System information

With the examples provided here serving as a springboard, you should be able to de-
velop rich applications that make use of sending and receiving messages via XMPP
servers. Some other dialplan applications and functions exist that may help in the de-
velopment of your application, such as JABBER_STATUS() (or the JabberStatus() dialplan
application), which is used for checking on the status of a buddy; the JabberJoin() and
JabberLeave() applications, which are used for joining and leaving XMPP conference
rooms; and the JabberSendGroup() application, which allows you to send messages to
an XMPP chat room.
chan_gtalk
The chan_gtalk module can be used for connecting to Google Talk (GTalk) clients or
for sending and receiving calls via the Google Voice network, which is a PSTN-
connected network where you can purchase minutes just like you would from any other
ITSP. GTalk is the web-based voice system typically found in GMail web interfaces.
Other clients and addons do exist for external applications such as Pidgin, but we’ll be
testing with the web-based client from Google.
As of the beginning of 2011, the Google Voice system can only be used
in the US.
chan_gtalk’s Cousin, chan_jingle
Another channel module that is similar to chan_gtalk exists, and that is chan_jingle.
Both modules utilize the same type of underlying system: XMPP signaling. However,
the chan_jingle module was written long ago and implements a specification that is
not widely supported. You may find the implementation of chan_jingle incompatible
with many endpoints, and thus at this time you may not find it all that useful. However,
work is being done to update chan_jingle to the current specifications, so it may be
more useful in a future version of Asterisk.
Before we can get connected to chan_gtalk, we need to make sure we’re connected via
res_jabber, so if you haven’t already done so, review “Connecting to an XMPP
server” on page 419 for information about how to connect to the Google XMPP servers.
Configuring gtalk.conf
Once we’re connected via res_jabber, we can configure the gtalk.conf file, which is
used for accepting incoming calls from the Google network. The following configura-
tion enables the guest account, which is required to accept incoming calls. There is
currently no support for authenticating incoming calls and then separating and sending
them to different contexts, which you may be used to from the configuration of other
Using XMPP (Jabber) with Asterisk | 425