picoirc(n)              Simple embeddable IRC interface             picoirc(n)



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NAME
       picoirc - Small and simple embeddable IRC client.

SYNOPSIS
       package require Tcl

       package require picoirc  ?0.5?

       ::picoirc::connect callback nick url

       ::picoirc::post context channel message

       ::picoirc::splituri uri

       ::picoirc::send context line

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DESCRIPTION
       This package provides a general purpose minimal IRC client suitable for
       embedding in other applications. All communication with the parent
       application is done via an application provided callback procedure.
       Each connection has its own state so you can hook up multiple servers
       in a single application instance.

       To initiate an IRC connection you must call picoirc::connect with a
       callback procedure, a nick-name to use on IRC and the IRC URL that
       describes the connection. This will return a variable name that is the
       irc connection context. See CALLBACK for details.

       This package is a fairly simple IRC client. If you need something with
       more capability investigate the irc package.

COMMANDS
       ::picoirc::connect callback nick url
              Create a new irc connection to the server specified by url and
              login using the nick as the username. The callback must be as
              specified in CALLBACK. Returns a package-specific variable that
              is used when calling other commands in this package.

       ::picoirc::post context channel message
              This should be called to process user input and send it to the
              server. A number of commands are recognised when prefixed with a
              forward-slash (/). Such commands are converted to IRC command
              sequences and then sent.

       ::picoirc::splituri uri
              Splits an IRC scheme uniform resource indicator into its
              component parts. Returns a list of server, port and channel. The
              default port is 6667 and there is no default channel.

       ::picoirc::send context line
              This command is where all raw output to the server is handled.
              The default action is to write the line to the irc socket.
              However, before this happens the callback is called with "debug
              write". This permits the application author to inspect the raw
              IRC data and if desired to return a break error code to halt
              further processing. In this way the application can override the
              default send via the callback procedure.

CALLBACK
       The callback must look like:


              proc Callback {context state args} {
              }

       where context is the irc context variable name (in case you need to
       pass it back to a picoirc procedure). state is one of a number of
       states as described below.

       init   called just before the socket is created

       connect
              called once we have connected, before we join any channels

       close  called when the socket gets closed, before the context is
              deleted. If an error occurs before we get connected the only
              argument will be the socket error message.

       userlist channel nicklist
              called to notify the application of an updated userlist. This is
              generated when the output of the NAMES irc command is seen. The
              package collects the entire output which can span a number of
              output lines from the server and calls this callback when they
              have all been received.

       chat target nick message type
              called when a message arrives. target is the identity that the
              message was targetted for. This can be the logged in nick or a
              channel name. nick is the name of the sender of the message.
              message is the message text. type is set to "ACTION" if the
              message was sent as a CTCP ACTION

       system channel message
              called when a system message is received

       topic channel topic
              called when the channel topic string is seen. topic is the text
              of the channel topic.

       traffic action channel nick ?newnick?
              called when users join, leave or change names.  action is either
              entered, left or nickchange and nick is the user doing the
              action. newnick is the new name if action is nickchange.

              NOTE: channel is often empty for these messages as nick
              activities are global for the irc server. You will have to
              manage the nick for all connected channels yourself.

       version
              This is called to request a version string to use to override
              the internal version. If implemented, you should return as colon
              delimited string as

              Appname:Appversion:LibraryVersion

              For example, the default is

              PicoIRC:[package provide picoirc]:Tcl [info patchlevel]

       debug type raw
              called when data is either being read or written to the network
              socket. type is set to read when reading data and write if the
              data is to be written. raw is the unprocessed IRC protocol data.

              In both cases the application can return a break error code to
              interrupt further processing of the raw data. If this is a read
              operation then the package will not handle this line. If the
              operation is write then the package will not send the data. This
              callback is intended for debugging protocol issues but could be
              used to redirect all input and output if desired.

SEE ALSO
       rfc 1459

KEYWORDS
       chat, irc

CATEGORY
       Networking



irc                                   0.5                           picoirc(n)
