Integrating self-hosted instant messaging / chat solution in Plone CMS

Question

I'm looking for a chat product to be used inside an enterprise plone intranet.

I don't want my users need to register or approve any external service (irc, gtalk, socials, etc.), so the product should take care of users integration enabling current users to seamlessly interact each other.

It would be a plus, if that product was groups aware (implicit chat rooms?)

Is there anything around ready out of the box? Easy enough to be installed/configured without any background knowledge of chat protocols as well?

Thanks, alessandro.

Answer 1

There is Babble.

http://opkode.com/media/blog/babble-instant-messaging-for-plone

However, I suggest you keep chat core outside of Plone and use something like internal XMPP server and just slap it on the Plone using <iframe> and Javascript integration. Even if it's not "external service" outside from the network, it should be "external service" in the sense Plone itself, though being a multi-purpose power tool, is not very well versed instant messaging platform.

Answer 2

A Plone company called Jarn created a SaaS intranet platform built on Plone, that included a full XMPP stack for in-browser realtime chat (or microblogging, really) and presence management.

This platform was open sourced when the company decided not to pursue that platform anymore, and is available on GitHub: https://github.com/intranett/intranett

The core of the XMPP integration is the jarn.xmpp.core package; it provides the presence and messaging components. The intranett buildout above shows how to use this component's potential.

^{_{Disclaimer: I used to be a software engineer at Jarn, the company no longer exists today, this is thus Open Source software without a current maintainer.}}