[JDEV] [Overview 1.0]

[Jeremie <jeremie@jabber.org>]

Here is a QUICK intro to Jabber and the terms being tossed about.

Jabber is just a collection of applications that all speak a similar
protocol.  They come in different forms, and connect in different ways. 
The most important aspect of Jabber is it's ability to talk transparently
to other messaging services, so lets start there. 

Each "application" that can translate from Jabber(the protocol) to another
service such as ICQ or AIM is identified as a TRANSPORT.  A transport can
operate completely independent of any other element, except for the fact
that it needs to talk to other transports using Jabber. 

All of the transports on a physical server connect and talk to each other
through a single router-like application, it is called the JABBERBOX.  The
JabberBox simply passes chunks of the Jabber Protocol around to different
transports, and connects to other JabberBoxes to pass data to them if
needed. 

Now, there is a special Transport, the Jabber Transport.  This special
transport doesn't translate to other messaging systems, it IS a messaging
system.  It accepts connections from Jabber clients and uses a similar
protocol to accept data from them. 

So, if you are using a Jabber client, you will be connecting to a Jabber
Server(really just a Transport) which connects to the JabberBox on that
server.  If you need to send messages to another system(ICQ/AIM) or
another Jabber user, the Jabber Transport forwards it to the JabberBox,
which connects to the correct Transport for your data, and forwards it on.