Welcome to the Kraken XMPP IM Gateway Project!

What is Kraken?

Kraken is a java based XMPP gateway. It provides a mechanism for communicating, via XMPP, with a large number of "legacy services", such as AIM, ICQ, MSN, etc. The single gateway implementation houses a number of transport implementations to individual services. Kraken also happens to be the continuation of the IM Gateway plugin for Openfire.



What are the primary goals of this project?

  1. Provide stable and consistent support for multiple IM protocols
  2. Integrate with any XMPP server implementation
  3. Provide as clean of an end user experience as possible



So what's different between this and the IM Gateway plugin?

The primary difference between Kraken and the original IM Gateway plugin is that Kraken will be able to function with multiple XMPP server implementations. The original plugin only worked with Openfire. With Kraken we will be able to run as a standalone application, as well as retaining the capabilities to run as a plugin to java based servers. The concept will be fleshed out in a more in-depth article in the near future. For now, you will not see all that much of a difference as Kraken will simply replace your existing IM Gateway plugin for Openfire.



Is the IM Gateway plugin going to be developed separately anymore?

No, not by me anyway. This project should replace it entirely, including retaining the clean integration and ease of setup with Openfire that you are used to.



Why the name Kraken?

Well, I thought of things that kind of illustrated the model of what Kraken does. I tended to have images of something with a lot of branches coming out of it, and I wanted something of a creature nature, and Kraken is a cool sounding name. In this case, the body represents XMPP, and the tentacles represent the various transports to legacy protocols.



Where'd you get that cool cutesy kraken logo?

My wife, Jessie, drew it for me! I've got no drawing skills what-so-ever and she does. =) It turned out looking exactly like what I was after! She also drew the image that ended up being used for the favicon.
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