NAME

Bot::BasicBot::Pluggable::Module - base module for all BasicBot plugins

SYNOPSIS

You MUST override help(), which MUST return help text for the module.

You MUST override at least said(), though it is preferred that you override the more specific seen(), admin(), told() and fallback() for cleaner code without relying on checks against $pri.

You MAY override chanjoin(), chanpart(), and tick().

You MAY return a response from said() to the event.

DESCRIPTION

Object Store

Every pluggable module gets an object store to save variables in. Access this store using the get() and set() accessors. Do not access the store through any other means - the location of the store, and its method of storage, may change at any time:

my $count = $self->get("count");
$self->set( count => $count + 1 );

Keys that begin "user_" are considered _USER_ variables, and can be changed by administrators in the IRC channel using Bot::BasicBot::Pluggable::Module::Vars. Don't use them as unchecked input data.

METHODS

new()

Standard new method, blesses a hash into the right class and puts any key/value pairs passed to it into the blessed hash. Calls init to load any internal or user variables you may have set in your module.

init()

Called as part of new class construction. May or may not be after server connection. Override this to do things when your module is added to the bot.

config($config)

Set every key in the hash reference $config to its default value if it is not already defined in the module store. In that case the value from the store is used to initialise the variable. Typically called in the module's init functions.

start()

Indicates that the module is added to the bot, and that the bot is connected to the IRC server. Do things here that need to be done after you're connected.

TODO - this method not yet implemented.

stop()

Called just before your module is removed from the bot. Do cleanup here.

bot

Returns the Bot::BasicBot::Pluggable bot we're running under.

store

Returns Bot::BasicBot::Pluggable::Store subclass used to store variables.

get($name)

Returns the value of a local variable from the object store.

set($name => $value)

Set a local variable into the object store.

unset($name)

Unsets a local variable - removes it from the store, not just undefs it.

var($name, [$value])

get() or set() a local variable from the module store.

store_keys

Returns a list of all keys in the object store.

connected

Called when the bot connects to the server. The return value is meaningless.

chanjoin($message)

Called when a user joins a channel.

chanpart($message)

Called when a user leaves a channel.

help

Called when a user asks for help on a topic and thus should return some useful help text. For Bot::BasicBot::Pluggable, when a user asks the bot 'help', the bot will return a list of modules. Asking the bot 'help <modulename>' will call the help function of that module, passing in the first parameter the message object that represents the question.

say($message)

Passing through Bot::BasicBot, send messages without replying to a said():

$self->say({ who => 'tom', body => 'boo', channel => 'msg' });

reply($message, $body)

Replies to the given message with the given text. Another passthrough to Bot::BasicBot. The message is used to pre-populate the reply, so it'll be in the same channel as the question, directed to the right user, etc.

tell($nick | $channel, $message)

Convenience method to send message to nick (privmsg) or channel (public):

$self->tell('tom', "hello there, fool");
$self->tell('#sailors', "hello there, sailor");

said($message, $priority)

This method is called whenever the bot sees something said. The first parameter is a Bot::BasicBot 'message' object, as passed to it's 'said' function - see those docs for further details. The second parameter is the priority of the message - all modules will have the 'said' function called up to 4 times, with priorities of 0, 1, 2, and 3. The first module to return a non-null value 'claims' the message, and the bot will reply to it with the value returned.

The exception to this is the 0 priority, which a module MUST NOT respond to. This is so that all modules will at least see all messages. I suggest:

sub said {
  my ($self, $mess, $pri) = @_;
  my $body = $mess->{body};

  return unless ($pri == 2); # most common

  my ($command, $param) = split(/\s+/, $body, 2);
  $command = lc($command);

  # do something here

  return;
}

The preferred way, however, is to override one of the seperate seen(), admin(), told() and fallback() methods, corresponding to priorities 0, 1, 2 and 3 in order - this will lead to nicer code. This approach is new, though, which is why it's not yet used in most of the shipped modules yet. It will eventually become the only thing to do, and I will deprecate said().

replied($message,$reply)

This method is called every time a module returns an reply. The first agurment is the original message and the seconds is the returned string. The return value of this method is actually discarded, so you can't do anything to prevent the message from being sent. This is mainly meant to log the bots activity.

seen($message)

Like said(); called if you don't override said(), but only for priority 0.

admin($message)

Like said(); called if you don't override said(), but only for priority 1.

told($message)

Like said(); called if you don't override said(), but only for priority 2.

fallback($message)

Like said(); called if you don't override said(), but only for priority 3.

emoted($message, $priority)

Called when a user emotes something in channel.

tick

Called every five seconds. It is probably worth having a counter and not responding to every single one, assuming you want to respond at all. The return value is ignored.

AUTHOR

Tom Insam <tom@jerakeen.org>

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