Yet another XMPP Client for Android

First of all, git it from github: https://github.com/Buggaboo/android_xmpp_client

The features

• GreenDao, database access. Say goodbye to e.g. SQL injection exploits, crap manual data type conversions;
• Smack library (xmpp), modified for Android, with bugs, but not crashworthy;
• It vibrates messages to morse code; (3 june 2012: WIP)
• The messages can be translatable to different languages, just by leveraging the xml resources;
• Multiple provider support, i.e. connect with google, microsoft, meebo, whatever you want;
• Licence: GPLv3;
• Support for android api levels 10 thru 15 (from gingerbread to ice cream sandwich due to compatibility library, 80% of the android  market);
• Support for android api level 15 (pure ice cream sandwich, less than 10%);
• Support for fragments (12 june 2012: WIP);
• Support for android Notifications;

 

 

  The general design

• Sharing data between Contexts via the database: A context alpha (e.g. Activity or Service) pokes another context beta with an Intent with a Bundle payload containing the record id of a certain database table.
• To prevent competition for the same database resource, certain services take randomized naps, aka Thread.sleep(Long);
• A message entity has a buddy entity has a connection entity, i.e. I use foreign keys, to sort and group data etc., GreenDao generates all the code you need;
• BroadcastReceivers and ArrayAdapters work together to refresh your ListViews.

Known Issues

1.  There are no bounds on how much data is pulled from the database and rendered as a view, the ListViews are potential memory hogs;
2. There are no arbitrary limits on data input, which could eat all your memory;
3. I have not stress-tested how many connections can be kept alive at the same time, before thread-related issues arise;
4. I suspect that the smack library has its own issues with regard to Presence;
5. I have not checked  for memory leakages, I use nested classes for my BroadcastReceivers, I haven't checked for cyclical references, I don't understand fully how garbage collection on android works;
6. The vibrator notification can get annoying, or fun, depending on your mood.

Pstools part 2: preparing a client

After discovering pstools, I wanted to write a batch file to make clients more compliant to pstools. I got the grand idea of putting the batch file in the netlogon script of all the users; so all the clients would magically get compliant once a user logs on that specific machine. But alas, this plan fails, because you need system rights or admin rights to run the commands e.g. reg.exe and net.exe, to bore a hole in the local firewall (also, the group policies must be setup accordingly so that admin users have these rights).

To make a computer compliant you have to either image/ghost over the to-be compliant machine with an already compliant image or run this batch file and pray that it works. Or login with a superuser account on the target client machine and run this from netlogon (netlogon is to expedite things, but this is not compulsory), as I described earlier.

This command also works on most windows (professional edition) clients:

runas /user:administrator script.bat

or

runas /user:administrator@your-ad-network.tld script.bat

@echo off
REM Make pstools and rdp work on all client machines and add local superuser
echo "-- Make client compliant for pstools --"
REM pstools - make compliant from registry
reg add "hklm\system\currentcontrolset\control" /f /v SCMApiConnectionParam /t REG_DWORD /d 1
reg add "hkcu\software\sysinternals\loggedon" /f /v EulaAccepted /t REG_DWORD /d 1
reg add "hkcu\software\sysinternals\psexec" /f /v EulaAccepted /t REG_DWORD /d 1
reg add "hkcu\software\sysinternals\psfile" /f /v EulaAccepted /t REG_DWORD /d 1
reg add "hkcu\software\sysinternals\psgetsid" /f /v EulaAccepted /t REG_DWORD /d 1
reg add "hkcu\software\sysinternals\psinfo" /f /v EulaAccepted /t REG_DWORD /d 1
reg add "hkcu\software\sysinternals\pskill" /f /v EulaAccepted /t REG_DWORD /d 1
reg add "hkcu\software\sysinternals\pslist" /f /v EulaAccepted /t REG_DWORD /d 1
reg add "hkcu\software\sysinternals\psloglist" /f /v EulaAccepted /t REG_DWORD /d 1
reg add "hkcu\software\sysinternals\pspasswd" /f /v EulaAccepted /t REG_DWORD /d 1
reg add "hkcu\software\sysinternals\psservice" /f /v EulaAccepted /t REG_DWORD /d 1
reg add "hkcu\software\sysinternals\psshutdown" /f /v EulaAccepted /t REG_DWORD /d 1
reg add "hkcu\software\sysinternals\pssuspend" /f /v EulaAccepted /t REG_DWORD /d 1
netsh firewall set portopening TCP 445 ENABLE
REM md %windir% - give -c a location to push
REM net share admin=%windir%
EXIT

I also wrote the following script to create a default rdp (remote desktop) local admin user account to see from rdp what pstools is doing to the (remote) local user; Caveat! Don't let the password get intercepted:

@echo off
echo "-- Make client compliant for rdp (remote desktop) --"
REM "remoteadmin" user (XP machines, untested on vista or 7)
reg add "hklm\system\currentcontrolset\control\terminal server" /f /v fDenyTSConnections /t REG_DWORD /d 0
netsh firewall set service remoteadmin enable
netsh firewall set service remotedesktop enable
net user remoteadmin Supersecretpassword123 /Add
net localgroup administrators remoteadmin /Add
reg add "hklm\software\microsoft\windows nt\currentversion\winlogon\specialaccounts\userlist" /f /v remoteadmin /t REG_DWORD /d 0
EXIT