Spark 2.8.0
Spark is an Open Source, cross-platform IM client optimized for businesses and organizations. It features built-in support for group chat, telephony integration, and strong security. It also offers a great end-user experience with features like in-line spell checking, group chat room bookmarks, and tabbed conversations.
Combined with the Openfire server, Spark is the easiest and best alternative to using un-secure public IM networks.
The Ignite Realtime community has just released Spark 2.8.0 and it can be downloaded from Ignite Realtime: Downloads.
This is a major release marking the end of support for Java 7 (which has reached the end of life state more than a year ago). Full Spark installers have already been bundled with Java 8 for some time. Online installer won't work with Java 7 starting with 2.8.0 version. We recommend updating to Java 8. Underlying Smack library has been updated to the latest version in this release. Roar plugin has received new popup control options as well.
There is a huge list of changes in this version. So this most probably has introduced new issues (though we have tried to catch and fix most of them before the release). Please report in the forums, if you find them. Again, please do not post bug reports in the comments of this blog post.
For a complete list of changes please check Spark Changelog
As usually we encourage new developers to join Spark project and provide patches. Those familiar with Smack can join the development easier, as we are now on the current version of it (4.1.8 at the moment of this release). Patches can be attached in the forums or submitted as PRs on GitHub.
Here are the contributors to this release (besides myself):
Wolf updated Roar plugin to have separate settings for group chat and keyword matching popups, added system style popups
Alexander198961 · GitHub added option to save room's password, added URL support to admin's broadcast dialog
?????? added Ukrainian translation
nicoben (Nico Ben) · GitHub updated Italian translation
speedy fixed failed login process with self-signed certificates, updated Substance skin library, fixed an issue with idle on Windows 10 lock screen
Daryl Herzmann fixed Debian build
We owe Guus der Kinderen a separate mention. Guus has done a huge job of updating Spark to the current Smack version, which contains a lot of bug fixes, security patches and new features. He has also fixed many other issues along the way. Such as group chat window size issues, room occupants presence management, annoying word wrapping issue with long text lines, SSO/GSSAPI problems, etc.
Important information for SSO (Single Sign On) users, if they are using SRV records: SSO (Single Sign On) configuration changes with Spark 2.8.0
UPDATE: Important information for those having login issues with 2.8.0: Login issues with Spark 2.8.0
[SIP phone] SIP plugin is not working since the Smack 4 update. We hope to have it fixed for 2.8.1.
[Voice Chat] Jingle (PC to PC) calls are not working at this point.
[Linux] Flashing plugin is not working on Linux systems.
Here are sha1 checksums for the downloads:
6fa1265e7def8800e0a4356bd1b7d8cf58bb85f8 spark_2_8_0.dmg
741c20d9141c88ecde08d60fbc11145887d32573 spark_2_8_0.exe
b76e36da81469561fdad4a227fa4ad68d792ca7b spark_2_8_0_online.exe
e2fcdddb4e84f6f1abe9d62a39aa0c7c9e06d814 spark_2_8_0.tar.gz
a772028ba10db2084ea7e2b7b1fb408803c77a5b spark-2.8.0.rpm
38ca0d9ab5ccd7d61be03b702a0abd5c8939ada5 spark-2.8.0.src.rpm
fba8705d54f49bceb62f19a30348482f9bbeacfb spark_2_8_0.deb
The Ignite Realtime community has just released Spark 2.7.7 and it can be downloaded from Ignite Realtime: Downloads .
This is another minor release marking exactly one year since Spark project reboot (yeah, we also like to have Anniversary Update ). There are a few small fixes and updates in this release (as a regression with Idle presence, fix for OTR plugin, etc.). I want to use this chance to look back at the last year. Spark had 7 more releases since the 2.7.0 during that time. 100 tickets have been resolved. Some old patches have been applied (laying around in the forums and the tracker for years). We have also received new patches from around 10 new contributors. Which is great! We see that Spark project is often forked on GitHub, so we hope more developers will forward their patches and new features to the main project. There is also an official Wikipedia page for Spark now (and additional 6 languages linked to it) in hope to increase awareness of this project.
Here are the contributors to this release (besides myself):
For a complete list of changes please check Spark Changelog
Here are sha1 checksums for the downloads:
0d375c422bd86f9c8ded5484a173256871abaa26 spark_2_7_7.dmg
9f737012121432c20ca7db427051f29cbfca9734 spark_2_7_7.exe
39886c77a4b9821c2a12ea0b7623b9859e62d513 spark_2_7_7_online.exe
c62fe47aa89022b4d784245b833af7893b3e4897 spark_2_7_7.tar.gz
2e23a28d62cd37d6ab4c4a8befd19e765cea3a3b spark-2.7.7.rpm
5fde7df644950d414bb997f32034a68efeb22cec spark-2.7.7.src.rpm
[Voice Chat] Jingle (PC to PC) calls are not working at this point, but SIP should be improved.
[Linux] Flashing plugin is not working on Linux systems.
The Ignite Realtime community has just released Spark 2.7.6 and it can be downloaded from Ignite Realtime: Downloads.
In this release more patches went into fixing Mac OS X version (issues with Preferences, File transfer, etc.). Thanks to speedy for working on this. Also as part of fixing issues on Mac we have applied an experimental version of Libjitsi patch by cstux (Voice Chat module). We haven't been able to test, if it works better (or at all). So waiting for a feedback on this in . Thanks to Alexander198961 · GitHub for his patches fixing broadcast and other issues. Waiting for more from him.
For a complete list of changes please check Spark Changelog
Here are sha1 checksums for the downloads:
3ba0067ea2c106bbd78e97ac7b6cf8a01ebc648e spark_2_7_6.dmg
8a666aaddbb492e1018746cb8c69722f15464a70 spark_2_7_6.exe
69e0323f326552b717e35dd48df1280e965db3d7 spark_2_7_6_online.exe
f61120bf954435a84d9bac23cac21a8f0467cff8 spark_2_7_6.tar.gz
2af77b0c70202636942d0648836a218c8aa8cba1 spark-2.7.6.rpm
eaf3486bb24876905ade7725d92f560dfd2d2a86 spark-2.7.6.src.rpm
[Voice Chat] Voice chat module has received an experimental patch and still needs testing and probably not working correctly.
[Mac OS X] Installer is now bundled with Java JRE, so it is easier to start using it and many issues has been fixed.
[Linux] Linux version has issues with menu not showing up and chat window not opening normally on the latest Ubuntu version. Also flashing plugin is not working on Linux systems.
The Ignite Realtime community has just released Spark 2.7.5 and it can be downloaded from Ignite Realtime: Downloads.
This is a hotfix release to fix the issue with only first offline message showing upon login when using Openfire 4.0.0 as a server (or any other server which has dropped support for deprecated XEP-0091). Thanks a lot to csh for providing a quick fix for this issue.
At the same time speedy3k was tackling the long standing issue with an installer for Mac OS X. So we are adding that into this release. Please report issues with the installer at New Spark installer for Mac OS X needs testing (LOCKED). There is also a link in that thread to the list of issues in Spark when using on Mac OS X. You can test and report which issues are still present. The installer is not bundled with JRE yet, so you need to install Oracle's latest Java on your system.
Also thanks goes to another translator - swiftech · GitHub . This time for Chinese Simplified. And, of course, we thank akrherz for his continuous support fixing the builds and providing installers for the release.
We also wanted to bring another major update for this release. Updating Smack library to 3.4.0 (from 3.3.1). But it brakes Fastpath plugin in Spark as Fastpath's part has been moved to smackx-workgroup.jar in that version. Waiting for a patch to fix that, so we can move on to even newer versions of Smack.
For a complete list of changes please check official Spark Changelog
Here are sha1 checksums for the downloads:
4189825dfea042828fc4f9d866454c106b79c01f spark-2.7.5.rpm
75c69f904b12014d13ace57512ee69c51110ca91 spark-2.7.5.src.rpm
15468ac5a0422554510a0a0098e8457a3f03dd6a spark_2_7_5.deb
74431214ea99949e047fa7d07bd95725f2f17a3b spark_2_7_5.dmg
354155349298f0f81ce63de056753b80172a4a24 spark_2_7_5.exe
52e6f8e60ae5357a410e28654763f856e8e6cd8c spark_2_7_5.tar.gz
8a19459c92957558358a5e5372216dc389f9dd5f online/spark_2_7_5_online.exe
[Voice Chat] Voice chat is broken since the migration from proprietary JMF to free FMJ framework and there is no fix in the works. Spark project lacks good java developers.
[Mac OS X] There is now an installer available, but there are probably many other issues in Spark on this platform.
[Linux] Linux version has issues with menu not showing up and chat window not opening normally on the latest Ubuntu version. Also flashing plugin is not working on Linux systems.
The Ignite Realtime community has just released Spark 2.7.4 and it can be downloaded from Ignite Realtime: Downloads.
This update is a lot about updating translations (Russian, Chinese (Traditional), Lithuanian, etc.) and making some hardcoded parts of GUI available for translation. Also an old patch for proxy connection has been applied in this version, but it looks like Spark is ignoring proxy settings and connects directly instead. Needs more live testing (please report in the forums).
For a complete list of changes please check the official Spark Changelog
We are glad to receive patches from contributors on igniterealtime/Spark · GitHub. 6 of them included in this release. Thank you, guusdk (Guus der Kinderen) · GitHub, idma88 (Dmitrii Ivanov) · GitHub and gabriellelee. We hope more developers will find out about this and other Ignite Realtime projects and contribute patches.
Here are sha1 checksums for the downloads:
c8531c2a25b6f707df1ca95bae33f7c992c8376e spark-2.7.4.rpm
7e250a2f41d9c218929a601d389382f8ce0288b7 spark-2.7.4.src.rpm
a9718810e11947df15df208314713a1c93bbac8f spark_2_7_4.deb
7eae89de422a99588d1dc51bf9f07a34a5b6a1a6 spark_2_7_4.exe
364f716457d6070bbd5a4f531d531f97ffc80bed spark_2_7_4.tar.gz
b97ad875edeae2c12e4b09b849f2f500293da81a online/spark_2_7_4_online.exe
[Voice Chat] Voice chat is broken since the migration from proprietary JMF to free FMJ framework and there is no fix in the works. Spark project lacks good java developers.
[Mac OS X] There is no installer for Mac OS X (installer building system has issues with Mac OS X, also Spark has too many major issues on this platform).
[Linux] Linux version has issues with menu not showing up and chat window not opening normally on the latest Ubuntu version. Also flashing plugin is not working on Linux systems.
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