Adding Modules to Ejabberd Installation, Linux Statsdx

Ejabberd XMPP messaging server comes with a few modules with the initial installation. Some of these are useful however you can extend the features of the server a lot more by using additional modules.

There are a number of modules that can be downloaded from https://svn.process-one.net/ejabberd-modules/  , also there are a number of custom modules on the net, or you can even write your own; if you know erlang.

For example if you wanted some more useful user statistics for your server, rather than just the basic Statistics tab from the web admin page, that just gives you the following details:

Registered Users
Online Users
Outgoing s2s Connections
Outgoing s2s Servers

Why not install the statsdx module that gives you a lot more information.

All modules are installed into the /opt/ejabberd-2.1.5/lib/ejabberd-2.1.5/ebin directory however each module will have it's own set-up requirements written in the README.txt available in each module trunk directory.

To install statsdx :

change to /opt/ejabberd-2.1.5/lib/ejabberd-2.1.5 directory

run svn co https://svn.process-one.net/ejabberd-modules/ to get the latest modules

cd ejabberd-modules/mod_statsdx/trunk


run ./build.sh

copy generated beam file(s) from trunk/ebin directory to
/opt/ejabberd-2.1.5/lib/ejabberd-2.1.5/ebin


edit /opt/ejabberd-2.1.5/conf/ejabberd.cfg:

Scroll down to the section headed modules, this is where you enable each module on your server.


Append the following the the end of the enable modules:

{mod_statsdx, [{hooks, true}]}
(as instructed in the README.txt available with the module src files)

run ./opt/ejabberd-2.1.5/bin/ejabberdctl restart to restart the server instance

Browse to http://localhost:5280/admin/ to see you have more stats available under the Statistics DX tab, such as:

Registered Users
Roster Details
User details
MUC information
Sessions per client, OS, connection type, Languages

There are a lot more modules you can use to extend your basic Ejabberd installation, depending on what you want to do or know.

Installing Grails on Linux

Before installing or using Grails, set JAVA_HOME environment variable:

1. Add the following to  ~/.profile

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/local/jdk1.6.0_27/
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/jdk1.6.0_27/bin
Location will be where JDK is installed to.

2. Log out and back in again, run echo $JAVA_HOME and echo $PATH to confirm. Also check by typing java -version.

To install Grails:

1. Download grails from http://www.grails.org/Download
2. Extract the archive into a home directory. Typically /usr/local in Linux
3. Append a reference to grails as a variable, as with JAVA_HOME above

export GRAILS_HOME=/usr/local/grails-1.3.7/
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/grails-1.3.7/bin

Location path will be the directory you saved the extracted files to.

4. Log out and back in again.
5. Type grails in a terminal window to test. You should see:


Welcome to Grails 1.3.5 - http://grails.org/
Licensed under Apache Standard License 2.0
Grails home is set to: /home/lee/grails-1.3.5

No script name specified. Use 'grails help' for more info or 'grails interactive' to enter interactive mode

You can now begin writing grails applications

Installing Eclipse IDE onto Ububtu Linux

Rather than just using a basic text editor for writing java language applications, or an other programming language, it is always good to use an IDE. The following explains how to install the Eclipse IDE on an Ubuntu machine. Similar setup applies to most Linux flavors:

1. Download eclipse from the download site, http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/packages/eclipse-ide-java-developers/heliossr1

2. Extract the contents:
tar xzf eclipse-java-helios-SR1-linux-gtk.tar

3. Moved the extracted contents to /opt
sudo mv eclipse /opt/eclipse

4. Change permissions and create executable
sudo chmod +rx
sudo touch /usr/bin/eclipse
sudo chmod 755 /usr/bin/eclipse
sudoedit /usr/bin/eclipse

Input the following contents:


#!/bin/sh
export ECLIPSE_HOME="/opt/eclipse"

$ECLIPSE_HOME/eclipse $* 

5. If you want a menu item:
sudoedit /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop

with the following contents:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Eclipse
Comment=Eclipse IDE
Exec=eclipse
Icon=/opt/eclipse/icon.xpm
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=GNOME;Application;Development;
StartupNotify=true


Now run from the programming menu under applications. 

Installing Java SDK Linux - Ubuntu

Having never used Linux before when you first starting using any Linux flavor, even the most simplest of tasks performed under Microsoft operating systems can cause you some trouble.

For programming and general purpose user I required  Java JDK and JRE installed on my Ubuntu machine. See basic steps below on how this install takes place.

Installation of Java JRE

You can download the source code or self extracting binaries from the Sun Java site, however the quickest way on this OS is to complete the following:

1. Open a terminal window
2. Run sudo vi '/etc/apt/sources.list'
3. Add the following line to the bottom of the file:
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ lucid partner
4. Run sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-fonts
5. Accept all license terms etc..
6. Run java from terminal window to confirm installation

Installation of Java JDK (for developers)


You can download the source code or self extracting binaries from the Sun Java site, however the  quickest way on this OS is to complete the following:

1. Open a terminal window
2. Run sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk
3. Run java -version to confirm installation

Introduction

I intend to use this blog to write simple instructions and setup procedures that I have completed in order to get various IT solutions in place.
I will document basic software installations right through to steps taken in order to get various applications to communicate with each other.

Having worked as an IT Support technician for Microsoft based products I decided that it was time for a complete turn around and for me to learn Unix, Linux, open source solutions and programming.

Not only will this be a reference for all you, I can use this blog as as documentation for myself if I need to complete these installations again.