also SMS. Does it seem weird? Yeah, it will be used for rural areas where it is difficult to get internet access but still has SMS service. In this project, I take part in internet module development.

There must be a server that can serve some users. There are some applications that can be installed on the server to build a chat server. Firstly, I chose Ejabberd. The installation process for this application was so long. I installed it from its source code. This program was made by Erlang programming language. That's a new thing for me. I should install Erlang's compiler. I found the wrong site that gave difficult steps and I followed that difficult steps to install Erlang's compiler until I got stuck. Then, I found out that the Ubuntu repository provides it. After that, I installed Ejabberd, built some configurations, and ran it. To make this server can be accessed by clients, it needs a client application that can be installed either on the server or clients. I chose JWChat, installed it on a server, and built some configurations so this application could communicate with Ejabberd. Clients can make a chat conference by accessing a web application that is on the server from a browser. OK, that was the beginning. The main point of a smart gateway chat server is to store internet chat data into a common database server like MySql which will be used by Gammu to store SMS messages. I also have to build a program that can make all data from the internet and SMS can be synchronized. Ejabberd uses the Mnesia database, a built-in database from Ejabberd. Then, I made some configurations again for Ejabberd so it can store chat data to MySql. After spending a day I tried to fix its configuration, the Ejabberd server still didn't want to work. It failed to start. I think the problem is on connection to MySql because when I used the internal database, it ran normally. I read the installation guide and configuration file carefully but couldn't find any mistakes. Then, I thought to move to another application to build the server.

Openfire is another application to build a chat server. It uses Java programming language. I think that was great. I have always liked Java. The developer website for this application also looks better than the Ejabberd site. I feel that the Openfire installation process was easier than Ejabberd. To configure the server, we can use a web-based control panel that is provided by Openfire. Database configuration also can be done from that control panel. Openfire has provided a MySql driver for Openfire so we don't have to install it separately. For server testing, I used a client-side application. It's Spark, also from the Openfire site. It worked nicely. After that, I must think again about how to manage the database, update the source code of Openfire to support the Smart Gateway system, and build a more simple application for client. Openfire is a more complex application than Ejabberd which use Java and many modules on it.

After three days of doing this work, I start to think of better solutions to finish this project as soon as possible. I think, If I make my own server application using Java, it will be more simple and can produce results as needed.

Comments

Configuring Swap Memory on Ubuntu Using Ansible

If we maintain a Linux machine with a low memory capacity while we are required to run an application with high memory consumption, enabling swap memory is an option. Ansible can be utilized as a helper tool to automate the creation of swap memory. A swap file can be allocated in the available storage of the machine. The swap file then can be assigned as a swap memory. Firstly, we should prepare the inventory file. The following snippet is an example, you must provide your own configuration. [server] 192.168.1.2 [server:vars] ansible_user=root ansible_ssh_private_key_file=~/.ssh/id_rsa Secondly, we need to prepare the task file that contains not only the tasks but also some variables and connection information. For instance, we set /swapfile as the name of our swap file. We also set the swap memory size to 2GB and the swappiness level to 60. - hosts: server become: true vars: swap_vars: size: 2G swappiness: 60 For simplicity, we only check the...

Deliver SaaS According Twelve-Factor App

If you haven't heard of the twelve-factor app , it gives us a recommendation or a methodology for developing SaaS or web apps structured into twelve items. The recommendation has some connections with microservice architecture and cloud-native environments which become more popular today. We can learn the details on its website . In this post, we will do a quick review of the twelve points. One Codebase Multiple Deployment We should maintain only one codebase for our application even though the application may be deployed into multiple environments like development, staging, and production. Having multiple codebases will lead to any kinds of complicated issues. Explicitly State Dependencies All the dependencies for running our application should be stated in the project itself. Many programming languages have a kind of file that maintains a list of the dependencies like package.json in Node.js. We should also be aware of the dependencies related to the pla...

Rangkaian Sensor Infrared dengan Photo Dioda

Keunggulan photodioda dibandingkan LDR adalah photodioda lebih tidak rentan terhadap noise karena hanya menerima sinar infrared, sedangkan LDR menerima seluruh cahaya yang ada termasuk infrared. Rangkaian yang akan kita gunakan adalah seperti gambar di bawah ini. Pada saat intensitas Infrared yang diterima Photodiode besar maka tahanan Photodiode menjadi kecil, sedangkan jika intensitas Infrared yang diterima Photodiode kecil maka tahanan yang dimiliki photodiode besar. Jika tahanan photodiode kecil maka tegangan V- akan kecil . Misal tahanan photodiode mengecil menjadi 10kOhm. Maka dengan teorema pembagi tegangan: V- = Rrx/(Rrx + R2) x Vcc V- = 10 / (10+10) x Vcc V- = (1/2) x 5 Volt V- = 2.5 Volt Sedangkan jika tahanan photodiode besar maka tegangan V- akan besar (mendekati nilai Vcc). Misal tahanan photodiode menjadi 150kOhm. Maka dengan teorema pembagi tegangan: V- = Rrx/(Rrx + R2) x Vcc V- = 150 / (1...

API Gateway Using KrakenD

The increasing demands of users for high-quality web services create the need to integrate various technologies into our application. This will cause the code base to grow larger, making maintenance more difficult over time. A microservices approach offers a solution, where the application is built by combining multiple smaller services, each with a distinct function. For example, one service handles authentication, another manages business functions, another maintains file uploads, and so on. These services communicate and integrate through a common channel. On the client side, users don't need to understand how the application is built or how it functions internally. They simply send a request to a single endpoint, and processes like authentication, caching, or database querying happen seamlessly. This is where an API gateway is effective. It handles user requests and directs them to the appropriate handler. There are several tools available for building an API gateway, su...

Deploying a Web Server on UpCloud using Terraform Modules

In my earlier post , I shared an example of deploying UpCloud infrastructure using Terraform from scratch. In this post, I want to share how to deploy the infrastructure using available Terraform modules to speed up the set-up process, especially for common use cases like preparing a web server. For instance, our need is to deploy a website with some conditions as follows. The website can be accessed through HTTPS. If the request is HTTP, it will be redirected to HTTPS. There are 2 domains, web1.yourdomain.com and web2.yourdomain.com . But, users should be redirected to "web2" if they are visiting "web1". There are 4 main modules that we need to set up the environment. Private network. It allows the load balancer to connect with the server and pass the traffic. Server. It is used to host the website. Load balancer. It includes backend and frontend configuration. Dynamic certificate. It is requ...

Headless CMS for Building API Endpoints

Recently, someone introduced me to a tool called Directus, which is used for building backend systems and defining data structures. This also reminded me of a product I reviewed about two years ago, which was also built using Directus. After doing some online research, I decided to test another headless CMS solution called Strapi. When we think of CMS platforms, names like WordPress, Joomla, or Moodle might come to mind. But what does 'headless' mean in this context? A headless CMS is a type of CMS that focuses solely on the backend system, without providing the frontend interface. It can generate the API endpoints, letting developers build the frontend or client-side application separately. However, this doesn't mean headless CMS platforms lack a user interface entirely. Most, like Directus and Strapi, include a UI tool (an administrator dashboard) for designing and managing the backend system and resources. After spending some time testing and reviewing Stra...

LUKI NOTES

Search This Blog