from Slavey Karadzhov on (2005-12-09 13:09:50)

Table of Contents

1. What Is This?
2. How Does It Work?
• Preparation
• Logging
• Exchanging messages
• Exchanging presence information
3. Limitations
• For Gmail users only
• Send presence on demand
4. Credits
5. Meta

What Is This?

With the help of Laffer you can turn your Gmail server to Instant Messenger Server and you can send and receive messages as easily and quickly as with other well known networks for instant messaging, like ICQ or MSN for example.

How Does It Work?

Preparation

First you will need Gmail account. Second you will need working installation of Laffer, version 0.3.2.8 or bigger, or you can use the Live Demo.

Notice: If you use installation of Laffer 0.3.2.8 or earlier download the following files Gmail.pm and GIM.pm and replace the files with the same name that are locate in modules/proxy/Net and modules/proxy/IM/ respectively.
Also you will need Net::SSLeay perl module for secure communication with the Gmail server.

Logging

Log in to Laffer Web Client(see this manual for help). You will see screen that looks like the one in Picture 1. Now let's connect with the Gmail server. Point the mouse pointer over the blue box with the text "Google Fake Instant Messenger" and click the left mouse button. This box is sub menu option of the "-- IM networks --" menu. A new menu below the Google box should appear with one active option - ONLINE. Look at figure 2. Click with the left mouse over the ONLINE item and new pop-up will appear that will ask you for your username/id and password that you use to log to Gmail servers. There is one checkbox "save username and password" in the login form.

Notice: If you check it the information about your Gmail username and password will be stored in encrypted form as a cookie on your browser. This information is NOT stored on the Laffer Server.

If your username and password for logging to Gmail servers are entered and correct press the "Connect me!" button. After seconds this window will disappear, if there is no problem with the connection to ICQ servers, or error text will appear on the top of the login form. Also notice that the small red box in the Gmail sub menu will turn to green when the connection is established.

If everything with the connection to the Gmail servers is ready you will start to see your Gmail buddies in the contact list. You will see only those buddies that have gmail accounts. See Limitations for more information.
If the negotiation with the Gmail server worked as expected then all messages from Laffer clients will be labeled LAFFER and will be stored with this label. So don't worry when you open you Gmail account and see that you have label LAFFER and filter to add special messages directly with this label. If you delete this label or filter Laffer will try to create them again next time you log in.

Notice: Don't delete LAFFER label and filter if you use Laffer at the same time. Otherwise messages will not be delivered correctly.

Exchanging messages

You can send instant message to buddy who is logged to Gmail via Laffer at the same time that you are logged so you can exchange instant messages.

Move the mouse pointer over the name of the user you want to send message. Click with the left mouse button and a new pop-up window will appear. This is the message window. At the bottom you will see text field for entering your message. Write your message and press ENTER to send it.
When you send your message it will disappear from the text field and will appear in the are above it. If the other side replies, the reply message will appear on this area.

Notice: There is no need to refresh this window. It is done automatically. In fact there is no need to refresh any window. Changes are made dynamically with the help of JavaScript.

Picture 3 illustrates short chat dialog. In fact Laffer sends specially formatted email message to the Gmail server. You can recognize Laffer messages in your Gmail box if you see subjects that begin with IM:MSG:..

Notice: You can exchange messages only with buddies in your contact list that have Gmail emails. See Limitations for more information.

Exchanging presence information

When you log Laffer doesn't send presence information to the buddies in you Gmail contact list. This is made in order to prevent sending extra "Laffer" emails. You will send/receive presence information when you send/receive message from your buddy.

To exchange presence information Laffer sends specially formatted email message to the Gmail server. You can recognize Laffer messages in your Gmail box if you see subjects that begin with IM:STAT:..

Limitations

For Gmail users only

For now the GIM module for Laffer is limited to exchanging message only with other users of Gmail. This means that you will see only gmail friends in your contact list and you can talk only with them.

Send presence on demand

You will send and receive presence status of other users in your Laffer::Gmail contact list only when you send message to them. Otherwise Laffer would have sent presence messages to all users in your contact list every time a change occurs which can causes a lot of stale messages in you Gmail account if you are not online at the moment.

Credits

Net::Gmail module is based heavily on Allen Holman's module Mail::WebMail::Gmail.
Net::Gmail is rewritten to use Net::SSLeay only as an external library.
Thanks to the Gmail guys for their excellent work.

Meta

Laffer is not endorsed by or affiliated with Google Inc.
This manual is written by Slavej Karadjov for Laffer Web Client(LWC) version 0.3.2.8 or bigger.
LWC is part of the Laffer Project.
LWC is free software under GPL license.

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