RealTown Instant Messenger

December 7, 2007

Overview

RealTown is now running an Instant Messaging (IM) server to help RealTown members communicate with each other. The server is built upon the popular open-source XMPP (aka "Jabber") protocol used by popular IM's such as GoogleTalk and AOL Instant Messenger.

Connecting to the RealTown IM Service

To connect to the RealTown IM Server, you will need a Jabber-compatible IM client. Unfortunately, we do not have our own IM client (yet) but plan on developing one to provide seamless integration into the RealTown website (more on this below).

Fortunately, there are plenty of excellent free Jabber clients available on the web to choose from. My current favorite is Spark, developed by Ignite RealTime. You can download it here.

To connect with Spark (or your favorite Jabber-compatible IM client), enter in your RealTown Username and Password and specify "realtown.com" for the server. If you don't have a RealTown username, you can sign up for free at http://www.realtown.com/signup.

What Next?

When you first log in, your "roster" (aka "buddy list") will be empty. Feel free to add me if you wish. In Spark, click Contacts > Add Contact, enter "hector" for the username and click Add. If you are using a different Jabber client, your instructions may be different.

RealTown Integration

As mentioned earlier, the RealTown IM server is connected directly to the RealTown Members database, effectively allowing all RealTown members to log in with their existing credentials.

However, our plans for the near future include total integration with the RealTown website.

Our first project is to build an install-free web-based IM client. That means you will be able to log in directly to your chat client without having to download a separate program. A web-based client will be the core of the rest of our plans for total RealTown integration. Most of the integration will involve the RealTown Profile, allowing visitors to IM you directly.

For example, here is my online status icon:

If the icon is green, then I am "online". If it's yellow, then I'm marked as "away". If it's gray, then I am "offline."

If you have any questions or suggestions for RealTown implementation, please let me know.

View more entries tagged with: Realtown, Instant Messaging, Realtown Profile, Chat