Re: [ecf-dev] Using ECF for STP project

[Scott Lewis <slewis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Karl,

Karl.Reti@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am a member of the new STP Project PMC (SOA Tools Project) and we 
> have been discussing ways of collaborating in the project and were 
> just about to setup an IRC when I came across the ECF project and was 
> wondering whether it made more sense for us to look at using ECF for 
> our needs?.

Well, you certainly are welcome (and, in fact, encouraged!) to do so.  
We even have an IRC provider at:  http://ecf1.osuosl.org (not 
distributed under EPL because of the library it depends upon).

> We don't know much about the project nor what it can do for us, so I 
> was hoping someone could help get us up and running (or point us to 
> information) so we can give it a try ??

Sure...the first thing to do is to download/install ECF (released 
version:  0.5.5):  http://www.eclipse.org/ecf/downloads.html

Then decide which IM/chat service(s) you wish to use (or multiple if 
that's what you want to do).  Currently with ECF you can connect to/use:

1) XMPP (jabber)
2) XMPP SSL (jabber over ssl)
3) Google Talk (xmpp underneath)
4) IRC (see provider above)
5) YahooIM (soon to be released on ecf1.osuosl.org)
6) ECF 'generic' server (for chat/url sharing/file sharing, basic shared 
editor support, etc)
7) JMS-based server

The ECF team now has access to a virtual server and bandwidth at 
ecf.eclipse.org, and on that server we are currently running 1, 2, and 
6.  We can and will setup custom (for your project/people) accounts, 
buddy list groups, chat rooms, and collaboration groups on the 
ecf.eclipse.org server for projects/project teams such as STP (i.e. 
foundation projects, committers, etc).  We can do this for the XMPP 
server and/or for the ECF 'generic' server.

Since with ECF you have access to the server code in '6 and 7' you can 
easily run/change these yourself...in fact, I would encourage your team 
to consider adding/contributing to the 6 and/or 7 server implementations 
(which, although simplistic, are functional and easily extensible...and 
it could benefit tremendously from work by STP team and proposed Corona 
project).

We currently can't run an IRC server on ecf.eclipse.org, so if you want 
to use IRC you are, of course, welcome to but it would have to be on one 
of the public IRC servers (but perhaps you would want both?)

The only caveat is that given that we are a small team (all part timers, 
and only 6 of us), we can only be so responsive WRT providing service 
(i.e. config/account mgmt, etc) on ecf.eclipse.org.  So if you have 
access to server resources specifically for your project team I would 
suggest that you consider using those...and use ECF-based clients to 
access/use them.

Thanks Karl.  Please contact me directly if you would like to discuss in 
detail or talk about coordination for use of the ecf.eclipse.org services.

Scott