avatar.py: XMPP avatars on the web

This script is a simple web service used to link HTTP URLs to XMPP avatars (used with vcard-temp).

Demo

A demo service is available at http://avatar.jeproteste.info/.

Images are available at http://avatar.jeproteste.info/avatar/<jid>; example:

Run

./avatar.py --jid service_jid@example --password service_password --port 8765 --host 127.0.0.1

will start a HTTP server listening on http://127.0.0.1:8765 and make a XMPP client connect to the account service_jid@example.com using service_password as a password.

A --avatar_prefix can be set, to add a URL prefix (by default avatar/) for the request (so the URL will be /avatar/jid@example.com).

Deploy

Avatars are mostly static, so it is a waste of CPU time and network resources to fetch them at every request. If is therefore highly beneficial to put the HTTP server behind nginx, which will act as a caching proxy.

proxy_cache_path /path/to/your/cache/dir keys_zone=avatar:20m max_size=200m;

server {
    proxy_cache avatar;
    proy_cache_valid 200 1h;
    proxy_cache_valid any 5m;

    listen 80;
    server_name avatar.example.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8765;
    }
}

Licence

This code is licenced under the WTFPL.