Sun Java System Instant Messaging 6 2004Q2 Release Notes

Sun Java™ System Instant Messaging Release Notes

Version 6 2004Q2

Part Number 817-5935-10

These Release Notes contain important information available at the time of this release of Sun Java System Instant Messaging 6 2004Q2. New features and enhancements, known issues and limitations, and other information are addressed here. Read this document before you begin using Instant Messaging 6 2004Q2.

The most up-to-date version of these release notes can be found at the Sun Java System documentation web site: http://docs.sun.com/. Check the web site prior to installing and setting up your software and then periodically thereafter to view the most up-to-date release notes and product documentation.

These release notes contain the following sections:

Release Notes Revision History

Table 1  Revision History 

Date

Description of Changes

May 17, 2004

Initial release of these release notes.

June 24, 2004

Linux platform updates to these release notes.

About Instant Messaging 6 2004Q2

Sun Java System Instant Messaging delivers secure presence and extended real-time messaging, enabling communities of users to communicate and collaborate instantly and securely. It combines instant messaging capabilities with conferences, alerts, news, polling and file transfer to create a rich collaborative environment. It leverages an existing community, managed using LDAP, Sun Java System Identity Server or Sun Java System Portal Server.

Hardware and Software Requirements

This section lists the requirements for installing the Sun Java System Instant Messaging software. Before you install, ensure you have met the minimum hardware and operating system requirements. JRE 1.4 is supported by both server and client.

The following topics are covered in this section:

Server Operating System Requirements

This release of Sun Java System Instant Messaging supports the following platforms:

Server Software Requirements

This version of Instant Messaging is compatible with the following versions of other server software:

Server Hardware Requirements

The minimum hardware requirements for installing Sun Java System Instant Messaging are as follows:

Client Operating System Requirements

This release supports the following client platforms:

Client Software Requirements

On Windows, you can run Instant Messenger using the browser’s java plug-in from the following browsers:

If the client machine has Java 1.4 or a higher version installed, there are no additional requirements to use either Java Plug-in or Java Web Start. Netscape Navigator v7 as well as the recent versions of the Mozilla browser include Java v1.4 or higher. Internet Explorer does not include the latest version of Java.

If the client machine does not have Java v1.4 or a higher version installed, you need to install Java Web Start. You can download and Install Java v1.4. from the following location:

http://www.java.sun.com/j2se

You can download and install Java Web Start from the following location:

http://www.java.sun.com/products/javawebstart

HTML links can be exchanged over Instant Messenger and activated from the messenger by clicking them. When a link is activated, the messenger invokes a browser. Table 2 lists supported operating system and browser combinations:

Table 2  Supported Client Operating System and Browser Combinations

Operating System

Browser

Solaris

Netscape Communicator 4.7x or later

Red Hat Linux 7.x

Netscape 4.7

Red Hat Linux 8.0 or later

Mozilla 1.2 or later

Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP

no restrictions

Mac OS X

no restrictions

Client Hardware Requirements

Instant Messenger uses between 20 and 40 MB of memory on most platforms. You should estimate the memory requirement by including the requirements of other applications (including operating systems) used on the client machine. In most cases, at least 128 MB RAM is recommended in order to run Instant Messenger and other applications comfortably. This number becomes higher when using memory-intensive operating systems such as Windows XP.

Bugs Fixed in This Release

The table below describes the bugs fixed in Instant Messaging 6 2004Q2:

Table 3  Fixed Bugs in Instant Messaging 6 2004Q2 

Bug Number

Description

4795970

On Solaris, when the Instant Messaging server is used with Sun Java System Identity Server, the Instant Messaging server will not run under a user other than root.

This no longer occurs.

4849527

On Solaris, sometimes the multiplexor hangs during shutdown or refresh.

This no longer occurs.

4851386

If you backspace over the first character of a chat message, the entire message is deleted.

This no longer occurs.

4862326

Messenger uses all swap space on SunRay server.

In SunRay deployments, situations have arisen where a client session of one of the users consumed all the memory of the system. This problem no longer occurs if you are using Java 1.4.2.

Workaround:

Run the messenger as an application. Modify the following script for your environment, for example change file paths and server names as necessary, then make it available to users through the web server:

#!/bin/sh

# Location of Instant Messaging resource files

LIBDIR="./lib"

# Java command. Modify if necessary.

JAVA_CMD="/usr/j2se"

# Instant Messaging server name and port and the URL of Instant Messaging resources

SERVER=im.example.net:29909
CODEBASE=http://www.example.net:8080/im

# Language

if [ "$LANG" == "C" ] ; then
  $locale="en"
else
  $locale=‘echo $LANG | cut -d _ -f 1‘

fi

 

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${LIBDIR}:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

IM_CLASSPATH=${LIBDIR}/messenger.jar:${LIBDIR}/imnet.jar:
  ${LIBDIR}/${locale}/imbrand.jar:${LIBDIR}/${locale}/imres.jar:
  ${LIBDIR}/jcert.jar:${LIBDIR}/jnet.jar:${LIBDIR}/jsse.jar:
  ${LIBDIR}/imdesktop.jar:${LIBDIR}/icalendar.jar:
  ${LIBDIR}/javaws.jar:${LIBDIR}/imjni.jar

echo "Starting Instant Messenger on $SERVER ..."
  $JAVA_CMD -classpath $IM_CLASSPATH
  com.iplanet.im.client.iIM server=${SERVER}
  help_codebase=${CODEBASE}/${locale}/imhelp > /dev/null 2>&1

4949358

Unable to configure Instant Messaging to work with BEA Web Container.

The JAXP_HOME parameter is now included in imServiceConfigure by default. In addition, the Sun Java System Instant Messaging Installation Guide now contains instructions for creating the PASSFILE file.

Workaround:

1.  After you install, create a file named installation directory/SUNWiim/lib/PASSFILE. Where installation directory is the directory in which you installed Instant Messaging.

2.  Add the following contents to the file:
DS_DIRMGR_DN=Directory manager DN
DS_DIRMGR_PASSWORD=Directory manager password
DS_HOST=LDAP server hostname
DS_PORT=LDAP server port
DS_BASE_DN=LDAP server base dn

3.  Run the configure utility as described in the Installation Guide.

4949073

Running configure twice causes the configure utility to fail and generate errors.

This no longer occurs.

4951518

 

Instant Messenger fails to launch in locales with explicit country/locale code.

This no longer occurs.

 

4955266

Instant Messaging fails to start if SSL is enabled for Identity Server.

This no longer occurs. The following line was added to the imadmin script to fix this error:

-Djava.protocol.handler.pkgs=com.iplanet.services.comm

Important Information

This section contains the latest information that is not contained in the core product documentation. This section covers the following topics:

Installation Notes

See Table 4 in the Known Issues and Limitations section for known installation issues.

Compatibility Issues

6.1 Instant Messenger can communicate with this release of the server; however, the 6 2004Q2 Instant Messenger requires the 6 2004Q2 server. Server-to-server communication is compatible between 6.1 and 6 2004Q2 releases of the server. No changes are required to the server configuration (in iim.conf) and no migration of other server-related data is required. Refer also to the section on upgrading in the Sun Java System Instant Messaging Installation Guide and the Sun Java System Installation Guide.

Documentation Updates for Instant Messaging 6 2004Q2

The following are errors in the documentation:

Known Issues and Limitations

This section contains a list of the more important known issues at the time of the Instant Messaging 6 2004Q2 release.

Patch updates are issued on a frequent basis. If you encounter a problem while installing or using Sun Java System Instant Messaging, contact Sun Support to enquire about the availability of a fix for this problem. Alternatively, you may consult the Sun web site for patches:

http://sunsolve.sun.com

Table 4 lists the known problems and limitations:

Table 4  Known Problems and Limitations 

ID

Summary

4609599

Font customizations have no effect on Japanese or Chinese characters.

When using the Messenger client, if the Bold, Italic or Underline button is pressed prior to entering Japanese or Chinese characters, the buttons have no effect on the displayed font of the characters.

4632723

Idle detection is not implemented on Mac OS.

If a user leaves an Instant Messenger session, the user’s absence is not automatically detected.

Workaround:

Mac OS users need to explicitly set their presence status as AWAY, prior to leaving.

4684196

Cannot launch HTML file directly from an alert message on Mac OS.

Workaround:

In order for the link to work, users need to include the link in the message using the “include link” command instead of using “attach”.

4806791

Alerts with embedded images are not rendered faithfully.

When a recipient receives an alert with embedded images, the images are not centered and font information present in the accompanying text is lost.

4810627 & 5010677

When using the command-line installation, navigation back to a previous page is not possible.

During a command-line installation, a user should be able to return to their previous page of choices by entering a left-angle bracket (“<“) command. This does not work correctly.

Workaround:

Either use the GUI-based installer or restart the command-line installer and try again.

4822142

In certain situations, users are unable to communicate with one another if they reside on different servers. For example, after accepting an invitation to a chat from user1, user2 (who is on a different server from user1) is unable to post a message.

4822841

Presence access control does not work across federated Instant Messaging servers.

If a user is logged onto one Instant Messaging server (allowing everyone to access their presence by default) and subsequently denies presence access to another user (who is logged in to another server), the first user’s presence is still available even though it has been denied.

4823015

Keyboard navigation of server combo box does not work on the login dialog boxes.

Workaround:

Use the mouse to select the desired server.

4841572

Customizable statuses cannot be removed.

Workaround:

The least used statuses are eventually removed. To remove one immediately, add five new customized statuses; the oldest one will disappear.

4846542

On MAC OS, trying to print from the Java Web Start client hangs Instant Messenger.

Workaround:

Copy the message and paste it in some other application, then print.

4852719

On MAC OS, the drag and drop feature for moving contacts in the contact list does not work.

Workaround:

Be sure you are using JRE 1.4, available on MAC OS 10.3.

4852882

Instant Messenger Task Due Reminder has blank Reminder field if text/xml format is used.

If the Calendar server alarm type is set to text/xml, that is:

caldb.serveralarms.contenttype = "text/xml"

The Reminder field in the Instant Messenger Task Due Reminder alert window is blank.

Workaround:

Set this field to "text/calendar".

4858320

Confusing behavior when inviting a user to a conference when that user does not have the correct permissions to join the conference. It appears as if you invited the user, when in fact, the user never receives the invitation.

4860906

Can’t create conf_room/news using certain gb18030 characters

Since conference and news ACL file names are written using names fed from Instant Messenger, there is a problem creating ACLs when the names contain Tibetan or Arabic characters.

4861638

While installing the Messenger component, the installer may intermittently hang.

4870433

Some Conference Rooms may not appear if you change the locale in which the server runs.

4886774

Some Japanese characters cannot be displayed.

Workaround:

Use Java 1.4.2 or higher.

4918238

Asian characters appear very small in some parts of the Instant Messenger client.

Workaround:

Provide custom values as required for the following optional look and feel classes in imbrand.properties:

messenger.lookandfeel
messenger.lookandfeel.SunOS
messenger.lookandfeel.Linux
messenger.lookandfeel.Windows
messenger.lookandfeel.MacOS

4922347

There is no way to discern a read-only from a fully privileged user within a chat room. This may be confusing if a user attempts to send a message to a user with read-only privileges. The read-only user will not receive the message.

4929247

Users cannot send messages when a moderator has denied presence access for the user.

4929295

When multiple IM Policies are applied to a user, the policies may contradict one another. For example, when the "Regular" and "Conference Room Administrator" policy are attributed to a user, the user is unable to manage conference rooms.

Workaround:

Edit the regular user policy by unchecking the "Ability to manage conference rooms.” This will ensure that the two policies do not conflict.

 

4942415

On Solaris, you may receive an error message similar to the following while executing the configure script from the graphical user interface.

An unexpected exception has been detected in native code outside the VM.

Unexpected Signal : 11 occurred at PC=0xF16B2684

Function=XCreateIC+0x6C

Library=/usr/openwin/lib/libX11.so.4

Workaround:

Configure Instant Messaging using the command-line. See the Sun Java System Instant Messaging Installation Guide for instructions.

4944558

The Web Poll tab on the Alert window doesn’t display some web pages correctly. This is a limitation of the Java HTML renderer.

Workaround:

Send URLs using Message Creation tab instead of the Web Poll tab.

4963412

Uninstalling Help mentions a stop button, but no stop button available.

The online help provides erroneous instructions for stopping the uninstallation of Instant Messaging. Specifically, the instructions tell you to click Stop to stop the uninstallation. In fact, there is no stop button, and no way to stop the uninstallation.

4978293

In zh_HK locales, Instant Messenger displays English. The zh_HK locale functionality is unavailable at this time.

5004449

A series of harmless messages will display when running the configure program on Red Hat Linux:

Starting install wizard in Command Line Interactive (non-graphical) mode

WARNING: Cannot parse rpm files by running "/bin/rpm -qp --queryformat [%{FILESIZES} %{FILENAMES}

...

5010947

Instant Messaging multiplexor does not work without DNS.

Workarounds:

If the multiplexor fails after installation with the error:

Error while resolving server address

you need to do one of the following:

  • Enable DNS by ensuring that the hosts setting in nsswitch.conf file includes DNS before any other name service facility such as NIS. For example, hosts: files dns. On Solaris and Linux, by default the nsswitch.conf file is located in /etc.
  • Modify your /etc/hosts file to include the fully-qualified domain name and IP address of the multiplexor host. For example, <Multiplexor_IP_Address> multiplexor.siroe.com loghost, where Multiplexor_IP_Address is the IP address of the multiplexor host machine.

5027790

If end users log into Identity Server, enable SSO, and then attempt to invoke Instant Messaging through SSO, they will be asked to reauthenticate their logins.

Workaround:

In order for SSO to work properly, be sure that end users’ browsers are pointed to http://instant-messaging-codebase/IMLaunch.jsp and not jnlpLaunch.jsp or pluginLaunch.jsp when they access the Sun Java™ System Instant Messenger applet URL.

5032061

In the ja locale, attachments to Instant Messaging messages cannot be opened on SPARC and Linux platforms. Attachments can be accessed on Windows platforms and on MAC OS.

5038849

In the ja locale, line gaps between multi-line messages appear to be too large in the upper message pane.

5042732

If you uncheck the “Archive Everything” option in the Tools->Settings->Archive menu in the Instant Messaging client, the chat messages are archived.

5042884

End user is able to view archived data in search results; this is a problem with the archive provider.

5049867

On Red Hat Linux platforms, the Instant Messaging configurator is unable to locate certain files and directories. Certain file paths are incorrect.

5051260

When starting the Instant Messaging multiplexor on Windows 2000 platforms, it can unexpectedly terminate. You may see the following error message, “multiplexor.exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows. You will need to restart the program.”

5051295

In server-to-server communications, end users may be unable to unsubscribe to conference rooms.

5051299

In server-to-server communications, news channel access rights may not work for end users. For example, a user whose access is set to “NONE” is able to have “READ” access.

5051369

In server-to-server communications, an end user subscribed to a news channel on a different server is unable to chat with the message creator of the news channel.

5051371

In server-to-server communications, access rights for end users, such as “NONE,” “READ,” and “WRITE,” do not function properly in conference rooms.

5051377

If you try to explicitly grant and deny access to an end user through the Tools->Settings-> Access menu, it may fail in a server-to-server communication.

5055806

On Red Hat Linux platforms, using SSO over SSL through Identity Server for Instant Messaging will not work unless you use Java Web Start 1.4.2.

5057369

On Red Hat Linux platforms, the ens.jar file does not exist.

Workaround:

Copy the ens.jar file from another Communications server product (for example, Sun Java System Messaging Server or Sun Java System Calendar Server) and copy it to basedir/private/share/lib.

5057981

On Red Hat Linux platforms, the following problems occur with archiving: if you uncheck the “Archive Everything” option and uncheck “Archive Poll Results” in the Settings menu, polls are archived. If you uncheck “Archive Everything” option and uncheck “Archive Alerts and Replies” in the Settings menu, the alerts are archived.

5063258

The ldapjdk.jar file links to an inaccessible directory: /share/builds/components.

Workaround:

In the imadmin script, replace the existing ldapjdk.jar file with /opt/sun/server-console/5.2/java/ldapjdk.jar from the sun-server-console-5.2-3.i386 Administration console package which is automatically installed during the Java Enterprise Server Linux installation.

For example:

server_classpath=$PCD/imxmpp.jar:$PCD/imserv.jar:$PCD/imservres.jar:$PCD/improvider.jar:$PCD/imservice.jar:$PPrLD/activation.jar:$PPrLD/mail.jar:$PPrLD/ens.jar:$PPrLD/jms.jar:$PCD/icalendar.jar:$PCD/suncalendar.jar:$PCD/searchsdk.jar:$PPrLD/ldapjdk.jar:$PCD/imidutil.jar:${JAXP_JARS}

should be changed to:

server_classpath=$PCD/imxmpp.jar:$PCD/imserv.jar:$PCD/imservres.jar:$PCD/improvider.jar:$PCD/imservice.jar:$PPrLD/activation.jar:$PPrLD/mail.jar:$PPrLD/ens.jar:$PPrLD/jms.jar:$PCD/icalendar.jar:$PCD/suncalendar.jar:$PCD/searchsdk.jar:/opt/sun/server-console/5.2/java/ldapjdk.jar:$PCD/imidutil.jar:${JAXP_JARS}

Redistributable Files

Sun Java System Instant Messaging 6 2004Q2 does not contain any files which you can redistribute.

How to Report Problems and Provide Feedback

If you have problems with Sun Java System Instant Messaging, contact Sun customer support using one of the following mechanisms:

Please have the following information available when you contact support:

Additional Sun Resources

Useful Sun Java System information can be found at the following Internet locations:

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