Jabber Messenger Tab Installation Guide Product Version 2.7 Document Version B -- GA July 15, 2003

1899 Wynkoop Street, Suite 600 Denver, CO 80202 303-308-3231

Disclaimers Copyright 2003 Jabber, Inc. The information contained in this document is proprietary to Jabber, Inc. This information is considered confidential and is not to be disclosed to any outside parties without the express written consent of Jabber, Inc. This document is provided for informational purposes only, and the information herein is subject to change without notice. Jabber, Inc. does not provide any warranties covering and specifically disclaims any liability in connection with this document.

Trademarks JABBER® and the light bulb logo are trademarks of Jabber, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

jm2.7_tab

Contents

Overview ............................................................................................................... 5 Installation ............................................................................................................. 9 Enabling the Content Tab Feature 9 Installing Tab Files on the Server 10 Modifying a Tab’s .xml File 10 Modifying the modules.xml File 11 Auto Update Configuration ................................................................................. 13 Updating Tab Content 13 Enabling the Auto Update Feature 14 Updating a Tab’s .xml File 14 Verifying the Location in modules.xml 15 Testing the Tab 15

Table of Contents | Page iii

Page iv | Table of Contents

Chapter 1 | Overview

J

abber Messenger uses content tabs to display information on Jabber users’ client systems. By default, it installs the “Chat” content tab, which contains the roster. This guide supplements the Jabber Messenger Administration Guide, and provides instructions for creating and installing live-content-feed tabs. Once installed on the Jabber Messenger client, these tabs provide users with live, up-tothe-minute information. Figure 1 shows the “Weather” tab as an example of content-feed tabs that you can create and install.

Overview | Page 5

Figure 1. Weather content tab

Figure 2 illustrates the placement of and interaction between the tab components on the server and the client systems. W ebserver or shared network drive

Client systems

Example tabs

modules.xml

Customized client setup file

tab_one.ico

tab_two.xml

tab_two.ico

tab_three.xml

tab_three.ico

weather.xml

weather.ico

T he feature.xml file contains the location of the modules.xml file.

feature.xml branding.xml images

T he modules.xml file contains the locations of the tab.xml files. T he tab.xml files contain the loctaion of the tab.ico files.

Figure 2. System tab components

Page 6 | Overview

tab_one.xml

As illustrated in Figure 2, all tab files reside on the server. Each tab consists of an .ico file (the tab’s icon) and an .xml file; the .xml file contains the location (URL) of the corresponding .ico file. The modules.xml file, which also resides on the server, contains the locations of the tabs’ .xml files. Finally, the feature.xml file, which is part of the Jabber Messenger setup located on each client, contains the location of the modules.xml file. The feature.xml file is also where content tabs are enabled. This setup allows Jabber Messenger client systems to detect, install, and update tabs as needed.

Overview | Page 7

Page 8 | Overview

Chapter 2 | Installation

I

nstalling content tabs involves placing the tab files on the server and modifying two or three .xml files. This chapter provides instructions for: ■

Enabling the Content Tab Feature

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Installing Tab Files on the Server

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Modifying a Tab’s .xml File

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Modifying the modules.xml File

Enabling the Content Tab Feature The feature.xml file contains the tag, which enables the content tab feature; the tag is enabled by default in feature.xml. This section describes how to verify that it is still enabled. To verify that the content tab feature is enabled: 1. On your local Windows systems, open the feature.xml file in a text editor. 2. Locate the tag and make sure it is enabled as shown:

3. Save and close feature.xml.

Installation | Page 9

Installing Tab Files on the Server As illustrated in Figure 2 on page 6, each tab consists of an .ico file (the tab’s icon) and an .xml file. For example, the weather tab consists of the files weather.ico and weather.xml. Place each tab’s .ico and .xml files on the webserver or shared network drive with the other Jabber Messenger server-side components.

Modifying a Tab’s .xml File You must modify a tab’s .xml file so that it contains the location (URL) of the tab’s .ico file. To modify the tab’s .xml file: 1. Open the tab’s.xml file in a text editor. The weather.xml file is shown below as an example: MyForecast Weather type hpage agent url http://www.myforecast.com/jabber/new_city.m icon path weather/weather.ico weather/weather.ico http://webserver/path/weather.ico

Page 10 | Installation

2. Locate the following lines: tab_name/icon_name.ico http://webserver/path/icon_name.ico

3. In the tag, substitute your server’s domain name and the path to the tab’s .ico file for webserver and path. 4. Save and close the tab’s .xml file.

Modifying the modules.xml File The final step in enabling a tab is to add the tab to the modules.xml file. The modules.xml file, which also resides on the server, contains the locations of all Jabber Messenger component .xml files. To add the tab to the modules.xml file: 1. Open the modules.xml file in a text editor. The file is shown below before any modifications have been made:

2. Using the name of the tab’s .xml file, add a tag with an attribute of type=“plugin” for the tab before the tag. For example, for the weather tab, you would add the following tag: http://webserver/path/weather.xml

Caution: Make sure you use the name of the tab’s .xml file (in this example, “weather”) for the tag name in the modules.xml file. Substitute your server’s domain name and the path to the tab’s .xml file for webserver and path. 3. Save and close modules.xml.

Installation | Page 11

An example modules.xml file is shown below with the weather tab added: http://webserver/path/msxml3.xml http://webserver/path/setup.xml http://webserver/path/contacts.xml http://webserver/path/weather.xml

Page 12 | Installation

Chapter 3 | Auto Update Configuration

J

abber Messenger provides an auto-update feature, which allows Jabber users to update to new versions of tabs that you place on the server. This chapter contains basically the same information about enabling the auto update feature that is provided in the Jabber Administration Guide, but it is specifically oriented towards content tabs. The process for setting up the auto update feature includes: ■

Enabling the Auto Update Feature

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Updating a Tab’s .xml File

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Verifying the Location in modules.xml

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Testing the Tab

Updating Tab Content If you want to update the HTML content of your tab, you do not need to increment the version number of the tab. You can simply include a META tag in the HTML code for the tab that causes it to periodically refresh. For example, if you include the following tag within the tags, the content tab will refresh every 1200 seconds (20 minutes):

Auto Update Configuration | Page 13

Enabling the Auto Update Feature Jabber Messenger’s auto update tags are contained in the feature.xml file. Note: When you modify features.xml, you must use the JMAdmin tool to create a new installation file for your end-users. Please refer to the Jabber Messenger Administration Guide for more information. To enable the auto update feature: 1. Open the feature.xml file in a text editor. 2. Locate the tag and ensure that it is enabled as shown:

3. Locate the tag and make sure it contains the URL for the modules.xml file. Use the domain name of your server and the path to the modules.xml file in place of webserver and path. For example: http://webserver/path/modules.xml

4. Locate the . Enable this tag (set it to “true”) if you want your users to automatically install all available tabs the first time they install the Jabber Messenger client. 5. Save and close feature.xml.

Updating a Tab’s .xml File When you place an updated tab on the server, you must increment the version number in the tab’s .xml file. You must also verify that the .xml file contains the correct location of the tab’s .ico file. To update a tab’s .xml file: 1. Open the tab’s .xml file in a text editor. (See the example weather.xml file on page 10.) 2. Increment the version number in the tag. Make sure you use commas to separate the digits. The new version number enables the client systems to detect the updated tab. For example:

3. Locate the tag, and verify the location of the tab’s .ico file.

Page 14 | Auto Update Configuration

4. Optionally, add an tag at the end of the .xml file (before the tag) like the following: description

Note: Use the same version number that you used in Step 2, and type a description of the updated tab. This is merely a note for your own benefit to keep a record of what has changed in each tab version. The Jabber users do not see the update description. 5. Save and close the tab’s .xml file.

Verifying the Location in modules.xml As stated previously, the modules.xml file contains the location of each tab’s .xml file. To ensure the new tab works correctly, it’s a good idea to verify that the modules.xml file still contains the correct location of the tab’s .xml file. To verify the correct location: 1. Open the modules.xml file in a text editor. (See the example modules.xml file on page 12.) 2. Locate the tab’s tag; for example, if you have updated the weather tab, locate the following tag: http://webserver/path/weather.xml

3. Verify that webserver and path represent the correct location of the tab’s .xml file. Modify them if needed. 4. Save and close modules.xml.

Testing the Tab After you have installed and modified the .xml files for an updated tab, it’s a good idea to test the auto update functionality on a client system. To test the updated tab: 1. Log on to a Jabber Messenger client system. 2. Select Tools > Check for Updates from the main menu. The client should detect the updated tab and ask if you want to install it. Possible error conditions include:

Auto Update Configuration | Page 15

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If you forgot to increment the version number in the tab’s .xml file, the following error message displays on the client:

If the tab’s .xml file or the modules.xml file on the server have not been configured correctly, the user cannot download and install the updated tab, and the following message is displayed: Unable to download URL: (location & file name) HTTP error code 404 returned from web server: Not Found

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If the server is down, the following message is displayed on the client: Unable to contact the server. Please try again at a later time

Page 16 | Auto Update Configuration

Index A auto update configuration 13–16 enabling for content tabs 14 testing 15

C content tab feature enabling 9

F files .xml and .ico 6 feature.xml 6 installation locations 6

I installing tab icon and xml files 10

M modules.xml file adding tab to 11 verifying location of tab’s xml file in 15

T tab files installing 10 updating xml 10, 14 tabs location of and interaction between files 6

Index | Page 17

Page 18 | Index