lib/Net/XMPP2.pm

package Net::XMPP2;
use warnings;
use strict;

=head1 NAME

Net::XMPP2 - An implementation of the XMPP Protocol

=head1 VERSION

Version 0.01

=cut

our $VERSION = '0.01';

=head1 SYNOPSIS

   use Net::XMPP2::Connection;

or:

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

or:

   use Net::XMPP2::Client;

=head1 DESCRIPTION

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

L<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.

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

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

For a list of L<Supportet extensions> see below.

There are also other modules in this distribution, for example:
L<Net::XMPP2::Util>, L<Net::XMPP2::Writer>, L<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 L<Net::XMPP2::Writer> for a discussion about the brokeness of XML in the XMPP
specification.

=head1 REQUIREMENTS

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

=over 4

=item AnyEvent

For the I/O events and timers.

=item XML::Writer

For writing "XML".

=item XML::Parser::Expat

For parsing partial "XML" stuff.

=item MIME::Base64

For SASL authentication

=item Authen::SASL

For SASL authentication

=item Net::LibIDN

For stringprep profiles to handle JIDs.

=item Net::SSLeay

For SSL connections.

=item Net::DNS

For SRV RR lookups.

=back

And yes, all these are essential for XMPP communication. Even thought 'instant
messaging' and 'presence' is a quite simple problem XMPP somehow was successful
at complicating the task enough to keep me busy for a long time.  But all 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.

=head1 RELEASE NOTES

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

=head2 Version

=over 4

=item 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 L<BUGS> below.

Potential edges when using this module: under-documented methods, missing
functionality and generally bugs bugs and bugs. Even thought 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
or samples/ directory, along with bugfixes and enhancements along with some
todo items killed from the TODO file.

=back

=head2 TODO

There are still lots of items on the TODO list (see also the TODO file
in the distribution of Net::XMPP2). For further and more detailed todo items
look there.

=head1 Why (yet) another XMPP module?

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

The other modules could often only be integrated in those applications or librarys
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 L<Net::XMPP2>
I try to provide low level modules for speaking XMPP as defined in RFC 3920 and RFC 3921
(see also L<Net::XMPP2::Connection> and L<Net::XMPP2::IM::Connection>). But I also
try to provide a high level API for easier usage for instant messaging tasks
and clients (eg. L<Net::XMPP2::IM::Client>).

=head1 A note about TLS

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

There are maybe still some bugs in the handling of TLS in L<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 aviable data isn't properly read from the socket
or written to it. You might want to take a look at the C<debug_send> and C<debug_recv>
events in L<Net::XMPP2::Connection>.

=head1 Supportet extensions

See L<Net::XMPP2::Ext> for a list.

=head1 AUTHOR

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

=head1 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
only 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 bugreports and best, if you can't
send a patch, would be if you find out which code doesn't work and tell me why.

Please report any bugs or feature requests to
C<bug-net-xmpp2 at rt.cpan.org>, or through the web interface at
L<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.

=head1 SUPPORT

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

    perldoc Net::XMPP2

You can also look for information at:

=over 4

=item * AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation

L<http://annocpan.org/dist/Net-XMPP2>

=item * CPAN Ratings

L<http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/Net-XMPP2>

=item * RT: CPAN's request tracker

L<http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Net-XMPP2>

=item * Search CPAN

L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Net-XMPP2>

=back

=head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to the XSF for the effords of messing around with the broken Jabber protocol.

=head1 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.

=cut

1; # End of Net::XMPP2
Revision:	1.12
Committed:	Wed Jul 4 16:29:06 2007 UTC (19 years, 3 months ago) by elmex
Branch:	MAIN
Changes since 1.11:	+60 -0 lines
Log Message:	further documentation
#	User	Rev	Content
1	elmex	1.1	package Net::XMPP2;
2			use warnings;
3			use strict;
4
5			=head1 NAME
6
7			Net::XMPP2 - An implementation of the XMPP Protocol
8
9			=head1 VERSION
10
11			Version 0.01
12
13			=cut
14
15			our $VERSION = '0.01';
16
17			=head1 SYNOPSIS
18
19	elmex	1.2	use Net::XMPP2::Connection;
20	elmex	1.1
21	elmex	1.2	or:
22	elmex	1.1
23	elmex	1.2	use Net::XMPP2::IM::Connection;
24	elmex	1.1
25	elmex	1.11	or:
26
27			use Net::XMPP2::Client;
28
29	elmex	1.2	=head1 DESCRIPTION
30
31			This is the head module of the L<Net::XMPP2> XMPP client protocol (as described in
32	elmex	1.4	RFC 3920 and RFC 3921) framework.
33	elmex	1.2
34	elmex	1.4	L<Net::XMPP2::Connection> is a RFC 3920 conformant "XML" stream implementation
35	elmex	1.5	for clients, which handles tcp connect up to the resource binding. And provides
36			low-level access to the XML nodes on the XML stream along with some high
37			level methods to send the predefined XML stanzas.
38	elmex	1.2
39	elmex	1.4	L<Net::XMPP2::IM::Connection> is a more highlevel module, which is derived
40			from L<Net::XMPP2::Connection>. It handles all the instant messaging client
41	elmex	1.5	functionality described in RFC 3921.
42
43	elmex	1.11	L<Net::XMPP2::Client> is a multi account client class. It manages connections
44			to multiple XMPP accounts and tries to offer a nice highlevel interface
45			to XMPP communication.
46
47	elmex	1.9	For a list of L<Supportet extensions> see below.
48	elmex	1.2
49			There are also other modules in this distribution, for example:
50	elmex	1.11	L<Net::XMPP2::Util>, L<Net::XMPP2::Writer>, L<Net::XMPP2::Parser> and those I
51	elmex	1.2	forgot :-) Those modules might be helpful and/or required if you want to use
52			this framework for XMPP.
53
54			See also L<Net::XMPP2::Writer> for a discussion about the brokeness of XML in the XMPP
55			specification.
56
57	elmex	1.12	=head1 REQUIREMENTS
58
59			One of the major drawbacks I see for Net::XMPP2 is the long list of required
60			modules to make it work.
61
62			=over 4
63
64			=item AnyEvent
65
66			For the I/O events and timers.
67
68			=item XML::Writer
69
70			For writing "XML".
71
72			=item XML::Parser::Expat
73
74			For parsing partial "XML" stuff.
75
76			=item MIME::Base64
77
78			For SASL authentication
79
80			=item Authen::SASL
81
82			For SASL authentication
83
84			=item Net::LibIDN
85
86			For stringprep profiles to handle JIDs.
87
88			=item Net::SSLeay
89
90			For SSL connections.
91
92			=item Net::DNS
93
94			For SRV RR lookups.
95
96			=back
97
98			And yes, all these are essential for XMPP communication. Even thought 'instant
99			messaging' and 'presence' is a quite simple problem XMPP somehow was successful
100			at complicating the task enough to keep me busy for a long time. But all that
101			time wasn't only for the technology required to get it started, mostly it
102			was for all the quirks, hacks and badly applied "XML" in the protocol which
103			complicated the matter.
104
105	elmex	1.11	=head1 RELEASE NOTES
106
107			Here are some notes to the releases (release of this version is at top):
108
109			=head2 Version
110
111			=over 4
112
113			=item 0.01
114
115			This release has beta status. The code is already used daily in my client
116			and I keep looking out for bugs. If you find undocumented, missing or faulty
117			code/methods please drop me a mail! See also L<BUGS> below.
118
119			Potential edges when using this module: under-documented methods, missing
120			functionality and generally bugs bugs and bugs. Even thought this module is in
121			daily usage there are still lots of cases I might have missed.
122
123			For the next release I'm planning to provide more examples in the documentation
124			or samples/ directory, along with bugfixes and enhancements along with some
125			todo items killed from the TODO file.
126
127			=back
128
129			=head2 TODO
130
131			There are still lots of items on the TODO list (see also the TODO file
132			in the distribution of Net::XMPP2). For further and more detailed todo items
133			look there.
134
135	elmex	1.2	=head1 Why (yet) another XMPP module?
136
137			The main outstanding feature of this module in comparsion to the other XMPP
138			(aka Jabber) modules out there is the support for L<AnyEvent>. L<AnyEvent>
139			permits you to use this module together with other I/O event based programs and
140			libraries (ie. L<Gtk2> or L<Event>).
141
142			The other modules could often only be integrated in those applications or librarys
143	elmex	1.11	by using threads. I decided to write this module because I think CPAN lacks
144	elmex	1.4	an event based XMPP module. Threads are unfortunately not an alternative in Perl
145			at the moment due the limited threading functionality they provide and the global
146			speed hit. I also think that a simple event based I/O framework might be a bit easier
147			to handle than threads.
148	elmex	1.2
149			Another thing was that I didn't like the APIs of the other modules. In L<Net::XMPP2>
150	elmex	1.9	I try to provide low level modules for speaking XMPP as defined in RFC 3920 and RFC 3921
151			(see also L<Net::XMPP2::Connection> and L<Net::XMPP2::IM::Connection>). But I also
152	elmex	1.11	try to provide a high level API for easier usage for instant messaging tasks
153			and clients (eg. L<Net::XMPP2::IM::Client>).
154	elmex	1.2
155			=head1 A note about TLS
156
157			This module also supports TLS, as the specification of XMPP requires an
158	elmex	1.7	implementation to support TLS.
159	elmex	1.2
160			There are maybe still some bugs in the handling of TLS in L<Net::XMPP2::Connection>.
161	elmex	1.7	So keep an eye on TLS with this module. If you encounter any problems it would be
162			very helpful if you could debug them or at least send me a detailed report on how
163			to reproduce the problem.
164
165			(As I use this module myself I don't expect TLS to be completly broken, but it
166			might break under different circumstances than I have here. Those
167			circumstances might be a different load of data pumped through the TLS
168			connection.)
169	elmex	1.1
170	elmex	1.2	I mainly expect problems where aviable data isn't properly read from the socket
171			or written to it. You might want to take a look at the C<debug_send> and C<debug_recv>
172			events in L<Net::XMPP2::Connection>.
173	elmex	1.1
174	elmex	1.4	=head1 Supportet extensions
175	elmex	1.3
176	elmex	1.10	See L<Net::XMPP2::Ext> for a list.
177	elmex	1.3
178	elmex	1.1	=head1 AUTHOR
179
180	elmex	1.11	Robin Redeker, C<< <elmex at ta-sa.org> >>, JID: C<< <elmex at jabber.org> >>
181	elmex	1.1
182			=head1 BUGS
183
184	elmex	1.12	Please note that I'm currently (July 2007) the only developer on this project
185			and I'm very busy with my studies in Computer Science in Summer 2007. If you
186			want to ease my workload or want timely releases please send me patches instead
187			only bug reports or feature requests. I won't forget the reports or requests if
188			you can't or didn't send patches but it can take a long time until I get enough
189			time to fix/implement them.
190
191			Also try to be as precise as possible with bugreports and best, if you can't
192			send a patch, would be if you find out which code doesn't work and tell me why.
193
194	elmex	1.1	Please report any bugs or feature requests to
195			C<bug-net-xmpp2 at rt.cpan.org>, or through the web interface at
196			L<http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Net-XMPP2>.
197			I will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on
198			your bug as I make changes.
199
200			=head1 SUPPORT
201
202			You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.
203
204			perldoc Net::XMPP2
205
206			You can also look for information at:
207
208			=over 4
209
210			=item * AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation
211
212			L<http://annocpan.org/dist/Net-XMPP2>
213
214			=item * CPAN Ratings
215
216			L<http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/Net-XMPP2>
217
218			=item * RT: CPAN's request tracker
219
220			L<http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Net-XMPP2>
221
222			=item * Search CPAN
223
224			L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Net-XMPP2>
225
226			=back
227
228			=head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
229
230	elmex	1.12	Thanks to the XSF for the effords of messing around with the broken Jabber protocol.
231
232	elmex	1.1	=head1 COPYRIGHT & LICENSE
233
234			Copyright 2007 Robin Redeker, all rights reserved.
235
236			This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
237			under the same terms as Perl itself.
238
239			=cut
240
241			1; # End of Net::XMPP2