plugins/PERL-HOWTO

This is really the wrong place for a HOWTO on writing perl scripts for gaim,
but there didn't seem to be a much better place.

If you've ever written a perl script for X-Chat then you've basically written
one for gaim as well. perl.c in gaim's source is basically an exact copy of
X-Chat's perl.c file, with small modifications to suit AIM rather than IRC.

Basically the reason for including perl is based on the experience with the
plugins. X-Chat's docs on Perl Scripting sums it up nicely:
   it's not quite as simple to stick a module together in C and make it
   stable compared to the development time of perl code

Plugins are more powerful as they can directly access gaim's functions and
variables; as such they should be used for things like modifying the UI or
when something takes quite a bit of trickery not offered by perl. But for
the most part things should be written in Perl. It's more stable than
plugins.

There's a really quick simple perl script in this directory, gaim.pl, that
should show most of the functions. Most things should be self-explanatory.

Everything available in normal perl scripts should be available in gaim's
perl interface, so I'm not going to bother describing that. The important
things are the functions provided by gaim's internal AIM module, which is
what most of this document is about. So, onto the functions.

AIM::register(name, version, shutdownroutine, unused)
	Just like X-Chat. This is the first function your script should call.
	shutdownroutine is a function that will be called when the script
	gets unloaded (like when gaim gets closed). This function returns
	gaim's version number.

AIM::get_info(integer)
	This function returns different information based on the integer passed
	to it.
	0 - the version of gaim you're running ("0.10.0" for example).
	1 - the screenname to last attempt to sign on
	2 - either "Offline", "TOC", or "Oscar"

AIM::print(title, message)
	This displays a nice little dialog window.


AIM::buddy_list()
	This returns the buddy list (no groups, just the names of the buddies)

AIM::online_list()
	This returns the list of online buddies.

AIM::deny_list()
	This returns the deny list. This is probably going to be modified before
	0.10.0 is released to return either the deny or the permit list and the
	current mode.


AIM::command(command, ...)
	This sends commands to the server, and each command takes various
	arguments. The command should be self-explanatory:
	"signon" - no args.
	"signoff" - no args.
	"away" - the second arg is the away message
	"back" - no args.
	"idle" - the second arg is how long (in seconds) to set the idle time
	"warn" - the second arg is the name of the person to warn

AIM::user_info(nick)
	Returns 7 data items:
		the screenname of the buddy
		"Online" or "Offline"
		their warning level
		signon time, in seconds since the epoch
		idle time, in seconds (?)
		user class, an integer with bit values
			AOL		1
			ADMIN		2
			UNCONFIRMED	4
			NORMAL		8
			AWAY		16
		their capabilites, an integer with bit values
			BUDDYICON	1
			VOICE		2
			IMIMAGE		4
			CHAT		8
			GETFILE		16
			SENDFILE	32

		This is probably going to change before 0.10.0 is released to
		also return the alias of the buddy.

AIM::print_to_conv(who, what)
	This should be obvious. If you can't figure this out on your own, you
	shouldn't be using a computer.

AIM::print_to_chat(room, what)
	This should be just as obvious as the last command.


AIM::add_event_handler(event, function)
	This is the most important of them all. This is basically exactly like
	gaim_signal_connect for plugins. You pass which event you want to connect to
	(a string with the same name as the events for plugins, see SIGNALS), and a
	string with the name of the function you want called. Simple enough?

	When this is triggered, the arguments will be passed in @_ and are not
	broken into a list, but left as one long string. You'll have to parse those
	yourself with split. (Sounding exactly like X-Chat yet?) The arguments are
	the exact same as those passed to the plugins, and are passed after the
	plugins have had their way with them. Perl scripts cannot modify the values
	so that gaim knows what the changes are. Unlike X-Chat, perl scripts cannot
	short-circut gaim (that is, your script will be called in order it was added,
	despite what other scripts do, and afterwards, execution will continue as
	normal). Names of buddies and chat rooms will be in quotes, and all other
	values (like text messages) will not be. (Watch the debug window to get a
	better feel for this, or better yet, look at the bottom of plugins.c.)

AIM::add_timeout_handler(integer, function)
	This calls function after integer number of seconds. It only calls function
	once, so if you want to keep calling function, keep readding the handler.