I am using XMPP and MUC for creating a group and it works fine till the user is online. The user leaves the group as soon as he goes offline. I want a user to stay in the room when he is offline and receive the unseen messages when he comes back. How to achieve this in XMPP. And how to create group and add users dynamically.
Can i make the user online all the time..is it is a good approach.? if so then how can i do this - making user online all the time
XMPP MUC is based on user presence. A new upcoming protocol address this issue. It is called MIX: https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0369.html
It is still preliminary, but you can expect fast iterations and improvements.
I am faced with a rather strange request and there isn't much material online tackling that.
I am building a web app on GAE ... front end, back end, datastore, blob store, user accounts, the whole nine yards ...
Part of the requirements is to have a user communication system, (users sending messages to each other, just like Facebook) as user emails are not to be shared among other users, and the web app shall only send emails to the user sign up email strictly for security and administration purposes, and wont flood their inbox with notifications like some websites do.
I have narrowed narrowed it down to 4 options
Option 1:
Reinvent the wheel - Build this whole system form scratch on the Datastore and Blob store. However, not only is it expensive, but also I am not gonna go through all of that (just saying honestly)
Option 2:
Build a bouncing system ... User A sends message to app ... app bounces email to User B. Not very Elegant, impossible to create threads and conversations, eats up app Mail Quota used for Marketing and what not.
Option 3:
Host My own Email server onsite. Patch an API servlet and run the whole show through API. Very valid, except that the client doesn't want anything on site, and I wont be around to maintain it for him.
Option 4:(Best option if someone helps out)
Implement option 3 on a 3rd party email provider. Which brings us to the question, is there any respectable email provider that allows account sign up through API ?? I need to create a shadow email account on a 3rd party server(that the user will never know it exists) every time someone makes an account on my app. Then store all emails and their generated passwords in the Datastore, and when user logs in my web app, web app logs in 3rd party server, retrieves messages and serves it. When he wants to send a message, web app gets the message, sends an email using API as well. If someone knows how to do that on Gmail, I would be eternally grateful (but I highly doubt google allows that)
Note
I can implement the whole setup on xmpp/Jabber servers as well but these free servers keep changing all the time and they change their configurations ... bottom line they are not very reliable.
Thanks a lot guys !! I really appreciate any feed back and if you have any other suggestions please don't hesitate !! This is by no means a solid plan yet.
mydomain.com is Google Apps linked to my GAE application (and verified). Currently only one user is allowed at custom domains, so I've registered admin#mydomain.com. Now, I would like to send emails from noreply#mydomain.com. I try to add this user as Developer in Permissions section of my GAE application, it sends the message (which I actually receive at admin#mydomain.com), I accept the invitation as admin#mydomain.com, but it doesn't help.
So, how to send emails from noreply#mydomain.com?
You can enable the trial (lasts for 30 days) and add as many users as you want. You can send emails to them to accept the invitations in GAE and after accepting them you can delete these users to fall back in the free version with only one user.
I have not been able to test the below, as I don't have the new single account Google Apps.
It all depends on if you still want the admin#domain.com user. If not I suggest the following;
For safety link a non-domain email as an owner to your App Engine application
Rename your current Google Apps user from admin to noreply
You should be able to send emails as noreply#domain.com.
If you still want admin#domain.com, maybe you can create an alias for the noreply account?
I'm trying to find information on developing the UX of Facebook notifications being sent from a FB app.
The app will require FB permissions for users to save favorite content within the app (iFrame). We want to remind users to return to the app (once a month) when the public content is updated, but we also want to remind them to return (once a month) when the authorized content is updated.
Is it possible to send email and push notifications for mobile/tablet in these scenarios? Or is it best to only send onsite notifications? Are email/push notifications even possible? I am having a hard time finding information that is clear on the FB Dev. site. Thanks!
All apps developed using developer API can enable notifications. That's why games can send you notifications using your original notification stream.
I would also advise you to only use this communication model, since e-mail from a Facebook app might not be the way Facebook users want their notifications. Also remember that you have to ask for permission to send the user e-mail, and gives the user another argument not to use your FB-app. The less permission you ask for, the more easy it is for users to accept you apps permission request.
Further more, Facebook users can turn off e-mail permission at any given time. Then you would not be able to send e-mails and lose your way of communication to your users.
So I'm writing a mobile app and have reached a point where I need to allow users to register a username. I'm doing this by asking for an email address, username and password.
Typically, it's been normal to set this sort of thing up on the web by having the user confirm his email address by clicking on a link sent to his inbox.
Needless to say, on a mobile app this is a bit clunky as the user will be redirected out of your app and into his browser.
So I had a look at how other mobile apps are doing it (WP7) and was surprised to see that DropBox and Evernote both allow you to sign up without confirming your email address. The end result of this is that I was able to sign up with completely bogus email addresses and/or valid email addresses that don't belong to me.
I assume this is done on purpose.
Your thoughts?
I came across the same issue when writing a social networking style app. I chose to have the user create a username and then provide and email and password. I do not verify the email address and I've never attempted to send any email to them (yet).
What I would suggest would be alternate ways to validate a users email address. My app allows users to do Facebook Connect. All they have to do is log into Facebook, and the app talks to Facebook to confirm that they are using a valid email address. No need to verify it with a URL in an email.
I believe Twitter has a similar service and there may even be a few others that provide an API.
I've also discovered that a lot of people just want to tinker around in the app and not create an account at all. It's definitely a balancing act
I'd say it depends on your app and how important it is to ensure users have valid email addresses. In an app I'm creating now, we want to discourage users from signing up with multiple bogus accounts (because our system could be gamed that way) so we're not allowing users to log in until their email address if verified. On other sites however, it might not be such a big deal so why bother users with that extra step?
As for a mobile device, I don't see why you can't still send a verification email that sends them to your website to verify their email address. There are plenty of mobile apps that also have a website users can log into to manage their account.
Another option is have multiple "states" for users. Before they validate their email, they are in a "pending" state. Once they click it, they're in an "active" state. If you store the createDate for the user, you can periodically remove pending users older than 1 week (or however long).
The bonus is that you can easily add more states, such as suspended or deleted.
Personally, I wasn't too happy for users to create accounts with any old email address.
I think a few decent options are:
send a confirmation email with a link that uses a Custom Url Schema to redirect back to the app (although this is only good if they use the link on the same device)
send a short PIN in the email for them to enter back in the app.
send a confirmation email with a web link, have your server confirm the valid email/token, and have your app check the account status either periodically or with some sort of realtime tech like SignalR or Firebase.
I prefer the last one, although hardest to implement. A user might well have their phone in their hand and their laptop next to them, register in the app and try to click the link in the email that just showed up on their laptop. I like the idea of the app then just "knowing" that they've validated.
Do you have a web server? Write a web service that does the validation for you on the server side, and sends back the result.
Either you can use some platform, such as Facebook connect as #Brian replied above, or you may give users a reasonable timeframe to verify, for example, a few days or even a week. After that, the account gets removed.
You can even have your app issue notifications to remind the user to verify his account (such as every day, or on the last date of the verification.
Don't ask for email confirmation on mobile and allow the user to use the service. When the user is using a PC, then ask the user to confirm his email.
I won't defend my recommendation because most of the solutions here are valid. There isn't one correct way. You asked for ideas and here's one.
A good strategy is to allow people to use as much of your app as possible given the amount of data they've provided.
For example, in the case of a newsreader you might let someone browse your app without registering, then require an account for offline syncing, and a verified email for alerts. Always give people a good reason to take the next step, and build engagement first, then people will forgive you pestering them later.