> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.process-one.net/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # ejabberd 18.12 - URL: https://www.process-one.net/blog/ejabberd-18-12/ - Published: 2018-12-05T23:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2024-09-17T13:50:34.000Z - Description: This new ejabberd 18.12 release includes new major features, but also several improvements and bug fixes. - Author: Jérôme Sautret # New features ## XML Compression in message archive storage [Message Archive Management](https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0313.html?ref=process-one.net) is a very nice features of XMPP. It allows your users to store their message history directly on the XMPP server. It is pretty handy, but as the feature set used by clients grows, the overhead of the message in the data store grow as well. This is due to the various XML flags that are added to the message, serving both as metadata for the server or the message recipient. We have added a custom compression to ejabberd to reduce the message size in the database. This mechanism uses custom compression algorithm operating on xml trees, which knows about most common tags used by xmpp, and allows better compression ratios that generic compression algorithms like zlib. For example, we will compress this: ```xml Hello there! thread1 ``` to: (everything represented as \[…\] is actually encoded as single byte) ```text [jabber:client message]["to"=recipient with suffix]test["from"=sender]["type"="chat"][children list] [jabber:client body]Hello there![end of a tag] [urn:xmpp:receipts request][end of a tag] [jabber:client thread]thread1[end of tag] [end of tag] ``` This feature can be enabled by adding `compress_xml: true` option inside mod\_mam module options. With this feature enabled, new messages added to archives are compressed. Depending on message pattern, the gain can vary. Your storage space can take between 35% of the original database size in the best case for typical standard message. In the worst case, the storage was still 80% of the original size, which is already an interesting saving. The worst case is typically triggered on large messages body, for example when the client use end-to-end encryption storage like OMemo (Encryption adds a significant data chunk that cannot be compressed). ## Proxy protocol support Ejabberd now supports version 1 and 2 of the [proxy protocol](https://www.haproxy.org/download/1.8/doc/proxy-protocol.txt?ref=process-one.net). This feature allows ejabberd to get clients real ip addresses and ports when running behind a proxy server which supports this protocol. It means that real IP addresses can be used for access control directly inside ejabberd, even when running behind a proxy. That feature can be enabled by adding option `use_proxy_protocol: true` in listeners sections which use ejabberd\_c2s or ejabberd\_http module. It’s important to make sure that this option is enabled on listeners that are used ONLY by proxy server which supports this protocol, otherwise connections will be closed due to protocol mismatch. ## MUC Self-Ping server optimisation (XEP-0410) When using Multi-User Chat across XMPP federated servers, the client view about its MUC rooms status is not always properly in sync with the server view (for various reason like server-to-server connection loss, crashes, restart, etc.). It is then recommended that the client sends periodically a ping probe to know if he is actually a participant in the remote server chat room or if it should rejoin the room. To make that feature totally reliable, proper collaboration of the server is required to skip a roundtrip in the self-ping flow and reply directly on behalf of the client. That way, you can expect to get a proper error reply or a ping response, making the features more predictable and easier to support on the client. It is also more efficient for the server. The server optimisation is automatically enabled on ejabberd 18.12. This self-ping packet is supposed to be send from the client to room that are hosted on remote servers, not on his own server. This kind of probe is not required in the context of [MucSub](https://docs.ejabberd.im/developer/xmpp-clients-bots/extensions/muc-sub/?ref=process-one.net), as the goal of MucSub is to provide a way to interact with MUC rooms that is not based on presence. We hope you will update your client to improve the reliability of your chat session in remote chat room. ## Bookmarks Conversion (XEP-0411) Ejabberd now supports a [new extension](https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0411.html?ref=process-one.net) which allows migrating to PEP-based bookmarks while keeping compatibility with clients that still use private XML storage by syncing both mechanisms. The synchronisation is performed whenever a client updates one of the two bookmark stores. However, until this happens for the first time, the bookmark stores of a given user won’t be synced automatically. A new command can be used to export the contents of the private XML storage to PEP manually. In order to do this for all users of all XMPP domains, a shell loop such as the following could be executed: ```bash $ for host in $(ejabberdctl registered-vhosts); do ejabberdctl registered-users "$host" | while read user; do ejabberdctl bookmarks-to-pep "$user" "$host" done done ``` Note that this might take a while if the number of users is large. Also note that this will overwrite any preexisting PEP bookmarks. However, if this is not performed, users might end up with empty bookmark lists after upgrading to the new ejabberd version, as clients might rely on PEP bookmarks once they detect that ejabberd’s XEP-0411 support. # Changes overview ## Important changes to web access ejabberd now supports a TLS-secured access to its web and **admin panels on a new port 5443** (previously, 5280). This means the **new URL to log into the admin dashboard is** `https://localhost:5443/admin`, if installed on `localhost`, of course. This is only relevant for new installation. The config file is not modified and it will not change anything for existing users. ## Configuration changes Since ejabberd 18.12, the option `ca_path` is deprecated and has no effect anymore. If needed, you MUST use the option `ca_file` instead. ## Database changes The MySQL database schema has changed for the pubsub\_item table: the ‘payload’ field has changed from TEXT to MEDIUMTEXT. Upgrade process is described in [the documentation](https://docs.ejabberd.im/admin/upgrade/?ref=process-one.net). # Download and install ejabberd 18.12 If you intend to upgrade your server, it’s recommended to wait for ejabberd 18.12.1 bugfix release, which will be available shortly. For brand new installations, go ahead with ejabberd 18.12. The source package and binary installers are available at [ejabberd XMPP & MQTT server download page](https://www.process-one.net/en/ejabberd/downloads/). As usual, the release is tagged in the Git source code repository on [Github](https://github.com/processone/ejabberd.git?ref=process-one.net). If you suspect that you’ve found a bug, please search or fill a bug report in [Issues](https://github.com/processone/ejabberd/issues?ref=process-one.net). --- Admin – Add new command unban\_ip – Enable mod\_proxy65 in default config – Avoid using \* in ‘certfiles’ option in default config – Remove references in default config to http\_poll; it was removed long ago – Report available options in lexical order – Fix missing file priv/lua/redis\_sm.lua – Fix push\_roster description and provide UTF8 example Documentation – New file CONTRIBUTING.md – New file CONTRIBUTORS.md – Rename README to README.md as the markdown version is the preferred one now Multi-User Chat – Get rid of ‘catch-all’ statements – Replace dict with maps to improve performance and memory consumptions of large MUCs – Recover logging of user joining room, lost in 32de9a56 – Affiliations other than admin and owner cannot invite to members\_only rooms – mod\_mam: Archive messages with type=normal and pubsub payload (like MucSub messages) – Advertise disco#info and disco#items by MUC room PubSub and PEP – Only advertise conversion feature when mod\_pubsub is loaded – Don’t suppress notifications on PEP node removal – Fix explanation in configuration file for enabling OMEMO support – MySQL: Use MEDIUMTEXT for PubSub payload, so it supports up to 16 MiB Tests – Improve tests for mod\_private – Fix test case for invalid language – Fix mod\_http\_apt\_test Miscellanea – Add ejabberd\_stopping hook, which allows modules to detect when ejabberd is stopping – Use newer fast\_tls that fixes some issues with tls1.3 – ejabberd\_captcha: Add specific Var names to CAPTCHA fallback form fields – ejabberd\_http: Handle some malformed URL requests – ejabberd\_http: Do no add 127.0.0.1 address to trusted\_proxies list by default – ejabberd\_logger: Disable debug logging of xmpp properly – ejabberd\_pkix: Move certificates processing code to pkix application – ejabberd\_regexp: Support Unicode – ejabberd\_stun: Add forgotten TURN options to validator – ejabberd\_sql: Relax result matching to fix pgsql keepalive – mod\_avatar: Reduce log level for too large avatars – mod\_http\_api: Don’t preprocess arguments, format\_args verifies and prepares them – mod\_http\_api: Recognize not\_exists error in http\_api – mod\_multicast: Local stanzas are routed one by one, not by multicast – mod\_multicast: Track presences sent via a multicast service – mod\_private: Add support for XEP-0411: Bookmarks Conversion – mod\_offline\_sql: Fix PostgreSQL compatibility in remove\_old\_messages – **web access with TLS security on new port 5443**