Using ActiveMQ as an XMPP (Jabber) Messaging Server

This tutorial demonstrates how to use ActiveMQ as a message broker for XMPP (Jabber). In this tutorial, we'll install ActiveMQ and use it for our message broker (i.e. server). We'll then use the Spark instant messaging client to create a chat room so that we can send and receive messages between IM clients.

The first step is installing ActiveMQ. For this example, we'll install everything on a Windows PC. Follow these steps to install ActiveMQ:

1. Go to http://activemq.apache.org and click the download link on the right-hand side of the page.
2. Click the link to download most recent stable version (5.7.0 at the time of this writing).
3. Click on the download link for the Windows distribution.

4. Unzip the download to a directory on your PC. I have it unzipped on the root of my C: drive.
5. Open the \apache-activemq-5.7.0\conf\activemq.xml file in an editor.
6. Edit the "transportConnectors" section of the configuration file by adding the XMPP transport.

        <transportConnectors>
               ...
               <transportConnector name="xmpp" uri="xmpp://0.0.0.0:61222"/>
        </transportConnectors>

7. From the command prompt, run \apache-activemq-5.7.0\bin\activemq

Now that you have ActiveMQ installed and the XMPP transport running on port 61222, open the following URL in your browser to view the ActiveMQ web console: http://localhost:8161/admin/

At this point, ActiveMQ is running and waiting for XMPP messages to arrive. We just need an IM client installed to start sending messages. Download and install Spark (http://www.igniterealtime.org/downloads/download-landing.jsp?file=spark/spark_2_0_0.exe). Note that I'm using v2.0.0.

After installing Spark, open it and enter the following at the login screen. Of course, you can use your own name, but put @localhost after your username and put "localhost" for the server.

Next, click on the "Advanced" link at the bottom of the login dialog. Within this screen, un-check the box for "Automatically discover host and port" and enter "localhost" for the Host and "61222" for the Port. Click OK.

Now click the "Login" button. After logging in, you'll see the following screen.

Next, we need to create a chat room. The chat room will auto-magically become a JMS Topic on the ActiveMQ server. From within Spark, there is a button underneath the "Online" indicator to "Join Conference Room". After clicking that button, you'll see the following dialog.

Next, click on the button for "Create or Join Room". You'll see the following dialog where you'll enter the name of the JMS Topic. I chose to name it CHAT.ROOM.

After clicking the "Create" button, click the "Join" button on the next dialog.

The next dialog will display the chat room window and show that you've joined the room.

The next step is to publish an IM message and watch it appear in our Spark client. To test this, go back to your browser where you have your ActiveMQ web console (http://localhost:8161/admin/). Click on the menu link that says "Topics". You'll see a list of JMS Topics on your ActiveMQ server and one of them will be the CHAT.ROOM Topic that you just created. Click on the link for that Topic.

After clicking on that link, you can post a message to the Topic by entering a message in the text area and clicking the "Send" button.

Now, if you go back to your Spark IM client, you'll see the message has been received by the client. That's it!