/ 
Net-XMPP2-0.01
/ Net::XMPP2

NAME

Net::XMPP2 - An implementation of the XMPP Protocol

VERSION

Version 0.01

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 highlevel 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 highlevel interface to XMPP communication.

For a list of "Supportet 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.

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.

RELEASE NOTES

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

Version

  • 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 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 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).

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 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 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 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.

There are maybe 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 aviable 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.

Supportet extensions

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

EXAMPLES

See samples/test_client for a first pointer. 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 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 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:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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

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

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.