Instead, I'm considering using XML RPC to let ikiwiki communicate with a
child process that it can spawn. The child could then be any program,
-written in any language. It could talk XML RPC via stdio.
+written in any language. It could talk XML RPC via stdio. (This assumes
+that most languages allow easily serialising XML::RPC calls and responses
+to a file descriptor. Some XML RPC implementations may be hardcoded to use
+http..)
Here's how it would basically look, not showing the actual XML RPC used to
pass values.
- -> init
+ -> import
<- 1
<- hook type => preprocess, id => foo
-> 1
<- done 1
-> 1
- -> callback type => preprocess id => foo, page => bar
+ -> callback type => preprocess, id => foo, page => bar
<- 1
<- getconfig url
-> "http://example.com", ...
* It's probably sitting in an XML::RPC loop.
* Get a command from ikiwiki.
-* Call the appropriate callback.
-* The callback can use XML::RPC to communicate with ikiwiki to get things
+* Disaptch the command to the appropriate function. The main commands seem
+ to be "import" and "callback"; callback can call any function that the
+ plugin has registered a hook for. Others commands might include
+ "rcs_*" for RCS plugins..
+* The function can use XML::RPC to communicate with ikiwiki to get things
like config values; and to call ikiwiki functions.
* When the callback returns, use XML::RPC to send a "done" command to ikiwiki.
+
+Simple enough, really. ikiwiki would need to add accessor functions for
+all important variables, such as "getconfig" and "setconfig". It would
+probably be easiest for ikiwiki to dispatch a command by just evaling
+IkiWiki::$command.
+
+Plugin programs could be dropped into /usr/share/ikiwiki/plugins/, and
+load_plugin() would just open2 the plugin program and call import.