Instant Messaging Improvements

Support for XMPP (Jabber) MultiUser Chat

The XMPP provider now provides access to server chat rooms. Once connected to a XMPP server, the ECF Buddy List view provide a list of available chat rooms via the icon with small plus and 'C' in the upper right of the buddy list view:

Selecting this toolbar button will produce a list of chat rooms:

Interoperability with Google Talk IM

The XMPP provider now provides support for using your Google Talk IM/Gmail account. To connect to your google talk/gmail account, bring up the 'Join ECF Group' dialog via the ECF toolbar button :

Once logged into the account your Google Talk buddies will appear in the ECF Buddy List and you can IM them via the buddy list context menu

Support for Multiple XMPP (Jabber) Accounts

The Buddy List view now supports presenting buddy lists from multiple XMPP (Jabber) accounts. Opening up the 'Join ECF Group' dialog via the ECF toolbar button and connecting to multiple Jabber/XMPP accounts will present all the buddies for all connected accounts:

Team Collaboration Improvements

Access to ECF Collaboration Server Groups

The org.eclipse.ecf.example.collab plugin provides access to ECF generic server-provided collaboration groups. These collaboration groups provide access to multi-user chat, group file sharing, group co-web-browsing and a few other features. These collaboration groups can be joined with the 'Join ECF Group' dialog via the ECF toolbar button :

Or, the project context menu:

New ECF Provider Implementations

Java Messaging Service (JMS) Provider Implementation

An ECF provider that uses ActiveMQ's implementation of the Java Messaging Service is now available. To use this provider immediately, please contact the ECF team directly at ECF dev mailing list.

Zeroconf Discovery Provider Implementation

An ECF provider implementing the org.eclipse.ecf.discovery API is now available that uses the Zeroconf/Bonjour protocols. To use this provider immediately, please contact the ECF team directly at ECF dev mailing list.

ECF API Changes

Simplification of ECF Namespace Extension Point

The ECF Namespace extension point has been vastly simplified. This allows plugin developers to easily substitute their own Namespace implementation for the creation of ID instances. See the schema documentation in the org.eclipse.ecf/schema/namespace.exsd schema definition file or in the Eclipse ECF Developers Guide in the Eclipse Online Help.

Simplification of ECF Container Factory Extension Point

Previously, ECF provider implementers had to provide an extension for the ECF 'containerFactory' extension point, and this extension point required that the supplied containerFactory had to create instances of the ISharedObjectContainer interface. The requirements on containerFactory extensions have been simplified so to that they now only must produce instances that implement the much simpler IContainer interface. This makes it significantly easier for ECF providers to be created that have very simple and lightweight functionality, without requiring support for the distributed component model required by ISharedObjectContainer

API Method and Class Name Changes

A number of class and method name changes have occurred for consistency and API usability. For example, previously the core methods for initiating a connection with a single or group of remote processes was IContainer.joinGroup(). Now, it is IContainer.connect()

Revised Architectural Overview Documentation

See architectural overview documentation