NeoStats/doc/CODINGMODULES.txt

************************************************************************
** NeoStats - IRC Statistical Services                                **
** Copyright (c) 1999-2008 NeoStats Group. All Rights Reserved.       **
** This program and all associated documentation is free but          **
** copyrighted software; see the file COPYING for details.            **
** Homepage: http://www.neostats.net/                                 **
************************************************************************

(For the most recent version of these guides, refer to 
http://wiki.neostats.net/confluence/display/Dev)

How to write a NeoStats 3.0 Module
----------------------------------

This document explains how to write modules for NeoStats 3.0. These 
instructions apply to versions 3.0 and higher. For older versions you 
must refer to the documentation which comes with that version since they
versions had a different API specification.

This document also includes a section at the end for upgrading your
modules to 3.0 from 2.5.x. 

NeoStats 3.0 has four types of module.

1) General Modules. These are the type of module you will usually want 
to develop and are discussed in this file.
2) Authentication Modules. These provide authentication systems which
define what users have access to NeoStats functions and are discussed
in this file.
3) Protocol modules. These allow NeoStats to talk to a given type of
IRCd. For information on protocol modules see protocol.txt.
4) DBA modules. These allow NeoStats to store and fetch data from a 
given DBM. For information on DBA modules see dba.txt.

-----------------------------------<>-----------------------------------

What can modules do?
--------------------

Anything that the Server receives from users, or other servers can be
intercepted by a module. This basically means that you can do what ever 
you want in your modules. 

In order to help you learn how to make a module, we have included an
example basic module in template/template.c. The easiest way to start
a module is to copy that file and add the features you want. For
authentication modules use the file templateauth/templateauth.c as
the starting point.

-----------------------------------<>-----------------------------------
First we must include the header file which gives our code access to the 
NeoStats API:

#include "neostats.h"

We must export a definition of specific information about the module. 
This is required.

/** Module Info definition 
 *	This describes the module to the NeoStats core and provides information
 *  to end users when modules are queried.
 *  The structure is required but some fields are optional.
 */
ModuleInfo module_info = {
	/* REQUIRED: 
	 * name of module e.g. StatServ */
	"Template",
	/* REQUIRED: 
	 * one line brief description of module */
	"Put your brief module description here",
	/* OPTIONAL: 
	 * pointer to a NULL terminated list with copyright information
	 * NeoStats will automatically provide a CREDITS command to output this
	 * use NULL for none */
	template_copyright,
	/* OPTIONAL: 
	 * pointer to a NULL terminated list with extended description
	 * NeoStats will automatically provide an ABOUT command to output this
	 * use NULL for none */
	template_about,
	/* REQUIRED: 
	 * version of neostats used to build module
	 * must be NEOSTATS_VERSION or your module will not load */
	NEOSTATS_VERSION,
	/* REQUIRED: 
	 * string containing version of module 
	 * returned when a user requests 
	 * /msg botname version */
	"1.0",
	/* REQUIRED: string containing build date of module 
	 * should be __DATE__ */
	__DATE__,
	/* REQUIRED: string containing build time of module 
	 * should be __TIME__ */
	__TIME__,
	/* OPTIONAL: 
	 * Module control flags, 
	 * use 0 if not needed */
	0,
	/* OPTIONAL: 
	 * Protocol flags for required protocol specfic features e.g. SETHOST
	 * use 0 if not needed */
	0,
};

This information is used to report back to users on what modules and 
what versions are loaded and can be used by the core and other modules 
to check that they are compatible.

We can also have a table for any events on IRC that we wish to process. 
This is optional.

/** Module event list
 *  What events we will act on
 *  This is required if you want your module to respond to events on IRC
 *  see events.h for a list of all events available
 */
ModuleEvent module_events[] = {
	{EVENT_NULL,	NULL, 0}
	NS_EVENT_END()
};

The table contains the event we want to process (e.g. SIGNON), the 
function to call when it happens (e.g. MySignonHandler) and optional
flags related to event (e.g. EVENT_FLAG_USE_EXCLUDE). Events are 
raised for both server and user actions.

The table must be NULL terminated with a correctly formed NULL entry.
A macro NS_EVENT_END() is provided for this purpose.

Descriptions of all available events and their parameters are listed in
"events.h". The header file is automatically included by "neostats.h" 
so you do not need to include it in your module.

There are three specialist functions that a module must define:

ModInit is called when a module is first loaded so can be used to 
initialise settings for your module. It must not be used to start
anything which will try to send commands to the IRC network such
as starting a bot since you may not be connected to a network when
this function is called. It is mainly useful for processing 
configuration and starting databases.

/** @brief ModInit
 *
 *  Init module
 *
 *  @param none
 *
 *  @return NS_SUCCESS if suceeds else NS_FAILURE
 */

int ModInit( void )
{
	return NS_SUCCESS;
}

ModSynch is called when your module is able to send over IRC so is
where you would init a bot if you wanted one.

/** @brief ModSynch
 *
 *  Startup handler
 *  Introduce bot onto network
 *
 *  @param none
 *
 *  @return NS_SUCCESS if suceeds else NS_FAILURE
 */

int ModSynch( void )
{
	/* Introduce a bot onto the network saving the bot handle */
	template_bot = AddBot (&template_bot_info);
	if (!template_bot) {
		return NS_FAILURE;
	}
	return NS_SUCCESS;
}

ModFini is called when a module is unloaded so is useful for saving
databases.

/** @brief ModFini
 *
 *  Fini handler
 *
 *  @param none
 *
 *  @return NS_SUCCESS if suceeds else NS_FAILURE
 */

int ModFini (void)
{
	return NS_SUCCESS;
}

NeoStats provides an API to send commands over IRC. These are designed
to mimic the way you send commands on IRC as a user to make them
intuitive to use but must be sent from a bot you have created.

To create a bot, you must first use a definition to describe the bot:

/** Define information about our bot
 */
BotInfo template_bot_info = 
{
	/* REQUIRED: 
	 * nick */
	"changeme",
	/* OPTIONAL: 
	 * altnick, use "" if not needed */
	"altnick",
	/* REQUIRED: 
	 * user */
	"changeme",
	/* REQUIRED: 
	 * host that this bot will use 
	 * for the neostats host, use BOT_COMMON_HOST */
	BOT_COMMON_HOST,
	/* REQUIRED: 
	 * realname */
	"Example NeoStats module",
	/* OPTIONAL: 
	 * flags */
	0, 
	/* OPTIONAL: 
	 * bot command list pointer, use NULL if not needed */
	template_commands, 
	/* OPTIONAL: 
	 * bot command setting pointer, use NULL if not needed */
	template_settings,
};

You then pass this structure to NeoStats with the AddBot function 
call from your ModSynch function:

	/* Introduce a bot onto the network saving the bot handle */
	template_bot = AddBot (&template_bot_info);

Your bot can now issue commands on IRC as if it was a user but using
the irc_command functions. E.g. if you want your bot to join a 
channel you would use the irc_join function. 

	irc_join (template_bot, "#channelname", "");

A full list of available irc functions are found in "neostats.h".

-----------------------------------<>-----------------------------------
Timers are available for your module. There are several types of timer
you can choose from. 

To add a timer:

	AddTimer( type, func, name, interval );

    type     - Type of timer from
			   TIMER_TYPE_INTERVAL
			   TIMER_TYPE_DAILY
			   TIMER_TYPE_WEEKLY
			   TIMER_TYPE_MONTHLY
			   TIMER_TYPE_COUNTDOWN	   
    func     - the function you want to trigger when this timer 
               is triggered
    name     - a descriptive name of the timer
    interval - interval in seconds that this function is to be 
               called (TIMER_TYPE_INTERVAL and TIMER_TYPE_COUNTDOWN). 
                    
Note, this interval is not precise. NeoStats will check the timers and 
if at least interval has passed, will call your routine. Since NeoStats 
is single threaded, it runs in a continuous loop, meaning that if 
NeoStats itself, or another module held up that loop, then the timers 
are not going to run until that piece of code completes. Therefore an 
interval of 60 seconds might be called after 65 seconds.

To delete a timer:

    int DelTimer( name )

    name     - the name the timer created with in AddTimer


-----------------------------------<>-----------------------------------
TODO:
Sockets. They can make outgoing tcp connections to other servers (i.e., 
web, email, etc)

-----------------------------------<>-----------------------------------
Upgrading modules from 2.5.x to 3.0
-----------------------------------

TODO

-----------------------------------<>-----------------------------------
That's about it. 

The module API is constantly reviewed and is updated and added to from 
time to time. We try to maintain backwards compatibility where it is 
possible for a short time after we make any major changes. Your modules
should always work with all releases of the 3.0 series.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions about our module API
or this document, please post on our message boards at www.neostats.net. 

************************************************************************
** This document was last updated on January 31st, 2005 by M          **
************************************************************************