---
title: "imc Module"
description: "This module offers support for instant message conference."
---

## Admin Guide


### Overview


This module offers support for instant message conference. It
follows the architecture of IRC channels, you can send commands
embedded in MESSAGE body, because there are no SIP UA clients
which have GUI for IM conferencing.


You have to define an URI corresponding to im conferencing manager, where
user can send commands to create a new conference room. Once the conference
room is created, users can send commands directly to conferece's URI.


To ease the integration in the configuration file, the interpreter of
the IMC commands are embeded in the module, from configuration poin of
view, there is only one function which has to be executed for both
messages and commands.


### Dependencies


#### OpenSIPS Modules


The following modules must be loaded before this module:


- *mysql*.
- *tm*.


#### External Libraries or Applications


The following libraries or applications must be installed before running
OpenSIPS with this module loaded:


- *None*.


### Exported Parameters


#### db_url (str)


The database url.


*The default value is "mysql://opensips:opensipsrw@localhost/opensips".*


```opensips title="Set db_url parameter"
...
modparam("imc", "db_url", "dbdriver://username:password@dbhost/dbname")
...
```


#### rooms_table (str)


The name of the table storing IMC rooms.


*The default value is "imc_rooms".*


```opensips title="Set rooms_table parameter"
...
modparam("imc", "rooms_table", "rooms")
...
```


#### members_table (str)


The name of the table storing IMC members.


*The default value is "imc_members".*


```opensips title="Set members_table parameter"
...
modparam("imc", "rooms_table", "members")
...
```


#### hash_size (integer)


The power of 2 to get the size of the hash table used for storing
members and rooms.


*The default value is 4 (resultimg in hash size 16).*


```opensips title="Set hash_size parameter"
...
modparam("imc", "hash_size", 8)
...
```


#### imc_cmd_start_char (str)


The character which indicates that the body of the message is a command.


*The default value is "#".*


```opensips title="Set imc_cmd_start_char parameter"
...
modparam("imc", "imc_cmd_start_char", "#")
...
```


#### outbound_proxy (str)


The SIP address used as next hop when sending the message. Very
useful when using OpenSIPS with a domain name not in DNS, or
when using a separate OpenSIPS instance for imc processing. If
not set, the message will be sent to the address in destination
URI.


*Default value is NULL.*


```opensips title="Set outbound_proxy parameter"
...
modparam("imc", "outbound_proxy", "sip:opensips.org;transport=tcp")
...
```


### Exported Functions


#### imc_manager()


Handles Message method.It detects if the body of the message is a
conference command.If so it executes it, otherwise it sends the
message to all the members in the room.


This function can be used from REQUEST_ROUTE.


```opensips title="Usage of imc_manager() function"
...
# the rooms will be named chat-xyz to avoid overlapping
# with usernames
if(is_method("MESSAGE)
        && ($ru=~ "sip:chat-[0-9]+@" || ($ru=~ "sip:chat-manager@")
    imc_manager();
...
```


### Exported MI Functions


#### imc:list_rooms


Replaces obsolete MI command: *imc_list_rooms*.


Lists of the IM Conferencing rooms.


Name: *imc:list_rooms*


Parameters: none


MI FIFO Command Format:


```bash
		opensips-cli -x mi imc:list_rooms
		
```


#### imc:list_members


Replaces obsolete MI command: *imc_list_members*.


Listing of the members in IM Conferencing rooms.


Name: *imc:list_members*


Parameters:


- *room* : the room for which you want to list the members


MI FIFO Command Format:


```bash
		opensips-cli -x mi imc:list_members sip:chat-000@opensips.org
		
```


### Exported Statistics


#### active_rooms


Number of active IM Conferencing rooms.


### IMC Commands


A command is identified by the starting character. A command must be
written in one line. By default, the starting character is '#'. You
can change it via "imc_cmd_start_char" parameter.


Next picture presents the list of commands and their parameters.


```c title="List of commands"
...

1.create
  -creates a conference room
  -takes 2 parameters:
     1) the name of the room
     2)optional- "private" -if present the created room is private
	   and new members can be added only though invitations
  -the user is added as the first member and owner of the room
  -eg:  #create chat-000 private

2.join
  -makes the user member of a room
  -takes one optional parameter - the address of the room -if not
    present it will be considered to be the address in the To
    header of the message
  -if the room does not exist the command is treated as create
  -eg:join sip:chat-000@opensips.org,
      or just, #join, sent to sip:chat-000@opensips.org

3.invite
  -invites a user to become a member of a room
  -takes 2 parameters:
     1)the complete address of the user
     2)the address of the room -if not present it will be considered
	   to be the address in the To header of the message
  -only certain users have the right to invite other user: the owner
    and the administrators
  -eg: #invite sip:john@opensips.org sip:chat-000@opensips.org
    or  #invite john@opensips.org sent to sip:chat-000@opensips.org

4.accept
  -accepting an invitation
  -takes one optional parameter - the address of the room - if not
    present it will be considered to be the address in the To header
    of the message
  -eg: #accept sip:john@opensips.org

5.deny
  -rejects an invitation
  -the parameter is the same as for accept

6.remove
  -deletes a member from a room
  -takes 2 parameters:
    1)the complete address of the member
    2)the address of the room -if not present it will be considered
	  to be the address in the To header of the message
  -only certain members have the right to remove other members
  -eg: #remove sip:john@opensips.org, sent to sip:chat-000@opensips.org

7.exit
  -leaving a room
  -takes one optional parameter - the address of the room - if not
    present it will be considered to be the address in the To header
    of the message
  -if the user is the owner of the room, the room will be destroyed

8.destroy
  -removing a room
  -the parameter is the same as for exit
  -only the owner of a room has the right to destroy it

9.list
  -list members in a room

...
```


### Installation


Before running OpenSIPS with IMC, you have to setup the database 
tables where the module will store the data. For that, if the 
tables were not created by the installation script or you choose
to install everything by yourself you can use the imc-create.sql
SQL script in the database directories in the 
opensips/scripts folder as template. 
You can also find the complete database documentation on the
project webpage, [https://opensips.org/docs/db/db-schema-devel.html](https://opensips.org/docs/db/db-schema-devel.html).
<!-- CONTRIBUTORS -->

### License

All documentation files (i.e. .md extension) are licensed under the Creative Common License 4.0
