Figure 8.8. Displaying a build radiator view
8.7. Instant Messaging
Instant Messaging (or IM) is widely used today as a fast, lightweight medium for both professional and
personal communication. Instant messaging is, well, instant, which gives it an edge over email when
it comes to fast notification. It is also “push” rather than “pull”—when you receive a message, it will
pop up on your screen and demand your attention. This makes it a little harder to ignore or put off than
a simple email message.
Jenkins provides good support for notification via Instant Messaging. The Instant Messaging plugin
provides generic support for communicating with Jenkins using IM. Protocol-specific plugins can then
be added for the various IM protocols such as Jabber and IRC.
8.7.1. IM Notification with Jabber
Many instant messaging servers today are based on Jabber, an open source, XML-based instant
messaging protocol. Jenkins provides good support for Jabber instant messaging, so that developers can
receive real-time notification of build failures. In addition, the plugin runs an IM bot that listens to the
chat channels and lets developers run commands on the Jenkins server via chat messages.
Setting up IM support in Jenkins is straightforward. First, you need to install both the Jenkins instant-
messaging plugin and the Jenkins Jabber notifier plugin using the standard plugin manager page and
restart Jenkins (see Figure 8.9, “Installing the Jenkins IM plugins”).