Mercurial > pidgin
view doc/TCL-HOWTO.dox @ 25050:a03a953ba63d
* moving BOSH interfacing from jabber_send to jabber_send_raw
* sending BOSH stream restart after successful SASL login
author | Tobias Markmann <tfar@soc.pidgin.im> |
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date | Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:35:32 +0000 |
parents | 1414e0e01dc5 |
children | 73e827a93ae9 |
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/** @page tcl-howto Tcl Scripting HOWTO @section Intoduction NOTA BENE: This documentation is badly out of date for 2.x. The Gaim Tcl interface provides a Tcl API for many useful gaim functions. Like the perl API, the Tcl API does not provide access to every corner of gaim exposed by the @e C interface. It does, however, provide a very powerful interface to many of Gaim's functions through a simple to learn and extend scripting language. If you are not familiar with Tcl, you will probably find it somewhat different from what you are used to. Despite being somewhat unique (more akin to shell programming than other traditional scripting languages such as @e perl or @e python), it is simple to learn for beginners and experienced programmers alike. There are numerous books on the subject; we will not discuss it any further here. @section start Getting Started The only requirement placed on a Gaim Tcl script by Gaim is the existence of a procedure called @c plugin_init. This procedure has some limitations placed upon it; it will be parsed and evaluated before the rest of the Tcl script, so it cannot reference any other variables or procedures declared in the script. In practice this is not a problem, as the only thing this procedure should do is return a simple list containing five items: the @b name of the script, its @b version number, a @b summary (just a few words) of its function, a short (longer than the summary, but no more than a couple of sentences if possible) @b description, the @b author, and a @b URL to web page. For example: @code proc plugin_init { } { return [ list "Example Plugin" \ "1.0" \ "Example plugin registration" \ "Example of how to register a plugin for the Tcl HOWTO" \ "Ethan Blanton <eblanton@cs.purdue.edu>" \ "http://pidgin.im/" ] } @endcode The rest of the script will generally be registration to recieve notification of various Gaim signals (more about this below) and definitions of procedures to be executed when those signals occur. @section details Interpreter Details Gaim initializes and drives the Tcl event loop (similar to Tk), meaning that commands like @c fileevent and @c after are available and do not require @c vwait etc. The @c vwait actually seems to be somewhat broken due to a bug somewhere in the Tcl/Glib event loop glue, and it should not be used for now. The gaim-specific functions are provided in a statically-linked package called @c gaim; this means that if you spawn a child interpreter and wish to use the gaim-specific functions, you will need to execute <tt>load {} gaim</tt> in that interpreter. @section internals Gaim Internal Procedures and Variables All of the information provided for your use by Gaim will be in the @c ::gaim namespace. This means that in order to access it you will either have to import the gaim namespace (e.g. via the command <tt>namespace import gaim::*</tt>) or reference it explicitly. The following descriptions will reference it explicitly for clarity. @li Variables @code gaim::version @endcode This contains the version of the gaim process which loaded the script. @li Commands @code gaim::account alias account gaim::account connect account gaim::account connection account gaim::account disconnect account gaim::account find username protocol gaim::account handle gaim::account isconnected account gaim::account list ?option? gaim::account protocol account gaim::account username account @endcode The @c gaim::account command consists of a set of subcommands pertaining to gaim accounts. @c alias returns the alias for the account @c account. If there is no alias for the given account, it returns the empty string. The subcommand @c connect connects the named account if it is not connected, and does nothing if it is. In either case, it returns the @c gc for the account. @c connection returns the @c gc of the given account if it is connected, or 0 if it is not. This @c gc is the gc used by gaim::connection and other functions. @c disconnect disconnects the given @c account if it is connected, or does nothing if it is. @c find finds an account by its @c username and @c protocol (as returned by <tt>gaim::account username</tt> and <tt>gaim::account protocol</tt>) and returns the account if found, or 0 otherwise. @c handle returns the instance handle required to connect to account signals. (See <tt>gaim::signal connect</tt>). The @c isconnected query returns true if the given account is connected and false otherwise. The @c list subcommand returns a list of all of the accounts known to Gaim. The elements of this lists are accounts appropriate for the @c account argument of the other subcommands. The @c -all option (default) returns all accounts, while the @c -online option returns only those accounts which are online. The @c protocol subcommand returns the protocol ID (e.g. "prpl-msn") for the given account. The @c username subcommand returns the username for the account @c account. @code gaim::buddy alias buddy gaim::buddy handle gaim::buddy info ( buddy | account username ) gaim::buddy list @endcode @c gaim::buddy is a set of commands for retrieving information about buddies and manipulating the buddy list. For the purposes of Tcl, a "buddy" is currently a list of several elements, the first of which being the type. The currently recognized types are "group", "buddy", and "chat". A group node looks like: @code { group name { buddies } } @endcode A buddy node is: @code { buddy name account } @endcode And a chat node is: @code { chat alias account } @endcode The @c alias subcommand returns the alias for the given buddy if it exists, or the empty string if it does not. @c handle returns the blist handle for the purposes of connecting signals to buddy list events. (See <tt>gaim::signal connect</tt>). @c info causes gaim to display the info dialog for the given buddy. Since it is possible to request user info for a buddy not in your buddy list, you may also specify a buddy by his or her username and the account through which you wish to retrieve info. @c list returns a list of @c group structures, filled out with buddies and chats as described above. @code gaim::connection account gc gaim::connection displayname gc gaim::connection handle gaim::connection list @endcode @c gaim::connection is a collection of subcommands pertaining to account connections. @c account returns the Gaim account associated with @c gc. This account is the same account used by @c gaim::account and other commands. @c displayname returns the display name (duh) of @c gc as reported by <tt>gaim_connection_get_display_name(gc)</tt>. @c handle returns the gaim connections instance handle. (See <tt>gaim::signal connect</tt>). @c list returns a list of all known connections. The elements of this list are appropriate as @c gc arguments to the other @c gaim::connection subcommands or other commands requiring a gc. @code gaim::conv_send account who text @endcode @c gaim::conv is simply a convenience wrapper for @c gaim::send_im and <tt>gaim::conversation write</tt>. It sends the IM, determines the from and to arguments for <tt>gaim::conversation write</tt>, and prints the text sent to the conversation as one would expect. For the curious, you may view the source for it by typing <tt>info body gaim::conv_send</tt> at a Gaim Commander prompt. Note that an error in either @c gaim::send_im or <tt>gaim::conversation write</tt> will not be caught by this procedure, and will be propagated to the caller. @code gaim::conversation find ?-account account? name gaim::conversation handle gaim::conversation list gaim::conversation new ?-chat? ?-im? account name gaim::conversation write conversation style from to text @endcode @c gaim::conversation provides an API for dealing with conversations. Given that Gaim is an instant messenger program, you'll probably spend a lot of time here. The command @c find attempts to find an existing conversation with username @c name. If the @c -account option is given, it refines its search to include only conversations on that account. @c handle returns the conversations instance handle for the purposes of signal connection. (See <tt>gaim::signal connect</tt>). @c list returns a list of all currently open conversations. The @c new subcommand can be used to create a new conversation with a specified user on a specified account if one does not exist, or retrieve the existing conversation if it does. The @c -chat and @c -im options specify whether the created conversation should be a chat or a standard IM, respectively. @c write is used to write to the specified conversation. The @c style argument specifies how the text should be printed -- as text coming from the gaim user (style @c send), being sent to the gaim user (style @c recv), or as a system message (such as "so-and-so has signed off", style @c system). From is the name to whom the text should be attributed -- you probably want to check for aliases here, lest you confuse the user. @c text is the text to print. @code gaim::core handle gaim::core quit @endcode This command exposes functionality provided by the gaim core API. <tt>gaim::core handle</tt> returns a handle to the gaim core for signal connection. (See <tt>gaim::signal connect</tt>). @c quit exits gaim cleanly, and should be used in preference to the tcl @c exit command. (Note that @c exit has not been removed, however.) @code gaim::debug level category message @endcode Equivalent to the C gaim_debug function, this command outputs debugging information to the gaim debug window (or stdout if gaim is invoked with -d|--debug). The valid levels are, in increasing level of severity, @c -misc, @c -info, @c -warning, and, or @c -error. @c category is a short (a few characters ... for instance, "tcl" or "tcl plugin") "topic" type name for this message, and @c message is the text of the message. In the style of Tcl @e puts (and differing from @e gaim_debug), no trailing \\n is required. (However, embedded newlines may be generated with \\n). @code gaim::notify ?type? title primary secondary @endcode Also a direct equivalent to a C function, gaim_notify, this command causes gaim to present the provided notification information to the user via some appropriate UI method. The @c type argument, if present, must be one of @c -error, @c -warning, or @c -info. The following three arguments' absolute meanings may vary with the Gaim UI being used (presently only a Gtk2 UI is available), but @c title should generally be the title of the window, and @c primary and @c secondary text within that window; in the Gtk2 UI, @c primary is slightly larger than @c secondary and displayed in a @b boldface font. @code gaim::send_im gc who text @endcode This sends an IM in the fashion of serv_send_im. @c gc is the GC of the connection on which you wish to send (as returned by most event handlers), @c who is the nick of the buddy to which you wish to send, and @c text is the text of the message. @code gaim::signal connect instance signal args proc gaim::signal disconnect instance signal @endcode @c gaim::signal is a set of subcommands for dealing with gaim signals (known as "events" prior to gaim 0.68). The @c connect subcommand registers the procedure @c proc as a handler for the signal @c signal on the instance @c instance. @c instance should be an instance handle as returned by one of the @c handle commands from the various parts of gaim. @c args and @ proc are as in the Tcl @e proc command; note that the number of arguments in @c args must match the number of arguments emitted by the signal exactly, although you need not use them all. The procedure @c proc may be either a simple command or a procedure in curly brackets. Note that only one procedure may be associated with each signal; an attempt to connect a second procedure to the same signal will remove the existing binding and replace it with the new procedure. <tt>gaim::signal connect</tt> returns 0 on success and 1 on failure. @c disconnect removes any existing signal handler for the named signal and instance. @code gaim::unload @endcode This unloads the current plugin. Note that preferences will not be updated (yet). @section Signals Check the signals documentation for the meaning of these signals; this is intended to be a list only of their arguments. Signal callbacks will be made in their own namespace, and arguments to those signal callbacks will live in the namespace @c event underneath that namespace. To briefly illustrate, the signal @c receiving-im-msg is provided with three arguments; the account on which the IM was received, the screen name of the user sending the IM, and the text of the IM. These arguments live in the variables @c event::account, @c event::sender, and @c event::buffer, respectively. Therefore a callback which notifies the user of an incoming IM containing the word 'shizzle' might look like this: @code gaim::signal connect [gaim::conversation handle] receiving-im-msg { if {[ string match "*shizzle*" $event::buffer ]} { gaim::notify -info "tcl plugin" "Fo' shizzle" \ "$event::sender is down with the shizzle" } } @endcode Note that for some signals (notably @c receiving-im-msg, @c sending-im-msg, and their chat counterparts), changes to the event arguments will change the message itself from Gaim's vantage. For those signals whose return value is meaningful, returning a value from the Tcl event will return that value as it would in C. */ // vim: syntax=c tw=72 et