Openfire

Openfire is a Jabber (XMPP) server.

Prepare Your Settings

  • Add 'allianceauth.services.modules.openfire', to your INSTALLED_APPS list

  • Append the following to your auth project’s settings file:

# Jabber Configuration
JABBER_URL = ""
JABBER_PORT = 5223
JABBER_SERVER = ""
OPENFIRE_ADDRESS = ""
OPENFIRE_SECRET_KEY = ""
BROADCAST_USER = ""
BROADCAST_USER_PASSWORD = ""
BROADCAST_SERVICE_NAME = "broadcast"

OS Dependencies

Openfire require a Java 8 runtime environment.

sudo apt-get install openjdk-11-jre

Setup

Download Installer

Openfire is not available through repositories, so we need to get a package from the developer.

On your PC, navigate to the Ignite Realtime downloads section, and under Openfire select Linux, click on the Ubuntu: Debian package (second from bottom of the list, ends with .deb) or CentOS: RPM Package (no JRE bundled, as we have installed it on the host)

Retrieve the file location by copying the URL from the “click here” link. Depending on your browser, you may have a Copy Link or similar option in your right click menu.

In the console, ensure you’re in your user’s home directory:

cd ~

Download and install the package, replacing the URL with the latest you got from the Openfire download page earlier

Create Database

Performance is best when working from an SQL database. If you installed MySQL or MariaDB alongside your auth project, go ahead and create a database for Openfire:

mysql -u root -p

create database alliance_jabber;
grant all privileges on alliance_jabber . * to 'allianceserver'@'localhost';
exit;

Web Configuration

The remainder of the setup occurs through Openfire’s web interface. Navigate to http://example.com:9090, or if you’re behind CloudFlare, go straight to your server’s IP:9090.

Select your language. I sure hope it’s English if you’re reading this guide.

Under Server Settings, set the Domain to example.com replacing it with your actual domain. Don’t touch the rest.

Under Database Settings, select Standard Database Connection

On the next page, select MySQL from the dropdown list and change the following:

  • [server] is replaced by 127.0.0.1

  • [database] is replaced by the name of the database to be used by Openfire

  • enter the login details for your auth project’s database user

If Openfire returns with a failed to connect error, re-check these settings. Note the lack of square brackets.

Under Profile Settings, leave Default selected.

Create an administrator account. The actual name is irrelevant, just don’t lose this login information.

Finally, log in to the console with your admin account.

Edit your auth project’s settings file and enter the values you set:

  • JABBER_URL is the public address of your jabber server

  • JABBER_PORT is the port for clients to connect to (usually 5223)

  • JABBER_SERVER is the name of the jabber server. If you didn’t alter it during the installation, it’ll usually be your domain (eg example.com)

  • OPENFIRE_ADDRESS is the web address of Openfire’s web interface. Use http:// with port 9090 or https:// with port 9091 if you configure SSL in Openfire

REST API Setup

Navigate to the plugins tab, and then Available Plugins on the left navigation bar. You’ll need to fetch the list of available plugins by clicking the link.

Once loaded, press the green plus on the right for REST API.

Navigate the Server tab, Sever Settings subtab. At the bottom of the left navigation bar select REST API.

Select Enabled, and Secret Key Auth. Update your auth project’s settings with this secret key as OPENFIRE_SECRET_KEY.

Broadcast Plugin Setup

Navigate to the Users/Groups tab and select Create New User from the left navigation bar.

Pick a username (e.g. broadcast) and password for your ping user. Enter these in your auth project’s settings file as BROADCAST_USER and BROADCAST_USER_PASSWORD. Note that BROADCAST_USER needs to be in the format user@example.com matching your jabber server name. Press Create User to save this user.

Broadcasting requires a plugin. Navigate to the plugins tab, press the green plus for the Broadcast plugin.

Navigate to the Server tab, Server Manager subtab, and select System Properties. Enter the following:

  • Name: plugin.broadcast.disableGroupPermissions

    • Value: True

    • Do not encrypt this property value

  • Name: plugin.broadcast.allowedUsers

    • Value: broadcast@example.com, replacing the domain name with yours

    • Do not encrypt this property value

If you have troubles getting broadcasts to work, you can try setting the optional (you will need to add it) BROADCAST_IGNORE_INVALID_CERT setting to True. This will allow invalid certificates to be used when connecting to the Openfire server to send a broadcast.

Preparing Auth

Once all settings are entered, run migrations and restart Gunicorn and Celery.

Group Chat

Channels are available which function like a chat room. Access can be controlled either by password or ACL (not unlike mumble).

Navigate to the Group Chat tab and select Create New Room from the left navigation bar.

  • Room ID is a short, easy-to-type version of the room’s name users will connect to

  • Room Name is the full name for the room

  • Description is short text describing the room’s purpose

  • Set a password if you want password authentication

  • Every other setting is optional. Save changes.

Now select your new room. On the left navigation bar, select Permissions.

ACL is achieved by assigning groups to each of the three tiers: Owners, Admins and Members. Outcast is the blacklist. You’ll usually only be assigning groups to the Member category.

Permissions

To use this service, users will require some of the following.

Permission

Admin Site

Auth Site

openfire.access_openfire

None

Can Access the Openfire Service