Welcome to Jaxl’s documentation!¶

Jaxl v3.x is a successor of v2.x (and is NOT backward compatible), carrying a lot of code from v2.x while throwing away the ugly parts. A lot of components have been re-written keeping in mind the feedback from the developer community over the last 4 years. Also Jaxl now shares a few philosophies from my experience with erlang and python languages.

Jaxl is an asynchronous, non-blocking I/O, event based PHP library for writing custom TCP/IP client and server implementations. From it’s previous versions, library inherits a full blown stable support for XMPP protocol stack. In v3.0, support for HTTP protocol stack was also added.

At the heart of every protocol stack sits a Core stack. It contains all the building blocks for everything that we aim to do with Jaxl library. Both XMPP and HTTP protocol stacks are written on top of the Core stack. Infact the source code of protocol implementations knows nothing about the standard (inbuilt) PHP socket and stream methods.

Users Guide¶

Getting Started¶

Requirements¶

No external component or library is required. You simply need a standard PHP installation to work with Jaxl.

Library has been developed and tested extensively on linux operating systems. But there is no reason why it should not work on other OS. File an issue if you face any glitches.

Download & Install¶

Download a stable tagged v3.x release from https://github.com/abhinavsingh/JAXL/tags

You can also checkout git branch and switch to a tag of your choice:

>>> git clone git://github.com/abhinavsingh/JAXL.git
>>> cd JAXL/
>>> git tag -l
>>> git checkout some-tag-name

To install Jaxl library globally, simply append path of the downloaded JAXL folder to include_path directive inside your php.ini. This will allow us to use Jaxl library simply by doing:

require 'jaxl.php';

Alternately, if you don’t want to edit php.ini or in case you don’t have access to the ini file, simply use:

require '/full/path/to/JAXL/jaxl.php';

to start using Jaxl library.

Library Structure¶

Jaxl library comprises of following packages:

jaxl-core

contains generic networking and eventing components

jaxl-xmpp

contains xmpp rfc implementation

jaxl-xmpp-xep

contains various xmpp xep implementation

jaxl-http

contains http rfc implementation

jaxl-docs

this documentation comes from this package

jaxl-tests

test suites for all the above packages

Inside Jaxl everything that you will interact with will be an object which will emit events and callbacks which we will be able to catch in our applications for custom processing and routing. Listed below are a few main objects:

Core Stack

JAXLLoop

main select loop

JAXLClock

timed job/callback dispatcher

JAXLEvent

event registry and emitter

JAXLFsm

generic finite state machine

JAXLSocketClient

generic tcp/udp client

JAXLSocketServer

generic tcp/udp server

JAXLXmlStream

streaming XML parser

JAXLXml

custom XML object implementation

JAXLLogger

logging facility

XMPP Stack

XMPPStream

base xmpp rfc implementation

XMPPStanza

provides easy access patterns over xmpp stanza (wraps JAXLXml)

XMPPIq

xmpp iq stanza object (extends XMPPStanza)

XMPPMsg

xmpp msg stanza object (extends XMPPStanza)

XMPPPres

xmpp pres stanza object (extends XMPPStanza)

XMPPXep

abstract xmpp extension (extended by XEP implementations)

XMPPJid

xmpp jid object

HTTP Stack

HTTPServer

http server implementation

HTTPClient

http client implementation

HTTPRequest

http request object

HTTPResponse

http response object

Questions, Bugs and Issues¶

If you have any questions kindly post them on google groups. Groups are the quickest way to get an answer to your questions which is actively monitored by core developers.

If you are facing a bug or issue, please report that it on github issue tracker. You can even contribute to the library if you already have fixed the bug.

JAXL Instance¶

JAXL instance configure/manage other sub-packages. It provides an event based callback methodology on various underlying object. Whenever required JAXL instance will itself perform the configured defaults.

Constructor options¶

jid

pass

resource

If not passed Jaxl will use a random resource value

auth_type

DIGEST-MD5, PLAIN (default), CRAM-MD5, ANONYMOUS, X-FACEBOOK-PLATFORM

host

port

bosh_url

log_path

log_level

JAXL_ERROR, JAXL_WARNING, JAXL_NOTICE, JAXL_INFO (default), JAXL_DEBUG

fb_access_token

required when using X-FACEBOOK-PLATFORM auth mechanism

fb_app_key

required when using X-FACEBOOK-PLATFORM auth mechanism

force_tls

stream_context

priv_dir

Jaxl creates 4 directories names log, tmp, run and sock inside a private directory which defaults to JAXL_CWD.'/.jaxl'. If this option is passed, it will overwrite default private directory.

Note

Jaxl currently doesn’t check upon the permissions of passed priv_dir. Make sure Jaxl library have sufficient permissions to create above mentioned directories.

Available Event Callbacks¶

Following $ev are available on JAXL lifecycle for registering callbacks:

on_connect

JAXL instance has connected successfully

on_connect_error

JAXL instance failed to connect

on_stream_start

JAXL instance has successfully initiated XMPP stream with the jabber server

on_stream_features

JAXL instance has received supported stream features

on_auth_success

authentication successful

on_auth_failure

authentication failed

on_presence_stanza

JAXL instance has received a presence stanza

on_{$type}_message

JAXL instance has received a message stanza. $type can be chat, groupchat, headline, normal, error

on_stanza_id_{$id}

Useful when dealing with iq stanza. This event is fired when JAXL instance has received response to a particular xmpp stanza id

on_{$name}_stanza

Useful when dealing with custom xmpp stanza

on_disconnect

JAXL instance has disconnected from the jabber server

Available Methods¶

Following methods are available on initialized JAXL instance object:

get_pid_file_path()

returns path of JAXL instance pid file

get_sock_file_path()

returns path to JAXL ipc unix socket domain

require_xep($xeps=array())

autoload and initialize passed XEP’s

add_cb($ev, $cb, $pri=1)

add a callback to function $cb on event $ev, returns a reference of added callback

del_cb($ref)

delete previously registered event callback

set_status($status, $show, $priority)

send a presence status stanza

send_chat_msg($to, $body, $thread=null, $subject=null)

send a message stanza of type chat

get_vcard($jid=null, $cb=null)

fetch vcard for bare $jid, passed $cb will be called with received vcard stanza

get_roster($cb=null)

fetch roster list of connected jabber client, passed $cb will be called with received roster stanza

start($opts=array())

start configured JAXL instance, optionally accepts two options specified below:

--with-debug-shell

start JAXL instance and enter an interactive console

--with-unix-sock

start JAXL instance with support for IPC and remote debugging

send($stanza)

send an instance of JAXLXml packet over connected socket

send_raw($data)

send raw payload over connected socket

get_msg_pkt($attrs, $body=null, $thread=null, $subject=null, $payload=null)

get_pres_pkt($attrs, $status=null, $show=null, $priority=null, $payload=null)

get_iq_pkt($attrs, $payload)

./jaxlctl¶

Usage: ./jaxlctl command [options...]

jaxlctl is a control script that can be seen as a useful tool for:

debugging daemons running in the background

customize daemons on the fly

monitoring daemons

as a playground for learning XMPP/HTTP and Jaxl library itself

Type ./jaxlctl help to see list of available commands.

Note

Various commands are still experimental. Know what you are doing before using them in production. You have been warned !!!

Interactive Shell¶

>>> ./jaxlctl shell
jaxl 1>
jaxl 1> // create a test message object
jaxl 1> $msg = new XMPPMsg(array('to'=>'friend@gmail.com'), 'Hello World!');
jaxl 2>
jaxl 2> // object to string conversion
jaxl 2> print_r($msg->to_string());
<message to="friend@gmail.com"><body>Hello World!</body></message>
jaxl 3>

Debug Running Instances¶

>>> ./jaxlctl attach XXXXX
jaxl 1>
jaxl 1> // create a message to be sent
jaxl 1> $msg = new XMPPMsg(array('to'=>'friend@gmail.com'), 'Hello World!');
jaxl 2>
jaxl 2> // this client is from the echo bot example
jaxl 2> global $client;
jaxl 3>
jaxl 3> // send the message packet
jaxl 3> $client->send($msg);
jaxl 4>
jaxl 4> // or we can directly do
jaxl 4> $client->send_chat_msg('friend@gmail.com', 'Hello World!');
jaxl 5>

Where XXXXX is the pid of running JAXL instance.

Logging Interface¶

JAXLLogger provides all the logging facilities that we will ever require. When logging to STDOUT it also colorizes the log message depending upon its severity level. When logging to a file it can also do periodic log rotation.

log levels¶

JAXL_ERROR (red)

JAXL_WARNING (blue)

JAXL_NOTICE (yellow)

JAXL_INFO (green)

JAXL_DEBUG (white)

global logging methods¶

Following global methods for logging are available:

_error($msg)

_warning($msg)

_notice($msg)

_info($msg)

_debug($msg)

_colorize/2¶

All the above global logging methods internally use _colorize($msg, $verbosity) to output colored log message on the terminal.

Cron Jobs¶

JAXLClock maintains a global clock which is updated after every iteration of the main select loop. During the clock tick phase, JAXLClock also dispatches any scheduled cron jobs.

Lets try some cron job scheduling using Jaxl interactive shell:

>>> ./jaxlctl shell
jaxl 1>
jaxl 1> function do_job($params) {
.......     echo "cron job called";
....... }
jaxl 2>
jaxl 2> $ref = JAXLLoop::$clock->call_fun_after(
.......     4000,
.......     'do_job',
.......     'some_parameters'
....... );
jaxl 3> echo $ref;
1
jaxl 4>
cron job called
jaxl 5> quit
>>>

We just saw a live example of a cron job. Using JAXLClock::call_fun_after/3 we were able to call our do_job function after 4000 microseconds.

Note

Since cron jobs are called inside main select loop, do not execute long running cron jobs using JAXLClock else the main select loop will not be able to detect any new activity on watched file descriptors. In short, these cron job callbacks are blocking.

In future, cron jobs might get executed in a seperate process space, overcoming the above limitation. Until then know what your jobs are doing and for how long or execute them in a seperate process space yourself. You have been warned !!!

one time jobs¶

call_fun_after($time, $callback, $args)

schedules $callback with $args after $time microseconds

periodic jobs¶

call_fun_periodic($time, $callback, $args)

schedules periodic $callback with $args after $time microseconds

cancel a job¶

cancel_fun_call($ref)

cancels a previously scheduled $callback

detecting bottlenecks¶

tc($callback, $args)

calculate execution time of a $callback with $args

XMPP Users Guide:¶

XMPP Examples¶

Echo Bot Client¶

include jaxl.php and initialize a new JAXL instance:

require 'jaxl.php';
$client = new JAXL(array(
    'jid' => 'user@domain.tld',
    'pass' => 'password'
));

We just initialized a new JAXL instance by passing our jabber client jid and pass.

View list of available options that can be passed to JAXL constructor.

Next we need to register callbacks on events of interest using JAXL::add_cb/2 method as shown below:

$client->add_cb('on_auth_success', function() {
    global $client;
    $client->set_status("available!");  // set your status
    $client->get_vcard();               // fetch your vcard
    $client->get_roster();              // fetch your roster list
});

$client->add_cb('on_chat_message', function($msg) {
    global $client;

    // echo back
    $msg->to = $msg->from;
    $msg->from = $client->full_jid->to_string();
    $client->send($msg);
});

$client->add_cb('on_disconnect', function() {
    _debug("got on_disconnect cb");
});

We just registered callbacks on on_auth_success, on_chat_message and on_disconnect events that will occur inside our configured JAXL instance lifecycle. We also passed a method that will be called (with parameters if any) when the event has been detected.

See list of available event callbacks that we can hook to inside JAXL instance lifecycle.

Received $msg parameter with on_chat_message event callback above, will be an instance of XMPPMsg which extends XMPPStanza class, that allows us easy to use access patterns to common XMPP stanza attributes like to, from, type, id to name a few.

We were also able to access our xmpp client full jabber id by calling $client->full_jid. This attribute of JAXL instance is available from on_auth_success event. full_jid attribute is an instance of XMPPJid.

To send our echo back $msg packet we called JAXL::send/1 which accepts a single parameter which MUST be an instance of JAXLXml. Since XMPPStanza is a wrapper upon JAXLXml we can very well pass our modified $msg object to the send method.

Read more about various XML Objects and how they make writing XMPP applications fun and easy. You can also add custom access patterns upon received XMPPStanza objects. Since all access patterns are evaluated upon first access and cached for later usage, adding hundreds of custom access patterns that retrieves information from 100th child of received XML packet will not be an issue.

We will finally start our xmpp client by calling:

$client->start();

See list of available options that can be passed to the JAXL::start/2 method. These options are particularly useful for debugging and monitoring.

Echo Bot BOSH Client¶

Everything goes same for a cli BOSH client. To run above echo bot client example as a bosh client simply pass additional parameters to JAXL constructor:

require 'jaxl.php';
$client = new JAXL(array(
    'jid' => 'user@domain.tld',
    'pass' => 'password',
    'bosh_url' => 'http://localhost:5280/http-bind'
));

You can even pass custom values for hold, wait and other attributes.

View list of available options that can be passed to JAXL constructor.

Echo Bot External Component¶

Again almost everything goes same for an external component except a few custom JAXL constructor parameter as shown below:

require_once 'jaxl.php';
$comp = new JAXL(array(
    // (required) component host and secret
    'jid' => $argv[1],
    'pass' => $argv[2],

    // (required) destination socket
    'host' => $argv[3],
    'port' => $argv[4]
));

We will also need to include XEP0114 which implements Jabber Component XMPP Extension.

// (required)
$comp->require_xep(array(
    '0114' // jabber component protocol
));

JAXL::require_xep/1 accepts an array of XEP numbers passed as strings.

Xml Objects¶

Jaxl library works with custom XML implementation which is similar to inbuild PHP XML functions but is lightweight and easy to work with.

JAXLXml¶

JAXLXml is the base XML object. Open up Jaxl interactive shell and try some xml object creation/manipulation:

>>> ./jaxlctl shell
jaxl 1>
jaxl 1> $xml = new JAXLXml(
.......     'dummy',
.......     'dummy:packet',
.......     array('attr1'=>'friend@gmail.com', 'attr2'=>''),
.......     'Hello World!'
....... );
jaxl 2> echo $xml->to_string();
<dummy xmlns="dummy:packet" attr1="friend@gmail.com" attr2="">Hello World!</dummy>
jaxl 3>

JAXLXml constructor instance accepts following parameters:

JAXLXml($name, $ns, $attrs, $text)

JAXLXml($name, $ns, $attrs)

JAXLXml($name, $ns, $text)

JAXLXml($name, $attrs, $text)

JAXLXml($name, $attrs)

JAXLXml($name, $ns)

JAXLXml($name)

JAXLXml draws inspiration from StropheJS XML Builder class. Below are available methods for modifying and manipulating an JAXLXml object:

t($text, $append=FALSE)

update text of current rover

c($name, $ns=null, $attrs=array(), $text=null)

append a child node at current rover

cnode($node)

append a JAXLXml child node at current rover

up()

move rover to one step up the xml tree

top()

move rover back to top element in the xml tree

exists($name, $ns=null, $attrs=array())

checks if a child with $name exists, return child JAXLXml if found otherwise false. This function returns at first matching child.

update($name, $ns=null, $attrs=array(), $text=null)

update specified child element

attrs($attrs)

merge new attrs with attributes of current rover

match_attrs($attrs)

pass a kv pair of $attrs, return bool if all passed keys matches their respective values in the xml packet

to_string()

get string representation of the object

JAXLXml maintains a rover which points to the current level down the XML tree where manipulation is performed.

XMPPStanza¶

In the world of XMPP where everything incoming and outgoing payload is an JAXLXml instance code can become nasty, developers can get lost in dirty XML manipulations spreaded all over the application code base and what not. XML structures are not only unreadable for humans but even for machine.

While an instance of JAXLXml provide direct access to XML name, ns and text, it can become painful and time consuming when trying to retrieve or modify a particular attrs or childrens. I was fed up of doing getAttributeByName, setAttributeByName, getChild etc everytime i had to access common XMPP Stanza attributes.

XMPPStanza is a wrapper on top of JAXLXml objects. Preserving all the functionalities of base JAXLXml instance it also provide direct access to most common XMPP Stanza attributes like to, from, id, type etc. It also provides a framework for adding custom access patterns.

XMPPMsg, XMPPPres and XMPPIq extends XMPPStanza and also add a few custom access patterns like body, thread, subject, status, show etc.

Here is a list of default access patterns:

name

ns

text

attrs

childrens

to

from

id

type

to_node

to_domain

to_resource

from_node

from_domain

from_resource

status

show

priority

body

thread

subject

XMPP Extensions (XEP)¶

Writing Custom XMPP Extension¶

Entity Discovery¶

Multi-User Chat¶

Direct MUC Invitation¶

In-Band User Registration¶

External Jabber Component¶

Entity Capabilities¶

Delayed Delivery¶

XMPP Over HTTP (Bosh)¶

HTTP Users Guide:¶

HTTP Examples¶

Writing HTTP Server¶

Intialize an HTTPServer instance

require_once 'jaxl.php';
require_once JAXL_CWD.'/http/http_server.php';
$http = new HTTPServer();

By default HTTPServer will listen on port 9699. You can pass a port number as first parameter to change this.

Define a callback method that will accept all incoming HTTPRequest objects

function on_request($request) {
    if($request->method == 'GET') {
        $body = json_encode($request);
        $request->ok($body, array('Content-Type'=>'application:json'));
    }
    else {
        $request->not_found();
    }
}

on_request callback method will receive a HTTPRequest object instance. For this example, we will simply echo back json encoded $request object for every http GET request.

Start http server:

$http->start('on_request');

We pass on_request method as first parameter to HTTPServer::start/1. If nothing is passed, requests will fail with a default 404 not found error message

Writing REST API Server¶