Month: February 2016

Monal OSX 1.3 and iOS 2.9

Monal OSX 1.3 and iOS 2.9 are almost ready.  I have put up what I hope will be the final OS X beta and will begin beta testing iOS today.

This is a major update.  iOS does not run on iOS 6 anymore. iOS 7 isn’t actually supported but will still run.

There are many major improvements.  Most notably:

  1. XEP-0313: Message Archive Management to download chat history.
  2. XEP-0352: Client State Indication for dramatic reduction on power use.
  3. XEP-0363: HTTP File Upload to send images in conversations
  4. Dropbox integration to share files. Can be used when HTTP upload isn’t available.
  5. Fixed several issues with periodic disconnects when in the background
  6. Sped up the app significantly. In particular, logging in.
  7. Rosters download correctly again and contacts should have proper full names instead of id shown.
  8. Fixed bugs with Google logins
  9. iOS text input will grow to multiple lines

Monal OS X with Client state and initial Mam

There is a new version of the OS X beta with a complete implementation for XEP-0352: Client State Indication and an initial implementation of  XEP-0313: Message Archive Management . I know some issues with MAM that I will fix, in particular:

  1. last message received is duplicated
  2. time stamps on delayed messages are not the originals but when they arrived
  3. only retrieves the default number of messages from the server/ doesn’t handle paging yet.

If you see anything else, let me know.

OSX support for HTTP upload

The latest OS X beta for 1.3  is up and you will notice a paperclip icon. This is an initial implementation of XEP-0363 HTTP Upload . I am still working on updating the UI but generally speaking, if your server supports it, it should work. I have mostly tested with Prosody. I am curious to see how well it works with other servers.  There are a couple of caveats at the moment:

  1. It shows the button for all servers at the moment. I intend to hide it for servers that do not support HTTP upload.
  2. There isn’t any feedback in the event of HTTP upload failure. I will add an alert in the future.
  3. There isn’t a progress indicator. Again, this is something I intend to add in the future
  4. If your server uses HTTPs this will not work will untrusted certificates.

Interesting thoughts on XMPP

Linux journal has an interesting article about XMPP. It see the future of siloed IM networks but completely misses the fact that XMPP is the de-facto standard messaging system used in enterprise.  There is a lot of consumer use of XMPP but it’s mostly relegated to enthusiasts such as us.  In the enterprise however, XMPP is king. I know the vast majority of Monal users use it for work.