Preface

XMPP has been around since 1999, and in that time has been rediscovered several times over by generation after generation of programmers. Originally started to unify what was a massively fragmented instant messaging scene, XMPP has continued to show its relevance as new technologies and technology uses emerge.

We'll be making use of the Prosody XMPP server, a fast, resource light system written in LUA, as well as Node.js to write our own projects. The two main libraries we'll be using to interact with XMPP are node-xmpp on the server side and XMPP-FTW, a translation layer between XMPP’s XML messages and JSON, which is massively popular for use in the browser.

Through this book, you'll learn about the core concepts of XMPP, build basic clients that will allow you to interact with the XMPP ecosystem at large, build time-saving bots, and even build an entire custom application using XMPP standards and your own extensions.

The skills you'll learn in this book will allow you to create the next massively popular chat application built on the core standards, through to your own full-fledged Internet of Things (IoT) device that will collect, share, and respond to data from interconnected servers all over the world!