[OPEN-ILS-DEV] The use of Jabber on Evergreen

[Edward Corrado]

Don McMorris said the following on 09/12/2007 1:32 PM:
> Note: the following message is my personal opinion only.
>
> IMHO, Jabber makes an excellent back-end communication mechanism.  It 
> was designed to efficiently transport data in an XML-based format, 
> which is ideal for a program such as OpenSRF (which needs to transport 
> structured text between nodes).
>
> The fact that it doesn't scale is completely incorrect.  Jabber /does/ 
> scale, and does so /extremely well/.  It's one of the reasons why 
> Google (and other large chat services) uses it for their chat programs.
>
> I'm not sure where the design argument comes in.  It's designed to 
> transport text and data, and that's how Evergreen uses it.  The fact 
> that it's /marketed/ as an IM server is different from how it's 
> /designed/.
Thanks Don,

This is the type of info I need. Pointing to Google chat is [another] 
good way to lessen the scaling concerns. Also, the difference between 
how it is marked vs. designed is a good point as well.

Edward

>
> In short, properly configured and implemented, it's a scalable and 
> efficient system for a cluster that needs to pass messages and 
> structured data.  Why should we re-invent the wheel for something that 
> works so incredibly well?
>
> --Don
>
> Edward Corrado wrote:
>> Hi All,
>>
>> Let me preface this by saying I don't personally have an issue with 
>> Jabber being used as a communication tool in Evergreen, and I think 
>> the experience in Georgia shows it does the job, however.....
>>
>> On multiple occasions when talking to people who have varying levels 
>> of IT/programming background, but not too much experience with 
>> Evergreen or other ILS software, they start to wonder about the 
>> choice of Jabber to communicate within the software package. I hear 
>> things like:
>>
>>    "it is a weak link"
>>    "it doesn't scale"
>>    "it is a hack"
>>    "why would they do that, Jabber isn't designed for use that way"
>>    etc.
>>
>> As I mentioned, I think the experience in Georgia shows that Jabber 
>> works for Evergreen, and can at least scale to the level of a state 
>> wide public library system (which is bigger than anything I am 
>> proposing here in NJ). However, I really don't know enough about the 
>> choice of Jabber to respond in any other way than "the proof is in 
>> the pudding, it works in Georgia." Can anyone offer me any better 
>> arguments why the use of Jabber isn't a problem (or, for that matter, 
>> confirm that it is)?
>>
>> Edward
>>
>>
>>
>>

-- 
Edward M. Corrado
http://www.tcnj.edu/~corrado/
Systems Librarian
The College of New Jersey
403E TCNJ Library
PO Box 7718 Ewing, NJ 08628-0718
Tel: 609.771.3337  Fax: 609.637.5177
Email: corrado at tcnj.edu