The big picture
jabberd14 consists of a base executable (the jabberd binary) implemented inside in the directory jabberd. This base executable implements a router for XML fragments (called packets or stanzas). The routing at this level is in general not visible to the user of the Jabber server, but used by the components, that form the Jabber server to exchange such XML fragments with each other.
The other parts of jabberd14 are the components, which are all implemented in their own directories. These components are:
- The client connection manager, which task is to accept incoming TCP/IP connections from clients and forwards incoming stanzas from the client to an other component called session manager (JSM) and forwards packets from the session manager back to the client on the TCP/IP connection. The exchange of the stanzas between the client connection manager and the session manager is done using the routing functionallity provided by the jabberd executable. The client connection manager (historically sometimes called pthsock_client) is implemented inside the directory pthsock.
- The Jabber session manager, which task is to implement the visible business logic. It implements what is afterwards seen as the Jabber server and addressed by the domain used by this server. It maintains presence subscriptions, the presence of the current sessions of a user and forwards messages or stores them offline. The session manager is implemented inside the directory jsm.
- The DNS resolver (dnsrv) typically handles all packets on the XML router that have no configured destination on the router (which is as you remember implemented by the jabberd binary). It will try to resolve the destination domain using DNS and if a DNS entry is found, it tags the XML fragment with a list of resolved IP addresses and resends the XML fragment using the XML router to one (or many in case of clustering) component, that is then responsible for sending the XML fragment to another host. This other component is the dialback component as described below.
- The dialback component implements the interconnection between the local Jabber server and other Jabber servers using the server to server protocol of XMPP/Jabber. It establishes connections to other servers and accepts incoming connections from them. This component is implemented inside the directory dialback.
- There is typically at least one other component plugged into the XML router which is responsible for the persistant storing of data. This component handles special XML fragments router on the XML router. This special fragments are instructions for such storrage components and their replies to the requestor. There are two implementations of such a component inside the base package of jabberd14. The one implementation implements storing data to XML files and is implemented inside the directory xdb_file, the other implementation uses SQL databases to store data and is implemented inside the directory xdb_sql.
The components are compiled as shared objects (*.so files) and are loaded by the jabberd base executable on startup as configured inside the configuration file using the <load/> element inside <section/>s. Each section inside the configuration file defines one component.
