XMPP protocol is used to format the instant messages. The message bodies themselves may be wrapped in HTML.
In Instant Messaging, user information and preferences are retrieved from an LDAP directory. This directory can either be dedicated for use by Instant Messaging, or be shared by other components such as Access Manager or Portal Server. User data is typically retrieved using LDAP search functions. Instant Messaging deployments that make use of Access Manager and Portal Server make use of the same LDAP server.
Instant Messaging server-to-server and client-to-server communications occur over TCP/IP.
Instant Messaging uses SMTP to send messages to offline users.
Browsers use HTTP to retrieve Instant Messenger resource files from the Web server. Once retrieved, the browser reads the HTML and displays the contents of the files.
Instant Messaging 7 is an XMPP/Jabber client/server solution, able to communicate with XMPP-compliant servers, clients, and gateways. Gateways are available in the open-source community to enable communication between Jabber and AOL, Yahoo, and other instant messaging systems.