Open Realtime
Ignite Realtime is the community site for the users and developers of open source Real Time Communications projects like Openfire, Smack, Spark, and Pàdé. Your involvement is helping to change the open RTC landscape.
Empowering Digital Sovereignty with Openfire: A Secure and Customizable Communication Platform
1 week, 3 days agoIn today’s interconnected world, digital sovereignty has become increasingly important for individuals and organizations seeking to maintain control over their data, infrastructure, and technologies. Openfire, an open-source, real-time collaboration (RTC) server that uses the XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) protocol, offers a secure and customizable communication platform.
About Openfire
Openfire, produced by the IgniteRealtime community, is a mature, robust and scalable XMPP server that facilitates real-time communication and collaboration. It supports a wide range of features, including instant messaging, group chat, voice and video calls, and file sharing. Openfire’s open-source nature and extensive plugin architecture make it a versatile and customizable solution for organizations of all sizes. Openfire’s compatibility with various XMPP clients, including but not limited to IgniteRealtime’s own Pádè and Spark clients, further enhances its versatility and utility.
Data Privacy and Security
One of the key aspects of digital sovereignty is the ability to protect sensitive information and ensure data privacy. Openfire provides a secure communication platform that supports end-to-end encryption, secure authentication, and fine-grained access control. By hosting Openfire in-house or on a private cloud, organizations can maintain control over their communication data and reduce the risk of data breaches or unauthorized access. Additionally, Openfire’s open-source nature allows users to audit the code and verify the security of the platform, further enhancing trust and transparency.
Customization and Flexibility
Openfire offers a high degree of customization and flexibility, enabling organizations to tailor the platform to their specific needs and requirements. With a wide range of plugins and extensions, Openfire can be easily integrated with existing systems and workflows, allowing users to create a communication environment that aligns with their unique processes and preferences. This enables organizations to maintain control over their communication tools and adapt them to their evolving needs.
Compliance and Regulatory Control
Openfire’s customizable and secure nature makes it an ideal platform for organizations operating in regulated industries or jurisdictions with strict data protection laws. By hosting Openfire in-house or on a private cloud, organizations can ensure that their communication data remains within their control and complies with relevant regulations. Furthermore, Openfire’s extensive logging and monitoring capabilities enable users to demonstrate compliance and maintain a clear audit trail of their communication activities.
Interoperability with Other XMPP Solutions
Openfire’s interoperability with other XMPP-based platforms and clients is another significant advantage. By supporting the XMPP protocol, Openfire enables seamless communication and collaboration with users on other XMPP servers and clients, fostering a decentralized and open communication ecosystem. This interoperability allows organizations to maintain control over their communication infrastructure while still being able to connect and collaborate with external partners, customers, or stakeholders. Moreover, Openfire’s compatibility with other XMPP solutions reduces the risk of vendor lock-in and promotes a more open and competitive market for communication tools.
Conclusion
Openfire offers a powerful and secure communication platform that supports digital sovereignty by enabling organizations to maintain control over their data, infrastructure, and technologies. With its robust security features, customization capabilities, compliance-friendly nature, and interoperability with other XMPP solutions like Pádè and Spark, Openfire empowers users to create a communication environment that aligns with their unique needs and requirements. As digital sovereignty continues to gain importance in today’s interconnected world, Openfire provides a valuable solution for organizations seeking to enhance their autonomy, privacy, and security in digital interactions.
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In January 2007, Ignite Realtime released the red5 plugin for Openfire which added the flash based open source Red5 media server as a plugin to Openfire (Wildfire). A year later, we added red5Phone, the first open source SIP based soft phone in a web browser.
Eighteen years later, WebRTC is now well established as the leading standard for audio and video conferencing and all that leading edge pioneer work here at Ignite evolved into Pàdé the web client, it’s supporting Openfire plugin and other plugins and clients supporting other audio and video use cases beyond meetings.
XMPP is now back in fashion and Openfire has always been a choice XMPP solution because it has the X factor. It is eXperienced, eXtensible, fleXible, eXperimental and eXciting and allowing use to easily integrate it with a wider diversity of signalling and media protocols and services.
However, the new attraction for XMPP is the push for open standards and messaging interoperability. Consequently, being able to also provide media (audio and video) interoperability in XMPP through Openfire will become one of the things we choose to focus on at Ignite going forward with audio and video communications. As previously hinted, we are moving forward with simplified, easy to maintain open standards that make media interoperability possible.
For now, that will be Online Meetings for audio and video conferencing services that have a web front end UI like Jitsi, Galene and BroadcastBox. For deeper integration into XMPP, that will be the Media Streams which is the XMPP wrapper to WHIP and WHEP.
In practice, it means development will stop on the Pade plugin for Openfire and all Jitsi based development and integration will only continue with Openfire Meetings plugin (ofmeet) which will become XEP 483 compliant. The Galene plugin for Openfire will also become XEP 483 compliant and both plugins can serve the new Online Meetings plugin for in ConverseJS web client.
The Openfire plugin called Ohun for audio conferencing is deprecated and a new plugin called OrinAyo which supports both music streaming and audio conferencing is in development and will become available very soon.
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Openfire 5.0.1 has been released!
Openfire, created by the Ignite Realtime community is a powerful chat server that lets you communicate in real-time with your team or friends. It’s like having your own private messaging solution, but with more control and customization options.
Following the release of Openfire 5.0.0 last week, a few annoying issues were reported. These are addressed in this new release:
- The Windows Launcher works again
- The bundled ‘search’ plugin is updated to address an issue in the admin console
- Certificate-based authentication can be used again with client connections
- Improvements were applied to the detection of invalid (‘ghost’) group chat users that originate from federated domains.
- The Admin Console translations for the French and Dutch languages got a significant update. Many thanks to the community members that provided those translations!
This update should be a drop-in replacement for version 5.0.0. You can find the installers in the usual places, like our Downloads page!
The 5.0.1 release of Openfire is a direct result of receiving contributions and feedback from the community. Keep it coming! As you can see, your effort, no matter how big or small, can have a direct result! Please join our community forum or group chat and let us know what you think!
Finally: GitHub appears to claim that this is our 100th release of Openfire/Wildfire. We’re not at all sure that’s an accurate count, but we’ll take the opportunity to celebrate anyway! 
Come join the celebrations in our chatroom! The fiftieth person to join wins a no-expenses-paid day trip to the nearest park bench!
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Slidge is an XMPP gateway designed to connect your account to third-party chat networks like WhatsApp, Telegram, or Matrix. It acts as a bridge, allowing you to send and receive messages with all your contacts directly from your single, preferred XMPP client.
This guide provides instructions to configure an Openfire XMPP server to work with Slidge and the Slidge WhatsApp plugin as an example.
Openfire requires configuration in its Admin Console to allow external components like Slidge to connect and to grant them the necessary permissions for features like file transfers.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, ensure you have:
- A running and accessible Openfire server.
- Administrative access to the Openfire Admin Console.
- Root or sudo access to the Debian/Ubuntu server where you will install Slidge.
- The Slidge Debian repository added to your system, as per the official Slidge installation instructions (Installation - Slidge documentation).
This guide used the below install method.
Step 1: Configure Openfire Services
You must configure Openfire to accept the bridge connection and handle file transfers before you configure Slidge.
1.1. Install and Configure HTTP File Upload Plugin
Slidge requires a working XEP-0363 HTTP File Upload component to send and receive images, videos, and other files.
- Log in to your Openfire Admin Console.
- Navigate to Server → Plugins → Available Plugins.
- Find the plugin named “HTTP File Upload” and click the green + icon to install it.
- After installation, navigate to Server → Server Settings → HTTP File Upload.
- Ensure the box for “Enable HTTP File Upload” is checked.
Take note of the configuration. For a standard setup behind a reverse proxy, your public URL might be https://upload.your.domain while the internal service address is httpfileupload.your.domain.
We will use this internal address later.
- Click Save Settings.
1.2. Enable External Component Connections
This step allows Openfire to listen for incoming connections from bridges.
In the Openfire Admin Console, navigate to Server → Server Settings → External Components.
- Ensure the service is Enabled.
- Under the “Allowed to Connect” section, define your new WhatsApp bridge:
- Subdomain:
whatsapp(This will create the JIDwhatsapp.your.domain). - Shared Secret: Create a new, strong, random password.
- Copy this shared secret to a safe place. You will need it for the Slidge configuration.
- Click “Add”.
Your Openfire server is now ready for Slidge.
Step 2: Install and Configure Slidge
Now, on your server’s command line, we will install and configure the Slidge packages.
2.1. Install Slidge Packages
As per these instructions: slidge/debian: Debian (unofficial) package bundling slidge-based gateways. - Codeberg.org
2.2. Configure common.conf
This file contains settings shared by all your bridges.
- Edit the file:
nano /etc/slidge/conf.d/common.conf - Set the following parameters:
admins=admin@your.domain upload-service=httpfileupload.your.domain user-jid-validator=.*@your.domain server=localhost #port=5347 #(default slidge setting) port=5275 #(openfire default)
2.3. Configure whatsapp.conf
This file contains the settings for the WhatsApp bridge specifically.
- Create or edit the file:
nano /etc/slidge/whatsapp.conf
(I just didmv /etc/slidge/whatsapp.conf.example /etc/slidge/whatsapp.conf) - Add the connection details to match what you configured in Openfire:
# The XMPP address of your bridge component jid = whatsapp.your.domain # The shared secret you created in the Openfire admin console secret = PASTE_YOUR_SHARED_SECRET_HERE legacy-module=slidge.plugins.whatsapp
Step 3: Start and Verify Slidge
Enable and start the Slidge WhatsApp service:
sudo systemctl enable --now slidge@whatsapp
Check the logs to ensure it started without errors:
sudo journalctl -u slidge@whatsapp -f
Step 4: User Registration and Login
From your XMPP client (e.g., Conversations, Gajim), discover the services on your server. You should see the “WhatsApp” bridge listed.
Register with the service.
The bridge (whatsapp.your.domain) will be added to your contacts. Send it the message login or qr.
(I just started a conversation with a new chat to whatsapp.you.domain and typed help, it gives a list of commands, follow these e.g register)
You may see warnings in the Slidge log about “IQ privileges not granted” for pubsub and bookmarks (XEP-0356).
Troubleshooting: Fixing Permission Warnings (not yet implemented in Openfire so can’t fix this just yet)
For good luck I also did this at the end.
sudo systemctl restart openfire
sudo systemctl restart slidge@whatsapp
We are thrilled to announce the release of Openfire 5.0.0, the latest version of our popular open-source XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) server. This release marks a significant milestone in our journey to provide a robust, scalable, and secure platform for real-time communication.
Openfire 5.0.0 comes packed with a host of new features, improvements, and bug fixes that enhance its performance, security, and usability. Here are some of the key highlights:
- Enhanced Security: We’ve made significant improvements to Openfire’s security infrastructure. These include the restoration and improvement of Certificate Revocation support, implementation of XEP-0421 for anonymous unique occupant identifiers in MUCs and updating Jetty’s embedded webserver for enhanced stability.
- Improved Performance: Openfire 5.0.0 is designed to handle larger loads more efficiently. We’ve optimized the server’s performance to ensure it can scale to meet the needs of your growing user base. Performance improvements include updating our network interaction layer with a recent version of Netty, optimizing database queries, and reducing duplicate code in multi-providers, resulting in a more efficient and responsive system.
- Plugin Updates: We’ve updated several of our core plugins to ensure they’re compatible with Openfire 5.0.0. This includes updates to our monitoring, clustering, and web-based chat client plugins.
- Bug Fixes and Improvements: We’ve squashed numerous bugs and added various features in this release, improving the overall functionality, stability and reliability of Openfire. Translations have been updated (and now include Turkish, Swedish and Italian), new group chat management features have been added, and parallelism when working with many federated domains has been improved, to name a few.
- Updated Java Requirement: Openfire requires Java 17 (or newer) to be installed.
Our deepest thanks go to NLnet Foundation for their invaluable support. With their funding and encouragement, we successfully implemented full IPv6 support and completed a robust security audit by Radically Open Security. NLNet’s mission to strengthen open and trustworthy internet infrastructure continues to make a real difference!
The changelog lists all of the changes that have been made.
We’re incredibly excited about this release and we can’t wait to see what you’ll build with Openfire 5.0.0. Whether you’re a developer looking to build a new real-time application, or an organization looking to improve your communication infrastructure, Openfire 5.0.0 has something for you.
As always, Openfire is free and open-source, so you can download it, use it, and modify it to suit your needs. We believe in the power of open-source software to drive innovation and we’re committed to continuing to support and develop Openfire.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this release, whether by submitting code, reporting bugs, or providing feedback. Your contributions are invaluable and we couldn’t do this without you.
You can download Openfire 5.0.0 from our website and check out our documentation to get started. We’ve also updated our community forums where you can ask questions, share ideas, and connect with other Openfire users.
Here’s to the future of real-time communication with Openfire 5.0.0!
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