XMPP getPresence() deprecated in 1.5.5... aaaaargh!

[Rori Stumpf]

I see XMPP getPresence() has been deprecated in favor of unnecessarily
complicated (for the task of checking presence) XMPP postbacks... so
now I have to build a little subsystem to track and maintain user
state, when state could be detected with 1 simple call in earlier GAE
versions. I don't want to catch and inspect every XMPP state change
from all users - that is a waste of billable resources.

All I want is to check, when necessary, that the user is present or
not. What was wrong with the code below? How about keeping it
simple... as with previous versions?

if (xmpp.getPresence(jid).isAvailable()) {
// do stuff
}

Working around the limitations of GAE is becoming increasingly
frustrating. Call me cynical, but all this deprecation does is
increase billable usage and create unnecessary code.

[Gerald Tan]

To make things more challenging, sending a PROBE presence usually won't get you an UNAVAILABLE reply if the user is offline :/

[Rori Stumpf]

Good news, Google is going to reinstate getPresence().
See http://code.google.com/p/googleappengine/issues/detail?id=6336