Expressway MRA Jabber Contact Photos

[JEFFREY GODDARD]

We are using Jabber for Windows version 11.8.4 with contact photos displaying without error. Cisco Unified Personal Communicator LDAP Attribute Mapping in the IM&P server > Client Settings specify "thumbnailPhoto" for the Client User Field "Photo".

jabber-config.xml specifies <DirectoryServerType>EDI</DirectoryServerType>

There are several good videos on the topic up on YouTube from Jaime Valencia - PDI Technical Advisors. In an attempt to test getting photos to display through MRA, I copied jabber-config.xml and saved as jabber-config_test.xml with an additional <UdsPhotoUriWithToken>[URL]/%%uid%%.png</UdsPhotoUriWithToken>, I also added the web server to the HTTP Server Allow List in Expressway-C. Then, I placed a couple of photos on the web server for testing. Not all photos were copied from our AD as there are several hundred users. For testing, I specified the test jabber-config file in the Cisco Support Field for a test user's CSF device.

Questions: 1. Should Jabber for Windows clients continue to receive contact photos via EDI (LDAP) with this change? Our test user with a Windows client could only see the photos on the web server and not the LDAP photos.

2. Does the URL used in UdsPhotoUriWithToken tag need to publically accessible in order for the MRA clients to see them?

3. Is it necessary to not use LDAP (EDI) for photos with Jabber for Windows in order to support our MRA users?

[Patrick Sparkman]

MRA uses UDS for contact photos, EDI can't be used, there is a section that covers this in Collaboration Edge Most Common Issues.

It's also been asked several times in the forums:

jabber-contact-photo-mra

cisco-jabber-photo-using-active-directory-mra-expressway-scenario

jabber-doesnt-show-contacts-photo-when-connected-remotely

[ShankarP]

Hi there, was there any improvements around this or we still can't access the contact photos thro MRA ?

[Chris Deren]

As stated you can convert to using UDS and to get contacts to work with UDS you put them on a web server (i.e. IIS) with pic names matching usernames, i.e. johnsmith.jpg.