annotate plugins/HOWTO @ 7011:4375bf2d9020

[gaim-migrate @ 7574] The user-visible changes? Gaim now shows peep's away messages in their tooltip for AIM over oscar. Things to do: -Make sure this doesn't screw up with huge buddy lists -Replace %n with your screen name, etc. in the tooltip -Leave in b, i, u tags in the tooltip -Fix the 2 8 byte memleaks in locate.c Client authors that aren't me will want to read the following pretty closely... I made some internal libfaim changes. I desire to make libfaim cleaner. I don't know if this really helps or not. Here's what I've done: Changed all the SNAC-sending functions in info.c to NOT take a conn argument. The connection is looked up from the session. I'm trying to make oscar.c less-aware of connections. Added aim_locate_finduserinfo() - Use for getting the aim_userinfo_t for the given screenname. Added aim_locate_getinfoshort() - Use this to request that the servers send you profile info, away message, caps, or a combination of the above. It's like aim_locate_getinfo() but less rate limited. Renamed aim_bos_reqlocaterights() to aim_locate_reqrights() Renamed aim_getinfo() to aim_locate_getinfo() Renamed aim_setdirectoryinfo() to aim_locate_setdirinfo() Renamed aim_0002_000b() to aim_locate_000b() Renamed aim_setuserinterests() to aim_locate_setinterests() Removed aim_userinfo_sn() Removed aim_userinfo_flags() Removed aim_userinfo_idle() Removed aim_userinfo_warnlevel() Removed aim_userinfo_createtime() Removed aim_userinfo_membersince() Removed aim_userinfo_onlinesince() Removed aim_userinfo_sessionlen() Removed aim_userinfo_hascap() Renamed info.c to locate.c Made locate.c keep a static, linked list of nodes of sn, away message, available message, user info. This list is maintained by libfaim automatically. Now clients don't have to keep track of all this stuff themselves, and users won't have to wait for away message/info retrieval if the person is in your buddy list. libfaim uses the iChat way of retrieving stuff, which is not nearly as rate limited as the old way. I actually have a feeling WinAIM uses the same SNAC now (although I didn't check), but I like pluggin iChat because it's innovative. Moved sess->emailinfo to a static variable inside email.c. Removed evilhack from oscar.c I think that's about everything... committer: Tailor Script <[e-mail]>

Ok, this howto is going to be really short and sweet and to the point.

First off, before you do anything else, in all of the files for your plugin,
put the lines

#define GAIM_PLUGINS
#include "gaim.h"

I mean this. Without this, all kinds of things will not work correctly. If you
really want to know exactly what this does, read ../src/gaim.h and learn. But
if you don't want to do that, just know that it's important.

Now that you've put that there, make sure gaim.h is in your include path.

Ok, now you're ready to write the plugin.

The only function that is required is gaim_plugin_init(GModule *). This gets
called as soon as it gets loaded (sort of - man dlopen for more details). If
your function never returns, it will crash gaim! If your plugin uses up all
the memory in the system, it will crash gaim! Once your plugin gets loaded,
it effectively becomes a part of gaim, and anything that goes wrong will look
like it is a problem with gaim itself. I write bugfree code! :) Therefore, it
is your problem, not mine. (I'm usually nice and willing to help you with your
problems though.)

The GModule* that gets passed to gaim_plugin_init is the handle for the plugin.
DO NOT CHANGE THIS POINTER! Bad things will happen. You've been warned. It's
needed for connecting to signals and things. It's a good idea to remember it
somehow.

gaim_plugin_init should return a char*. If the char* returned is not NULL, it
is interpreted as an error, and used as an error message. See the ChangeLog
file in this directory for more details.

You can basically do anything you want in the plugin. You can make function
calls, change public widgets, display new widgets, things like that. But the
really neat thing is you can do things at events. For example, when one of
your buddies signs on, you can instantly send them a message. You can modify
the incoming and outgoing text. You can do all kinds of crazy things. Whatever
you want. Check out SIGNALS for more information.

Plugins can share globals with gaim, but will not share with other plugins.
This is so if you have a global variable GtkWidget *window in your plugin and
J. Random Hacker also has the same name on a global variable, you won't be
constantly overwriting each others' variables. Unfortunately, this also means
that plugins will have difficulty working together. But then again, that's
what shared memory is for.

Plugins can be configured. This makes it so they don't have to be recompiled
in order to change things internal to them, and it's also just a cool feature
to have :). It's optional; to allow your plugin to be configured, add a
function called gaim_plugin_config(). The advised course of action is to have
it pop up a dialog window; but it's your plugin.

When your plugin gets unloaded, gaim will try to call gaim_plugin_remove(). It
doesn't have to be there, but it's nice if, say, you create a window, and when
the plugin gets unloaded, it removes the window. Also, all the callbacks you
have attached to gaim signals will be removed.

Plugins can also unload themselves. To do this, call gaim_plugin_unload(GModule *)
(the GModule* is the handle passed to gaim_plugin_init). When your plugin gets
unloaded, gaim will remove all of your callbacks. It will not call your
gaim_plugin_remove function, however, since it will assume you have already
done the necessary cleanup.

Compilation of the plugins is fairly straight-forward; there is a Makefile in
this directory that has a rule for making the .so file from a .c file. No
modification of the Makefile should be necessary, unless if you simply want
to type 'make' to have it made; otherwise, 'make filename.so' will take
filename.c and make the .so plugin from it. If you need to link in with extra
libraries, you can set the environment variable PLUGIN_LIBS to be the libraries
you want to link with.

There are a few examples in this directory. Enjoy.