One of Jabber's strengths is its simplicity. Neither the technology employed to build Jabber networks nor the protocol used to facilitate conversations within those networks is complicated.

The aim of this Chapter is to give you a good grounding in the technology and the protocol. In Chapter 1 we likened Jabber to chess: a small set of rules but boundless possibilities. And indeed it is the case. In this Chapter we cover identification within Jabber—how entities are addressed. Related to identity is the concept of resources; we look at how that relates to addressing, as well as it's relationship to presence and priority.

The Jabber protocol is constructed in XML, which is streamed between endpoints. We look at the details of these XML streams, and see how they're constructed.

And then there's the protocol itself. Comprising of surprisingly few fundamental elements, the Jabber protocol is small but perfectly formed. We'll review each element in detail.

With this Chapter under your belt, there's nothing else that's fundamental to Jabber that you must learn. Everything else is strategy, planning, and end-games.