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I am looking for a chat client with the following functionality:

  • LDAP authentication: Users have LDAP id's and passwords and authentication shall be done from (an already established) LDAP server.
  • Multiple chat rooms
  • An option to get hold of transcripts for previous chats (much like SE chat)

Which chat client (that can be easily installed on an Apache server) would be apt for this?

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  • Just a random note - you can handle authentication with Apache, there's no need to have LDAP integration in chat client. However, integrated solution might offer better user experience. See for example this. – Olli Feb 11 '14 at 13:37
  • True! I guess authentication won't be much of a trouble. I might just mask the chat option with my own auth script. What about the other features? Any recommendation? – Ranveer Feb 11 '14 at 13:39
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    Are you looking for a client or a server or both? A client wouldn't normally run in a web server. Do you mean that the server-side component must run from Apache and the protocol must be over HTTP(S)? Please edit your question to clarify. – Gilles Feb 12 '14 at 14:43
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How about a combined setup?

Use a Jabber server that supports LDAP authentication (many do; we use ejabberd at work, which – together with its mod_shared_roster_ldap – can even pre-fill the roster with groups (such as, employees grouped by location) from the LDAP, and with mod_vcard_ldap which makes personal info such as first and last names, etc. available in the Jabber contact information).

Then, install Jappix on your webserver and configure it to connect to your local Jabber server. Users can then talk to each other (by text chat, or even audio or video chat).

Your users would even be able to skip the web thing and use their favourite Jabber client, so they would not need to be restricted to access it only on your webserver. They will love it (at least those who are a bit more technically inclined). Also, it’s a standard and open protocol.

For chat protocols/logging, I suggest a server-side solution (which will work unless someone uses something like OTR, E2E or PGP – but these are for one-on-one chats only, not the “MUC” multi-user chatrooms). Jappix also has a “save” button in which a user can opt to save their chat log.

If you want to permit talk only between people who actually have accounts on your server, you can disable the “federation” feature of Jabber, usually called “s2s” (server to server communication). We do that on our company Jabber server as well, since it’s for internal communication only.

Actually… this question gave me the idea of installing Jappix at work too ;-)

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