Net::xAP(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation Net::xAP(3)NAMENet::xAP - A base class for protocols such as IMAP, ACAP, IMSP, and
ICAP.
SYNOPSIS
"use Net::xAP;"
WARNING: This code is in alpha release. Expect the interface to change
from release to release.
DESCRIPTION
This base class implements the substrate common across the IMAP, ACAP,
IMSP, and ICAP protocols. It provides the interface to the network
calls and implements a small amount of glue to assist in implementing
interfaces to this protocol family.
END-PROGRAMMER METHODS
The following methods are potentially useful for end-programmers.
last_command_time
Return what time the most recent command was sent to the server. The
return value is a "time" integer.
connection
Returns the connection object being used by the object.
PROTOCOL-DEVELOPER METHODS
The following methods are probably only useful to protocol developers.
new $host, $peerport [, %options]
Create a new instance of Net::xAP, connects to $host, and returns a
reference to the object.
The $host parameter is the name of the host to contact. If $host
starts with a "/" character, the parameter is assumed to contain the
name of a program and the given program is spawned as a child process.
This is useful for driving programs that can be operated interactively
from the command-line, such as UW-imapd.
The $peerport parameter specifies the TCP port used for the network
connection. The parameter should be in the syntax understood by
"IO::Socket::INET->new". This parameter is ignored if a child process
is spawned.
The %options parameter specifies any options to use. The following
list enumerates the options, and their default values, currently
understood by "Net::xAP":
"Synchronous => 1"
Setting this option causes "Net::xAP" to issue a "response" method
immediately after sending the command to the server. Currently,
this option should always be left on. Non-synchronous
command/response processing has not been tested.
One down-side to Synchronous mode is that commands cannot be sent
to the server from within a callback. Instead, the results should
be saved, and the commands should be sent after the current command
has completed.
"NonSyncLits => 0"
Setting this option causes "Net::xAP" to use non-synchronizing
literals. This should only be enabled if the protocol and server
this feature.
"Debug => 0"
Setting this option causes debug output to be written to "stderr".
See the "debug_print" method for a description of the output
format.
"InternetDraft => 0"
Setting this option adds support for various extensions that are
still in Internet Draft. This option is only intended to be used
by protocol developers. Most bug reports related to this feature
will be ignored.
All options are also passed to the internal call to
"IO::Socket::INET->new", unless a child IMAP process is spawned.
command $callback, $command [, @args]
The "command" is used to send commands to the server.
The $callback parameter should be a reference to a subroutine. It will
be called when a response is received from the server.
@args is a list of $type-$value pairs. The $type indicates what type
of data type to use for $value. This is used to control the encoding
necessary to pass the command arguments to the server.
The following $types are understood:
"ATOM"
The data will sent raw to the server.
"ASTRING"
The data will be sent to the server as an atom, a quoted string, or
a literal depending on the content of $value.
"PARENS"
The data in $value will be interpreted as an array reference and be
sent inside a pair of parentheses.
"STRING"
The data will be sent to the server as either a quoted string or
literal depending on the content of $value.
"QSTRING"
The data will be sent to the server as a quoted string.
If the "Synchronous" option is set this method will return a response
object, otherwise it will return the sequence number associated with
the command just sent to the server.
parse_fields $str
Splits the specified $str into fields. A list reference is returned
contain the individual fields. Parenthetical clauses are represented
as nested list references of arbitrary depth. Quoted strings are
stripped of their surrounding quotes and escaped "\\" and "\""
characters are unescaped.
response
Reads response lines from the server until one of the lines is a
completion response. For each response, the appropriate callbacks are
triggered. This is automatically called if the "Synchronous" option is
on.
getline
Get one 'line' of data from the server, including any literal payloads.
close_connection
Closes the connection to the server, returning the results of the
operation.
sequence
Returns the sequence number of the last command issued to the server.
next_sequence
Returns the sequence number that will be assigned to the next command
issued.
pending
Returns a list of sequence numbers for the commands that are still
awaiting a complete response from the server.
The list is sorted numerically.
debug [$boolean]
Returns the value of the debug option for the object.
If $boolean is specified, the debug state is set to the given value.
debug_print $direction, $text
Prints $text to "STDERR", preceded by an indication of traffic
direction, the object reference, and a timestamp. The parameter
$direction is used to indicate the direction of the traffic related to
the debug call. Use 0 for data being sent to the server, or 1 for data
coming from the server.
debug_text $text
A stub method intended to be overridden by subclasses. It provides
subclasses with the ability to make alterations to $text before being
output by "debug_print" method. The base class version does no
alteration of $text.
RESPONSE OBJECTS
A response object is the data type returned by the "response" method.
A few convenience routines are provided at the Net::xAP level that are
likely to be common across several protocols.
new
Creates a new response object.
tag
Returns the tag associated with the response object.
status
Returns the command status associated with the response object. This
will be "OK", "NO", or "BAD".
text
Returns the human readable text assocated with the status of the
response object.
This will typically be overridden by a subclass of the "xAP" class to
handle things like status codes.
status_code
Returns a list reference containing the response code portion of the
server response.
CAVEATS
With only a few exceptions, the methods provided in this class are
intended for use by developers adding support for additional protocols.
Don't muck with this level, unless you know what you're doing.
AUTHOR
Kevin Johnson <kjj@pobox.com>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1997-1999 Kevin Johnson <kjj@pobox.com>.
All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can
redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
perl v5.10.0 2009-02-21 Net::xAP(3)
