NAME

Bot::Cobalt::Manual::Plugins::Config - Cobalt config file primer

DESCRIPTION

This document is a very brief overview aimed at plugin authors in need of a quick reference to plugin configuration files loaded via Config directives.

Bot::Cobalt configuration files are written in YAML. http://yaml.org/spec/1.1/

Mostly, you will see hash structures like this:

$ cat etc/plugins/mine/myplugin.conf
---
## config for MyPlugin
## RequiredLevels: hash specifying access levels for commands:
RequiredLevels:
  cmd_ensnackulate: 2
  cmd_refrobulate: 1

...which would be converted, upon load, into a Bot::Cobalt::Conf::File::PerPlugin object.

(These structures would normally be accessed by plugins via the Core's "get_plugin_cfg" in Bot::Cobalt::Core::Role::EasyAccessors method or "plugin_cfg" in Bot::Cobalt::Core::Sugar -- see Bot::Cobalt::Manual::Plugins for details.)

See Bot::Cobalt::Manual::Plugins::Dist for details on embedding configuration files installable via cobalt2-plugin-installcf.

Indentation

Indentation builds nested structures; 2 spaces is the standard for Bot::Cobalt configuration files:

Opts:
  SomeOpt: 1
  OtherOpts:
    ThisElement: "Some string"

Boolean values

Many configuration options, especially in the core plugin set, are simple boolean true/false:

## Example of a boolean true or false
## if UseSSL is commented out, 0, or ~ (undef), it is "false"
## true if 1 or some other positive value like a string ("Yes")
UseSSL: 1

## ...just as valid for a simple boolean check:
UseSSL: "Yes please!"

Strings

SomeString: A string

Strings can be quoted:

SomeString: "A string"

For example:

SomeNum: 176.100    ## Numeric 176.1
SomeNum: "176.100"  ## String "176.100"

Within double-quotes, special characters can be escaped C-style.

Block literals

A block literal might look something like this:

## newlines preserved:
ThisDoc: |
  Some text here.
  And even more text here.
  Perhaps some more!

## newlines folded:
ThisDoc: >
  <p>Some literal html</p>
  <p>More of it</p>

Hashes

MyHash:
  Scalar_item: "a scalar"
  Another_Hash:
    Item_one: 1
    Item_two: "String"

Item_two would be available via MyHash->{Another_Hash}->{Item_two}.

Lists

A list/array looks something like this:

MyList:
  - An item
  - Another item

## a deeply nested structure:
MyUsers:
  - JoeUser
  - Bobby
  - Another list
  - SomeHash:
      One_Item: 1
      Another_item: "Some string"

(In this example, Another_item would be available via MyUsers[3]->{Another_item})

SEE ALSO

http://yaml.org/spec/1.1/

YAML::XS

AUTHOR

Jon Portnoy <avenj@cobaltirc.org>