Spark 2.6.0 BETA Releases!

There are “some” noticeable improvements in 2.6.0 beta but I would really like to see this client optimized more for low end systems.it still seems to use 80+mb of ram at times and when first loading the contact list uses up 100% cpu until the list has loaded.

Also what ever happened to the plans for spark be made into a flash flex or adobe air based spark desktop client?

lets face it java is the main problem that impacts performance with the client and if the spark client was to be recompiled into flash flex or adobe air there would be less ram required etc.

correct me if i am wrong but it has been such a long time since a new version of spark came out and so far i’m not too impressed.

my company has also been considering a new im client for next year since this client just seems to use up too much ram etc

I was really hoping when i saw the beta release that it would have been the new flash or air client but seems i am sadly disapointed.

jcarson wrote:

Also what ever happened to the plans for spark be made into a flash flex or adobe air based spark desktop client?

Nothing i think. Plans are just plans. There wasnt any time frame given. I’ve heard only about some experiments done by Daniel in his spare time. And that’s about AIR. Flex is for web as far as i know? I think Flex is in use in SparWeb project, but that’s a browser based client. Actually, i cant say i’m waiting for AIR version, because i havent seen any AIR application (except examples) working. So, we cant know is it really the savior.

lets face it java is the main problem that impacts performance…

True and it always was (and i dont think any real improvements could be done in future) a bad thing for a GUI. I cant remember any java based GUI which didnt s*ck. In Spark case it looks nice, but it is still a bit slowly.

correct me if i am wrong but it has been such a long time since a new version of spark came out and so far i’m not too impressed.

November 14, 2007 is the date of 2.5.8 release. Spark development is slow now, mostly done by community member. There were no intentions or plans to make Spark suitable for low end systems with 2.6.0. Actually it never was designed for such systems and i think it cant. Because it’s Java. It just cant use 10 MB of RAM and be fast.

my company has also been considering a new im client for next year since this client just seems to use up too much ram etc

So i suggest to do so, find another client. We are using Exodus for 3 years now, and i dont think we will switch soon. Spark is improving (mostly features). Still counting it as a possible replacement. Especially when our hardware company wide will be better (more RAM, etc.).

I was really hoping when i saw the beta release that it would have been the new flash or air client but seems i am sadly disapointed.

Well, sorry for that. Just dont expect what is not possible. Spark will remain java-based and sluggish for a long. Any talks about AIR version can be started after official Jive annoucement that the work has been started and there is a timeframe/roadmap etc.

Thanks for the response anyways. I just really wish that this post from awhile back had come true.

It was after the post regarding the possibilities of a spark client based on Adobe AIR that had me hoping eventually that spark would at least work slightly better.

From what I understood that was the direction that jivesoftware was headed but maybe those plans all changed as you said.

Anyways my question about spark and Adobe AIR or Flash Flex was mainly based on what I had read in this post:

http://www.igniterealtime.org/community/blogs/ignite/2007/10/31/our-client-strat egy

Shown Below

Our Client Strategy

Posted by @matt

7 months ago

So, what’s up with Spark? Many of you have commented on the fact that

the pace of development has slowed and that Derek is less present in

the community. Now that a major new version of SparkWeb is out, it

seems like a good time to provide a more detailed status report on

everything happening around client development.

First up, an announcement: Derek has taken a new position (Sales

Engineer) inside of Jive. So far he seems to be loving it, but I’ll let

him comment on this blog post with further details.

Unfortunately, that means that Spark has lost its lead developer. For

the time being, other team members have stepped in to help out. We’re

committed to providing bug fixes and minor new fixes to Spark for the

foreseeable future. It remains one of the best cross-platform XMPP

clients available.

Since Spark development is slowing down, what’s next? Most of Jive’s

XMPP client efforts are now focused on the web via the SparkWeb Flash

client. We’re using the same technology base to add real-time features

to Clearspace. Further, the upcoming Adobe Air

technology offers the intriguing possibility of building a new desktop

client using Flash. To us, it all seems like the perfect triple play –

a single code base that can be used for Sparkweb, Clearspace features

and a new Spark desktop client. Only Sparkweb is ready so far, but

you’ll see new real-time features in Clearspace soon and we’ll keep

everyone updated on a desktop client based on Adobe Air.

Change isn’t always easy and I’m sure that some of you will be

disappointed to hear that our approach to how we build Spark is

changing. There may be some rough spots as we move from one technology

to another, but we’re pretty excited about where things are headed.

Actually, the plans are still in the works for the Air version of Spark. And yes, I’ve been working on it in my fair time. It’s not going to be some magic bullet that makes Spark suddenly use no ram and run on a 386 though. In fact the set of OSs that support Air are a little short right now. =/ I have a working proof of concept that I need to do some cleanup work on. Right now it basically looks like SparkWeb, split apart into desktop style windows. Nothing super cute. Right now the primary issue is, SparkWeb itself is undergoing a lot of fast improvements and the desktop version of it is sort of waiting for things to calm down. =) It’s pretty fun to work on though, I’ll definitely say that! Lends itself well for sharing desktop and web code.

Most likely Spark 3.0 will be the air version, if things go the way I want them to. If that happens, I’d like to see Spark Java gain a new name and continue on, since it’s a nice client and does a lot of cool stuff, just doesn’t fit everyone’s needs. =)

my god.The question fo Chinese account log has resolved!

my god.The question fo Chinese account log has resolved!

celebration!

jadestorm wrote:

I’d like to see Spark Java gain a new name and continue on

Maybe AIR version should get a new name (not spoiled with older Spark impressions ) SpAIR

Doubt that’ll happen.

This beta breaks for me. I currently use 2.5.8 with my ejabberd server and it works well.

I tried using this beta, and I am unable to logon.

Upon looking at the debugging screen, it looks like spark is trying to use an authentication method that my server is not advertising. (server advertises CRAM-MD5, spark tries to use DIGEST-MD5, or something to that effect).

If needed, I can reisntall the beta to provide more debugging information, just let me know.

Thank you,

-Greg

Hi,

great release that solves an issue with reconnecting to the server that was regulary failing after a network connection change. Now it does the reconnect much better. In fact it is not failing any more. Thank you for including Smack 3.0.5… Would be great, if you could remove the references to stun.xten.net in the Smack source code, to prevent Spark from using STUN, if the STUN services are supressed on the server.

Kind regards,

Walter

Smack 3.0.5? From what you can see that? It’s not released yet.

Hi wroot,

it’s displayed in the debug screen during 2.6.0 startup.

Regrads,

Walter Ebeling

The spark icon still does not display in the task bar on linux.

The fix for this is to fix the plugin.xml file in jniwrapper.ja. It currently has the line

<os>Windows, Linux</os>

If you remove the space after the coma the jniwrapper will load and the icon will displayed

Thanks for this, going to add it to the SVN on the next commit.

It’s good news (if) the reconnection logic is now fixed.

My main issue with Spark (even with the new beta) is the connection code; on a slower (i.e. non LAN) connection, after logging in Spark regularly ‘forgets’ to do stuff. i.e. sometimes I don’t get gateways shown, other times my avatar is missing.

It sounds trivial, but it means it can take 2-3 times to login correctly and have everything working.

DeeJay wrote:

on a slower (i.e. non LAN) connection, after logging in Spark regularly ‘forgets’ to do stuff. i.e. sometimes I don’t get gateways shown, other times my avatar is missing.

I would say this is not a connection issue. Spark behaves sluggish and loads stuff differently on system with different resources. SPARK-378

I’ve tried this with 4 different machines, all high spec (min 2Ghz, 1GB RAM) - 2 windows XP, 1 RHEL and 1 Mac OS x 10.5.3.

All work fine from the office but not from home over ADSL.

D

I agree with this assessment, as I’ve had issues even on a 2.33GHz dual-core machine with 4GB of RAM.

The only thing i can think of really is that Spark is attempting to do everything at once or the Openfire server is slow at responding or Spark is getting a lot of packet loss over the connection.

“Spark is attempting to do everything at once”

I think the same thing.

My company uses Openfire and we do not believe that the server is slow to respond especially since this is only an issue with the spark client being slow on the initial login and this has been an issue with spark all along no matter what version…

In one of my previous posts here I asked if there was any plans to make a spark client that would work well with low end systems.(adobe air spark client etc)

I did not clarify what i meant by low end systems but what I meant by low end is anything with less than a 2GHZ CPU and 512GB of RAM.

I personally use spark on My Core 2 Quad 2.5Ghz with 2GB of RAM running Windows XP and have the same issues with spark slowness upon login and this has been an issue on any system really so it seems to be a problem in the spark client. so…basically in my opinion it does not seem to matter if you have a decent system with a decent ammount of RAM because spark continues to be slow no matter what you have.

I really would like to see some serious performance improvements to spark and one of those would be to improve the process of loading the contact list and initalizing the various plugins upon login. I strongly believe that should be the area for spark DEV to focus most attention.

I can remember spark releases from over a year ago that I only upgraded to becuase there were changes listed that mentioned performance improvements.

Performance improvements is all i really look forward to in any new version of spark.

I dont really want everyone to think that I am just blasting spark because in reality i do like the spark client and it has some great features that other XMPP/Jabber clients do not but I think that as long as performance is an issue I am forced to jumb back and forth between Pidgin and spark on the occasions when instant messaging is a must. I also usually am able to connect using Pidgin if spark is to fail for whatever reason so I believe this is a spark client performance issue and not a server performance issue.