Use Facebook etc. to Login to Openfire Server from Android Client

Question

I am creating an Android app that will have a chat function. I plan to use openfire as the server and to manage other user data in the custom database. I would like to have users be able to login to my server with their facebook or gtalk etc. account without ever creating a separate account on my openfire server. I know about Kraken being able to allow current users to connect to additional accounts on other xmpp servers.

Another option would be to connect to those other services directly from the client, but then I wouldn't be able to track and manage those connections as easily from my central data center. I would have to make additional transmissions to transfer that data back to my servers. It might also cause conflicts because the chat function should only be communicating with other users of my app and not those that aren't users of my app.

TIA for any help you can provide. This is the last major hurdle that I have to overcome before I can start to polish all of the other pieces of my app for an initial release.

[EDIT] I have an external database. Couldn't I just use some PHP and SQL to edit the database directly to input new users? I have also thought that I could allow a person to login to facebook or some other service and then request information from that service to enter it into the Openfire database if it doesn't already exist.

Answer 1

You can use the User Service plugin to create users on the Openfire server, but this won't be secure as the client requires the plugin secret to do this.

It would be better for your app to use a separate authentication server; one of its functions would be to create users on the Openfire server via this plugin.