starting iChat session in iPhone from web app

Question

This is really just a "what-if" type question, so forgive me if it is either ridiculous or ridiculously easy...

I have a client whose site offers a "chat with a consultant" option that you see on many sales and support sites. We were wondering if there was a way that iPhone users (or any user, in theory, but mostly iPhone) could click this option and after giving the basic form info (name, question,etc) the actual chat itself could open up in the chat client.

1. Is this as simple as the "click here to send me an AIM message" syntax?

2. The XMPP (jabber) server is Openfire and the webchat uses the Fastpath plugin. Would this feature need to be enabled deeper than the page's HTML/PHP? Does the server/plugin need to modified as well?

3. Would this threaten the security of the XMPP server (which is behind a firewall and can only be accessed externally via the above plugin)?

4. Does this even sound like something that iPhone users would appreciate, or would it simply be confusing/obtrusive?

Sorry for the objective last question, but I'd hate to spend time on this only irritate users.

Referrals to resources and documentation welcome. I'm not looking for someone to walk me through the whole thing, I just want to get an idea of it can be done and where to start reading.

Answer 1

I'm a little confused by what you want to do - the user fills out a form on a web site and then they are put into a "chat room" on their iPhone?

This is possible. However all of them require that the user has already installed your app, so it may be a hurdle to what you are trying to do.

However if it's using a pre-existing chat service (such as AIM), you may already be OK if the user already has a chat client installed on their iPhone. You could launch the app using custom urls or push notifications - however, this is assuming that the app developer has enabled such hooks, and if so if they are published.

If you want to go with your own client, if the user is filling out the form on the iPhone, then on submission you could redirect them to a custom url for your application. From mobile Safari, this will directly launch your app. Note that the user must already have the app installed for this to work, or else they'll see an error, and it won't be a particularly user-friendly one.

Another way, if the user is filling out the form on their computer, is via push notification. Again, they must first have the app installed. They would receive a notification that, on acceptance, launches your app.

The final way, if the user is filling out the form on their computer, is that they would have to download your app first and run it, so that it could communicate with a desktop client of yours via network services.