Chapter 7. Creating an XMPP Component
If you're ever going to build custom functionality or implement your own business logic on top of existing XMPP standards, arguably the best way to do it is by creating a component. XMPP components are software modules that run on the server side but do not require modification of the server itself. This means you can easily update or upgrade your XMPP server without your own code getting in the way. You can also easily move components to other servers. And when writing your own component, there isn't even a need to implement it in the same language as your server!
The specifications for components are laid out in XEP-0114 (http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0114.html), which covers the connection flow for a component.
In this chapter, we'll learn how components connect with servers, and then delve straight into building a very simple component that is able to respond to DISCO requests and pings and can echo messages back to the...
