From dc342e20703804d2ff2f36458e54e298226d5db0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: joey Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 18:05:45 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] new todo item --- ...or_plugins_written_in_other_languages.mdwn | 47 +++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 47 insertions(+) create mode 100644 doc/todo/support_for_plugins_written_in_other_languages.mdwn diff --git a/doc/todo/support_for_plugins_written_in_other_languages.mdwn b/doc/todo/support_for_plugins_written_in_other_languages.mdwn new file mode 100644 index 000000000..65fd84f90 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/todo/support_for_plugins_written_in_other_languages.mdwn @@ -0,0 +1,47 @@ +ikiwiki should support writing plugins in other languages + +While it should be possible to call ikiwiki from C, doing the callbacks in C is +probably hard. And accessing perl at all from C is ugly. It also doesn't +make it very easy to write plugins in an interpreted language, since that +would mean linking perl and eg, python in one binary. (Been there, done +that, never again.) + +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. + +Here's how it would basically look, not showing the actual XML RPC used to +pass values. + + -> init + <- 1 + <- hook type => preprocess, id => foo + -> 1 + <- done 1 + -> 1 + + -> callback type => preprocess id => foo, page => bar + <- 1 + <- getconfig url + -> "http://example.com", ... + <- debug "foo" + -> 1 + <- done "my return value" + -> 1 + +From ikiwiki's POV: + +* ikiwiki always initiates each conversation with a command +* After sending a command, ikiwiki reads commands, dispatches them, and + returns the results, in a loop. +* The loop continues until the plugin calls the "done" command, with a value + that is the return value for the command that initiated the conversation. + +From the plugin's POV: + +* 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 + like config values; and to call ikiwiki functions. +* When the callback returns, use XML::RPC to send a "done" command to ikiwiki. -- 2.26.2