[ViewVC] Annotation of: cvs/Net-XMPP2/README

NAME
    Net::XMPP2 - An implementation of the XMPP Protocol

VERSION
    Version 0.03

SYNOPSIS
       use Net::XMPP2::Connection;

    or:

       use Net::XMPP2::IM::Connection;

    or:

       use Net::XMPP2::Client;

DESCRIPTION
    This is the head module of the Net::XMPP2 XMPP client protocol (as
    described in RFC 3920 and RFC 3921) framework.

    Net::XMPP2::Connection is a RFC 3920 conformant "XML" stream
    implementation for clients, which handles TCP connect up to the resource
    binding. And provides low level access to the XML nodes on the XML
    stream along with some high level methods to send the predefined XML
    stanzas.

    Net::XMPP2::IM::Connection is a more high level module, which is derived
    from Net::XMPP2::Connection. It handles all the instant messaging client
    functionality described in RFC 3921.

    Net::XMPP2::Client is a multi account client class. It manages
    connections to multiple XMPP accounts and tries to offer a nice high
    level interface to XMPP communication.

    For a list of "Supported extensions" see below.

    There are also other modules in this distribution, for example:
    Net::XMPP2::Util, Net::XMPP2::Writer, Net::XMPP2::Parser and those I
    forgot :-) Those modules might be helpful and/or required if you want to
    use this framework for XMPP.

    See also Net::XMPP2::Writer for a discussion about the brokeness of XML
    in the XMPP specification.

    If you have any questions or seek for help look below under "SUPPORT".

REQUIREMENTS
    One of the major drawbacks I see for Net::XMPP2 is the long list of
    required modules to make it work.

    AnyEvent
        For the I/O events and timers.

    XML::Writer
        For writing "XML".

    XML::Parser::Expat
        For parsing partial "XML" stuff.

    MIME::Base64
        For SASL authentication

    Authen::SASL
        For SASL authentication

    Net::LibIDN
        For stringprep profiles to handle JIDs.

    Net::SSLeay
        For SSL connections.

    Net::DNS
        For SRV RR lookups.

    Digest::SHA1
        For component authentication.

    And yes, all these are essential for XMPP communication. Even though
    'instant messaging' and 'presence' is a quite simple problem XMPP
    somehow was successful at making the task complicated enough to keep me
    busy for a long time. But all of that time wasn't only for the
    technology required to get it started, mostly it was for all the quirks,
    hacks and badly applied "XML" in the protocol which complicated the
    matter.

RELEASE NOTES
    Here are some notes to the releases (release of this version is at top):

  Version
    * 0.03
        This release adds new events for attaching information to "XML"
        stanzas that are in transmission to the server. See also the events
        "send_*_hook" in Net::XMPP2::Connection.

        The event callbacks als don't have to return a true value anymore.
        What the return values do depends on the event now.

        The highlight of this release is the implementation of XEP-0114, the
        Jabber Component Protocol.

        You can also set the initial priority of the presence in
        Net::XMPP2::IM::Connection now.

        Please consult the Changes file for greater detail about bugfixes
        and new features.

    * 0.02
        This release adds lots of small improvements to the API (mostly new
        events), and also some bugfixes here and there. The release also
        comes with some new examples, you might want to take a look at the
        "EXAMPLES" section.

        As a highlight I also present the implementation of XEP-0004 (Data
        Forms), see also Net::XMPP2::Ext for a description.

        I also added some convenience functions to Net::XMPP2::Util, for
        example "simxml" which simplifies the generation of XMPP-like "XML".

    * 0.01
        This release has beta status. The code is already used daily in my
        client and I keep looking out for bugs. If you find undocumented,
        missing or faulty code/methods please drop me a mail! See also
        "BUGS" below.

        Potential edges when using this module: sparely documented methods,
        missing functionality and generally bugs bugs and bugs. Even though
        this module is in daily usage there are still lots of cases I might
        have missed.

        For the next release I'm planning to provide more examples in the
        documentation and/or samples/ directory, along with bugfixes and
        enhancements along with some todo items killed from the TODO file.

  TODO
    There are still lots of items on the TODO list (see also the TODO file
    in the distribution of Net::XMPP2).

    Sadly this module still misses some decent DOM implementation. Do you
    know some decent DOM Level 2 implementation for Perl? (I considered
    switchting to XML::LibXML but I somehow have more trust in the "expat"
    XML parser, maybe someone wants to implement XML::LibXML based parsing
    for me (and of course a DOM interface for Net::XMPP2::Node?)

Why (yet) another XMPP module?
    The main outstanding feature of this module in comparison to the other
    XMPP (aka Jabber) modules out there is the support for AnyEvent.
    AnyEvent permits you to use this module together with other I/O event
    based programs and libraries (ie. Gtk2 or Event).

    The other modules could often only be integrated in those applications
    or libraries by using threads. I decided to write this module because I
    think CPAN lacks an event based XMPP module. Threads are unfortunately
    not an alternative in Perl at the moment due the limited threading
    functionality they provide and the global speed hit. I also think that a
    simple event based I/O framework might be a bit easier to handle than
    threads.

    Another thing was that I didn't like the APIs of the other modules. In
    Net::XMPP2 I try to provide low level modules for speaking XMPP as
    defined in RFC 3920 and RFC 3921 (see also Net::XMPP2::Connection and
    Net::XMPP2::IM::Connection). But I also try to provide a high level API
    for easier usage for instant messaging tasks and clients (eg.
    Net::XMPP2::Client).

A note about TLS
    This module also supports TLS, as the specification of XMPP requires an
    implementation to support TLS.

    Maybe there are still some bugs in the handling of TLS in
    Net::XMPP2::Connection. So keep an eye on TLS with this module. If you
    encounter any problems it would be very helpful if you could debug them
    or at least send me a detailed report on how to reproduce the problem.

    (As I use this module myself I don't expect TLS to be completly broken,
    but it might break under different circumstances than I have here. Those
    circumstances might be a different load of data pumped through the TLS
    connection.)

    I mainly expect problems where available data isn't properly read from
    the socket or written to it. You might want to take a look at the
    "debug_send" and "debug_recv" events in Net::XMPP2::Connection.

Supported extensions
    See Net::XMPP2::Ext for a list.

EXAMPLES
    Following examples are included in this distribution:

    samples/simple_example_1
        This example script just connects to a server and sends a message
        and also displays incoming messages on stdout.

    samples/devcl/devcl
        This is a more advanced 'example'. It requires you to have Gtk2
        installed. It's mostly used by the author to implement
        proof-of-concepts. Currently you start the client like this:

           ../Net-XMPP2/samples/devcl/# perl ./devcl <jid> <password>

        The client's main window displays a protocol dump and there is
        currently a service discovery browser implemented.

        This might be a valuable source if you look for more real-world
        applications of Net::XMPP2.

    samples/conference_lister
        See below.

    samples/room_lister
        See below.

    samples/room_lister_stat
        These three scripts implements a global room scan.
        "conference_lister" takes a list of servers (the file is called
        "servers.xml" which has the same format as the xml file at
        <http://www.jabber.org/servers.xml>). It then scans all servers for
        chat room services and lists them into a file "conferences.stor",
        which is a Storable dump.

        "room_lister" then reads that file and queries all services for
        rooms, and then all rooms for their occupants. The output file is
        "room_data.stor", also a Storable dump, which in turn can be read
        with "room_lister_stat", which transform the data structures into
        something human readable.

        These scripts are a bit hacky and quite complicated, but maybe it's
        of any value for someone. You might note "EVQ.pm" in samples which
        is a module that handles request-throttling (You don't want to flood
        the server and risk getting the admins attention :).

    samples/simple_component
        This is a (basic) skeleton for a jabber component.

    For others, which the author might forgot or didn't want to list here
    see the "samples/" directory.

    More examples will be included in later releases, please feel free to
    ask the "AUTHOR" if you have any questions about the API. There is also
    an IRC channel, see "SUPPORT".

AUTHOR
    Robin Redeker, "<elmex at ta-sa.org>", JID: "<elmex at jabber.org>"

BUGS
    Please note that I'm currently (July 2007) the only developer on this
    project and I'm very busy with my studies in Computer Science in Summer
    2007. If you want to ease my workload or want timely releases, please
    send me patches instead of bug reports or feature requests. I won't
    forget the reports or requests if you can't or didn't send patches, but
    it can take a long time until I get enough time to fix/implement them.

    Also try to be as precise as possible with bug reports, if you can't
    send a patch, it would be best if you find out which code doesn't work
    and tell me why.

    Please report any bugs or feature requests to "bug-net-xmpp2 at
    rt.cpan.org", or through the web interface at
    <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Net-XMPP2>. I will be
    notified and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your
    bug as I make changes.

SUPPORT
    You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.

        perldoc Net::XMPP2

    You can also look for information at:

    * IRC: Net::XMPP2 IRC Channel
          IRC Network: http://freenode.net/
          Server     : chat.freenode.net
          Channel    : #net_xmpp2

          Feel free to join and ask questions!

    * Net::XMPP2 Project Site
        <http://www.ta-sa.org/>

    * AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation
        <http://annocpan.org/dist/Net-XMPP2>

    * CPAN Ratings
        <http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/Net-XMPP2>

    * RT: CPAN's request tracker
        <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Net-XMPP2>

    * Search CPAN
        <http://search.cpan.org/dist/Net-XMPP2>

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
    Thanks to the XSF for the development of an open instant messaging
    protocol (even though it uses "XML").

    And thanks to all people who had to listen to my desperate curses about
    the brokenness/braindeadness of XMPP. Without you I would've never
    brought this module to a usable state.

    Thanks to:

    * Carlo von Loesch (aka lynX) <http://www.psyced.org/>
        For pointing out some typos.

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE
    Copyright 2007 Robin Redeker, all rights reserved.

    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
    under the same terms as Perl itself.

Revision:	1.5
Committed:	Wed Jul 25 10:04:39 2007 UTC (17 years, 8 months ago) by elmex
Branch:	MAIN
Changes since 1.4:	+25 -2 lines
Log Message:	Release of version 0.03
#	User	Rev	Content
1	elmex	1.1	NAME
2			Net::XMPP2 - An implementation of the XMPP Protocol
3
4			VERSION
5	elmex	1.5	Version 0.03
6	elmex	1.1
7			SYNOPSIS
8	elmex	1.2	use Net::XMPP2::Connection;
9
10			or:
11
12			use Net::XMPP2::IM::Connection;
13
14	elmex	1.3	or:
15
16			use Net::XMPP2::Client;
17
18	elmex	1.2	DESCRIPTION
19			This is the head module of the Net::XMPP2 XMPP client protocol (as
20			described in RFC 3920 and RFC 3921) framework.
21
22			Net::XMPP2::Connection is a RFC 3920 conformant "XML" stream
23	elmex	1.4	implementation for clients, which handles TCP connect up to the resource
24			binding. And provides low level access to the XML nodes on the XML
25	elmex	1.2	stream along with some high level methods to send the predefined XML
26			stanzas.
27
28	elmex	1.4	Net::XMPP2::IM::Connection is a more high level module, which is derived
29	elmex	1.2	from Net::XMPP2::Connection. It handles all the instant messaging client
30			functionality described in RFC 3921.
31
32	elmex	1.3	Net::XMPP2::Client is a multi account client class. It manages
33	elmex	1.4	connections to multiple XMPP accounts and tries to offer a nice high
34			level interface to XMPP communication.
35	elmex	1.3
36	elmex	1.4	For a list of "Supported extensions" see below.
37	elmex	1.2
38			There are also other modules in this distribution, for example:
39	elmex	1.3	Net::XMPP2::Util, Net::XMPP2::Writer, Net::XMPP2::Parser and those I
40	elmex	1.2	forgot :-) Those modules might be helpful and/or required if you want to
41			use this framework for XMPP.
42
43			See also Net::XMPP2::Writer for a discussion about the brokeness of XML
44			in the XMPP specification.
45
46	elmex	1.3	If you have any questions or seek for help look below under "SUPPORT".
47
48			REQUIREMENTS
49			One of the major drawbacks I see for Net::XMPP2 is the long list of
50			required modules to make it work.
51
52			AnyEvent
53			For the I/O events and timers.
54
55			XML::Writer
56			For writing "XML".
57
58			XML::Parser::Expat
59			For parsing partial "XML" stuff.
60
61			MIME::Base64
62			For SASL authentication
63
64			Authen::SASL
65			For SASL authentication
66
67			Net::LibIDN
68			For stringprep profiles to handle JIDs.
69
70			Net::SSLeay
71			For SSL connections.
72
73			Net::DNS
74			For SRV RR lookups.
75
76	elmex	1.5	Digest::SHA1
77			For component authentication.
78
79	elmex	1.4	And yes, all these are essential for XMPP communication. Even though
80	elmex	1.3	'instant messaging' and 'presence' is a quite simple problem XMPP
81	elmex	1.4	somehow was successful at making the task complicated enough to keep me
82			busy for a long time. But all of that time wasn't only for the
83			technology required to get it started, mostly it was for all the quirks,
84			hacks and badly applied "XML" in the protocol which complicated the
85			matter.
86	elmex	1.3
87			RELEASE NOTES
88			Here are some notes to the releases (release of this version is at top):
89
90			Version
91	elmex	1.5	* 0.03
92			This release adds new events for attaching information to "XML"
93			stanzas that are in transmission to the server. See also the events
94			"send_*_hook" in Net::XMPP2::Connection.
95
96			The event callbacks als don't have to return a true value anymore.
97			What the return values do depends on the event now.
98
99			The highlight of this release is the implementation of XEP-0114, the
100			Jabber Component Protocol.
101
102			You can also set the initial priority of the presence in
103			Net::XMPP2::IM::Connection now.
104
105			Please consult the Changes file for greater detail about bugfixes
106			and new features.
107
108	elmex	1.4	* 0.02
109	elmex	1.5	This release adds lots of small improvements to the API (mostly new
110	elmex	1.4	events), and also some bugfixes here and there. The release also
111			comes with some new examples, you might want to take a look at the
112			"EXAMPLES" section.
113
114			As a highlight I also present the implementation of XEP-0004 (Data
115			Forms), see also Net::XMPP2::Ext for a description.
116
117			I also added some convenience functions to Net::XMPP2::Util, for
118			example "simxml" which simplifies the generation of XMPP-like "XML".
119
120	elmex	1.3	* 0.01
121			This release has beta status. The code is already used daily in my
122			client and I keep looking out for bugs. If you find undocumented,
123			missing or faulty code/methods please drop me a mail! See also
124			"BUGS" below.
125
126			Potential edges when using this module: sparely documented methods,
127	elmex	1.4	missing functionality and generally bugs bugs and bugs. Even though
128	elmex	1.3	this module is in daily usage there are still lots of cases I might
129			have missed.
130
131			For the next release I'm planning to provide more examples in the
132			documentation and/or samples/ directory, along with bugfixes and
133			enhancements along with some todo items killed from the TODO file.
134
135			TODO
136			There are still lots of items on the TODO list (see also the TODO file
137			in the distribution of Net::XMPP2).
138
139	elmex	1.4	Sadly this module still misses some decent DOM implementation. Do you
140			know some decent DOM Level 2 implementation for Perl? (I considered
141			switchting to XML::LibXML but I somehow have more trust in the "expat"
142			XML parser, maybe someone wants to implement XML::LibXML based parsing
143			for me (and of course a DOM interface for Net::XMPP2::Node?)
144
145	elmex	1.2	Why (yet) another XMPP module?
146	elmex	1.4	The main outstanding feature of this module in comparison to the other
147	elmex	1.2	XMPP (aka Jabber) modules out there is the support for AnyEvent.
148			AnyEvent permits you to use this module together with other I/O event
149			based programs and libraries (ie. Gtk2 or Event).
150
151			The other modules could often only be integrated in those applications
152	elmex	1.4	or libraries by using threads. I decided to write this module because I
153	elmex	1.2	think CPAN lacks an event based XMPP module. Threads are unfortunately
154			not an alternative in Perl at the moment due the limited threading
155			functionality they provide and the global speed hit. I also think that a
156			simple event based I/O framework might be a bit easier to handle than
157			threads.
158
159			Another thing was that I didn't like the APIs of the other modules. In
160			Net::XMPP2 I try to provide low level modules for speaking XMPP as
161			defined in RFC 3920 and RFC 3921 (see also Net::XMPP2::Connection and
162			Net::XMPP2::IM::Connection). But I also try to provide a high level API
163	elmex	1.3	for easier usage for instant messaging tasks and clients (eg.
164			Net::XMPP2::Client).
165	elmex	1.2
166			A note about TLS
167			This module also supports TLS, as the specification of XMPP requires an
168			implementation to support TLS.
169
170	elmex	1.4	Maybe there are still some bugs in the handling of TLS in
171	elmex	1.2	Net::XMPP2::Connection. So keep an eye on TLS with this module. If you
172			encounter any problems it would be very helpful if you could debug them
173			or at least send me a detailed report on how to reproduce the problem.
174
175			(As I use this module myself I don't expect TLS to be completly broken,
176			but it might break under different circumstances than I have here. Those
177			circumstances might be a different load of data pumped through the TLS
178			connection.)
179
180	elmex	1.4	I mainly expect problems where available data isn't properly read from
181			the socket or written to it. You might want to take a look at the
182	elmex	1.2	"debug_send" and "debug_recv" events in Net::XMPP2::Connection.
183
184	elmex	1.4	Supported extensions
185	elmex	1.3	See Net::XMPP2::Ext for a list.
186	elmex	1.2
187	elmex	1.3	EXAMPLES
188	elmex	1.4	Following examples are included in this distribution:
189
190			samples/simple_example_1
191			This example script just connects to a server and sends a message
192			and also displays incoming messages on stdout.
193
194			samples/devcl/devcl
195			This is a more advanced 'example'. It requires you to have Gtk2
196			installed. It's mostly used by the author to implement
197			proof-of-concepts. Currently you start the client like this:
198
199			../Net-XMPP2/samples/devcl/# perl ./devcl <jid> <password>
200
201			The client's main window displays a protocol dump and there is
202			currently a service discovery browser implemented.
203
204			This might be a valuable source if you look for more real-world
205			applications of Net::XMPP2.
206
207			samples/conference_lister
208			See below.
209
210			samples/room_lister
211			See below.
212
213			samples/room_lister_stat
214			These three scripts implements a global room scan.
215			"conference_lister" takes a list of servers (the file is called
216			"servers.xml" which has the same format as the xml file at
217			<http://www.jabber.org/servers.xml>). It then scans all servers for
218			chat room services and lists them into a file "conferences.stor",
219			which is a Storable dump.
220
221			"room_lister" then reads that file and queries all services for
222			rooms, and then all rooms for their occupants. The output file is
223			"room_data.stor", also a Storable dump, which in turn can be read
224			with "room_lister_stat", which transform the data structures into
225			something human readable.
226
227			These scripts are a bit hacky and quite complicated, but maybe it's
228			of any value for someone. You might note "EVQ.pm" in samples which
229			is a module that handles request-throttling (You don't want to flood
230			the server and risk getting the admins attention :).
231
232	elmex	1.5	samples/simple_component
233			This is a (basic) skeleton for a jabber component.
234
235	elmex	1.4	For others, which the author might forgot or didn't want to list here
236			see the "samples/" directory.
237
238			More examples will be included in later releases, please feel free to
239			ask the "AUTHOR" if you have any questions about the API. There is also
240			an IRC channel, see "SUPPORT".
241	elmex	1.1
242			AUTHOR
243	elmex	1.3	Robin Redeker, "<elmex at ta-sa.org>", JID: "<elmex at jabber.org>"
244	elmex	1.1
245			BUGS
246	elmex	1.3	Please note that I'm currently (July 2007) the only developer on this
247			project and I'm very busy with my studies in Computer Science in Summer
248	elmex	1.4	2007. If you want to ease my workload or want timely releases, please
249			send me patches instead of bug reports or feature requests. I won't
250			forget the reports or requests if you can't or didn't send patches, but
251	elmex	1.3	it can take a long time until I get enough time to fix/implement them.
252
253	elmex	1.4	Also try to be as precise as possible with bug reports, if you can't
254			send a patch, it would be best if you find out which code doesn't work
255			and tell me why.
256	elmex	1.3
257	elmex	1.1	Please report any bugs or feature requests to "bug-net-xmpp2 at
258			rt.cpan.org", or through the web interface at
259			<http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Net-XMPP2>. I will be
260	elmex	1.4	notified and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your
261	elmex	1.1	bug as I make changes.
262
263			SUPPORT
264			You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.
265
266			perldoc Net::XMPP2
267
268			You can also look for information at:
269
270	elmex	1.3	* IRC: Net::XMPP2 IRC Channel
271			IRC Network: http://freenode.net/
272			Server : chat.freenode.net
273			Channel : #net_xmpp2
274
275			Feel free to join and ask questions!
276
277			* Net::XMPP2 Project Site
278			<http://www.ta-sa.org/>
279
280	elmex	1.1	* AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation
281			<http://annocpan.org/dist/Net-XMPP2>
282
283			* CPAN Ratings
284			<http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/Net-XMPP2>
285
286			* RT: CPAN's request tracker
287			<http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Net-XMPP2>
288
289			* Search CPAN
290			<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Net-XMPP2>
291
292			ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
293	elmex	1.3	Thanks to the XSF for the development of an open instant messaging
294	elmex	1.4	protocol (even though it uses "XML").
295	elmex	1.3
296			And thanks to all people who had to listen to my desperate curses about
297	elmex	1.4	the brokenness/braindeadness of XMPP. Without you I would've never
298	elmex	1.3	brought this module to a usable state.
299
300	elmex	1.4	Thanks to:
301
302			* Carlo von Loesch (aka lynX) <http://www.psyced.org/>
303			For pointing out some typos.
304
305	elmex	1.1	COPYRIGHT & LICENSE
306			Copyright 2007 Robin Redeker, all rights reserved.
307
308			This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
309			under the same terms as Perl itself.
310