buddycloud for iOS

An opensource XMPP client for the iPhone with buddycloud support

Abstract

The world desperately needs an open alternative to the current closed social networks.

This project is about designing and building an opensouce client that uses XMPP for the iPhone. The client will use different portions of the XMPP specs to present iPhone users with a viable alternative to the current social networking giants and their REST-based protocols.

We can build the better real-time experience by using XMPP capabilities and XMPP’s federation to decentralise control of a future social network. Standards such as XEP-0600 and XEP-0030 for channel synchronization, XEP-00175 and XEP- 0078 for authentication & registration, XEP-0800/0255 for user location by providing Lat/Long coordinates, XEP-0054/0153/0234/0206 for avatars & media exchange, and so many other extensions used on features demand. It will highly improve the overall user experience including performance which mostly the first requirement of any smart-phone user.

Problem Description

Building a federated social networking client based on XMPP needs a well-designed system which allow the clients to perform tasks with low CPU and network use. (it’s no point only being social until your battery quickly runs flat). In order to cope with these problems, the design will try to push all hard work to the server and keep the client doing less CPU intense tasks like just displaying the posts and social streams.

Whenever the client comes online/offline the re-sync operation need to be nicely handle the updates which requires client to query for all items and resync in the background while allowing end-user to perform other operations.

Another major problem that iPhone Core location & MapKit frameworks perform the GPS triangulation frequently adding to the battery overhead. A could be to limit the number of user-location updates.

Implementation Plan

The project consists of components

Authentication/Authorization & Registration

A federated social networking client experience should be designed for all people - “who can experience it, even without having an account”. So, the client will divided the experience into two different components: Explore and view channels:

Using an anonymous bind, this will enable iphone users, perhaps their first experience of an open social network before they need to sign up. In order to implement this feature, it requires clients to implement the XEP-0175 which do anonymous-bind and users can see channels posts and place bookmarks.When a user tries to post or create new place bookmark it will ask them to sign-in with their jid or create an account on any domain offering channel services. Join:

Users can also login by using their existing XMPP accounts. The user credentials would be persisted under iPhone settings and the application setting as well to allow the clients login automatically or trying with different user account.

Channels directory, Follower & Post Management

A channel is like your Facebook/Status.net wall where your friends can post to your channel and you receive instant push-based updates. All the user channel updates can be retrieved through XEP-0060 pub-sub model and also in addition to channel discovery XEP-0030 which allow the user to receive updates from their friends belong to same or different remote channels. There are couple of roles defined for channel to subscribe for each based on different criteria, clients need to sync all the subscriptions of user once it becomes online.

Users have much more control over their own channel than the Facebook wall. A channel allows moderators to delete content on their behalf and user also has an option to blacklist those followers causing problems.

The client will handle channel post management in two different situations: In first scenario, if client is online and someone posts a new comment on any topic then the channel server will send instant push updates and mark it as read which will exclude that item for future updates (until and unless - if someone again post a comment for that topic). And also clients cache all the followed channel topics which may reduce the re-sync process time.

In the second scenario, if a client comes online first time or after 1 or 2 days then there would be a bunch of new posts on the server for it. To reduce the re-sync overhead and also to keep a smooth experience, clients need to query for certain amount of new updates (Right, which means pagination using RSM) and that also allow user to navigate for old entries as well depending upon the client disk storage limitation.

Place Management

Place management involves to track all the place bookmarks of user which may be personal or shared to other people. This portion of the client allows the users to create/edit/delete/search the places and also see the details of bookmark places shared by other people with great user interface which also plays a vital role in user experience. In order to implement this tab in the client, it require clients to implement the XEP-0080/0255 with back and forth packets exchange between host channel. And clients also need to get the location coordinates (Lat/Long) through CoreLocation API and also require place the user-location bookmarks on map via MapKit framework on the iPhone.

Media Management

Media also play a vital role in federated social networking enabling users to share real-time experience with their friends. In order to implement this feature, clients need to implement XEP-0054/0153/0234/0206 for avatars and exchange images/video/audio/location through jingle.

Deliverables

There is already existing code for the buddycloud iphone client. This project will attempt to reuse that code (also under and Apache2 license).

Federated Social Networking Experience

• Explore (anonymous bind - No user account required)

Authentication & Authorization

• Login with different XMPP based networks (Gmail/Gtalk, Gmx.de, LiveJournal and other XMPP accounts)
• TLS binding by default
• DNS-SRV server lookup
• Registration: Create new account on a list of servers that are offering channels

Channel Management

• Channels activity streams (status video, audio, picture and etc)
• Go Online/offline presence
• Create/Retrieve/Delete channel
• Retrieve user own channel subscription
• Set the channel's default affiliations (producer, follower, moderator, banned)
• Follow/Un-follow channels
• Post new topics
• Track of unread/read messages (personal, admin, and channel)
• Channel detail screen

Browse Channel Directory

• Federated Channel Directory list (Explore nearby, active topics, featured channels, and newest channels)

• Channel list from directory

  • Topic channels
  • Personal Channels

• Channel detail page

  • All channel posts
  • Show privates instant messages (isn't show for topic channels)
  • Show channel details
  • Show channel Producer
  • Show channel Moderators
  • Show channel Followers
  • Channel On Air (broadcasting for no:of days)
  • Channel Rank
  • Producer Options (promote channel, permanently remove, approve followers)
  • Channel Activity (for personal channels)

Place Management

• Current Place change

• Next place setting

• Create/Delete Place bookmarks

  • Public (public places bookmarks that other people can use such as Star-bucks, Home and etc)
  • Private (private places bookmarks are visible to itself)

• Place details page

• Place bookmarked by others

• Find people nearby

• Place age

Setting Preferences

• Application Settings (General > Settings > buddycloud)

  • Change username/password
  • Enable/Disable auto-login

• Account Settings

  • Edit user profile

• Notifications (@replies, followed channels, moderated channels, personal messages)

• Privacy Settings (allow private messages, share location)

• About buddycloud

• Help Channel (help@buddycloud.com)

License

Apache 2.0