Chapter 5: Creating an Instant Technical Support Application

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The Jabber protocol allows you to develop applications for instant messaging between end users through the Jabber server. This chapter describes how to develop an Instant Technical Support application that allows end users to send messages to a technical support executive for online help.

Architecture of the Instant Technical Support Application

The Instant Technical Support application provides a user interface to send and receive messages by using a Jabber server. The Instant Technical Support application allows end users to change font, style, and size of the text.

The Instant Technical Support application uses the following files:

welcome.html: Creates the home page for the Instant Technical Support application.
signuppage.html: Creates a Web interface that allows end users to sign up for a new account.
loginpage.html: Creates a Web interface that allows end users to login.
Chathtml.html: Sends the information specified by end users to the ChatMainApplet.java file.
ChatMainApplet.java: Creates the user interface for the Instant Technical Support application that allows end users to establish a connection with the Jabber server. The ChatMainApplet.java file allows end users to communicate with the technical support executive connected to the Jabber server.

Figure 5-1 shows the architecture of the Instant Technical Support application:

click to expand: this figure shows the files that the instant technical support application uses and the sequence in which the application uses them.
Figure 5-1: Architecture of the Instant Technical Support Application

If an end user clicks the Sign up button on the home page, the welcome.html file calls the signuppage.html file, which allows the end users to sign up for a new account. The signuppage.html file provides an interface with various labels, text boxes, and two buttons, OK and Cancel.

If an end user clicks the Click here button on the home page, the welcome.html page calls the loginpage.html file, which allows existing end users to login. The loginpage.html file provides an interface with various labels, two text boxes, and the Submit button.