strange user identification in ejabberd jabber [closed]

Question

Closed. This question is off-topic. It is not currently accepting answers.

---

Want to improve this question? Update the question so it's on-topic for Stack Overflow.

Closed 8 years ago.

Improve this question

I really did try to google this one, but apparently I don't know the right question...

I have my own jabber server running on ejabberd. It is corporate server where I manage contacts, so I'm sure everyone have full name set in their vCards and other fields are empty.

What's bothering me is when user texts someone in his roster, his nick is displayed in this hideous way:

martin.lukes@myserver.cz/36694788191361948416825289: test message

Although when someone text back, his name is displayed as full name (as set in his vCard).

Described behavior is in Pidgin, I also tried Gajim where I learned that the numbers might mean some "location" ("Zdroj" in Czech). In conversation history Gajim uses full name from vCard, but the heading of the conversation window is still:

martin.lukes/36694788191361948416825289

This led me to thinking that it will be something in ejabberd settings, but I can't find out what.

Answer 1

Ok, Flow's answer pushed me in right direction.

If you want to get rid of random numbers generated by server, set your Resource (between Domain and Password in Account settings). But be advised that it will still leave you with

martin.lukes@myserver.cz/

Better yet, set your Local alias in Account settings which will use this instead of anything mentioned above. Although I don't understand why isn't Pidgin automatically use fields from vCard (Full name, Name, Surname) if Local alias is empty. I will try to find if there is filed a bug and file it if isn't.

Answer 2

The 'strange numbers' are the resource part (also called 'resource') of the user's JID. They are usually not related to the users location and are either set by the XMPP client at login, or, if the client does not specify the resource, the XMPP server will generate a random value for the resource part.

RFC 6121 1.4:

The term "bare JID" refers to an XMPP address of the form localpart@domainpart (for an account at a server) or of the form domainpart (for a server).

The term "full JID" refers to an XMPP address of the form localpart@domainpart/resourcepart (for a particular authorized client or device associated with an account) or of the form domainpart/resourcepart (for a particular resource or script associated with a server).

They are used to distinguish multiple connections of the same user. Unlike many other IM protocols, XMPP allows the same user to be 'online' from multiple devices. The resource part identities a device/connection.