.. _echobot: =============================== SleekXMPP Quickstart - Echo Bot =============================== .. note:: If you have any issues working through this quickstart guide or the other tutorials here, please either send a message to the `mailing list <http://groups.google.com/group/sleekxmpp-discussion>`_ or join the chat room at `sleek@conference.jabber.org <xmpp:sleek@conference.jabber.org?join>`_. If you have not yet installed SleekXMPP, do so now by either checking out a version from `Github <http://github.com/fritzy/SleekXMPP>`_, or installing it using ``pip`` or ``easy_install``. .. code-block:: sh pip install sleekxmpp # Or: easy_install sleekxmpp As a basic starting project, we will create an echo bot which will reply to any messages sent to it. We will also go through adding some basic command line configuration for enabling or disabling debug log outputs and setting the username and password for the bot. For the command line options processing, we will use the built-in ``optparse`` module and the ``getpass`` module for reading in passwords. TL;DR Just Give Me the Code --------------------------- As you wish: :ref:`the completed example <echobot_complete>`. Overview -------- To get started, here is a brief outline of the structure that the final project will have: .. code-block:: python #!/usr/bin/env python # -*- coding: utf-8 -*- import sys import logging import getpass from optparse import OptionParser import sleekxmpp '''Here we will create out echo bot class''' if __name__ == '__main__': '''Here we will configure and read command line options''' '''Here we will instantiate our echo bot''' '''Finally, we connect the bot and start listening for messages''' Default Encoding ---------------- XMPP requires support for UTF-8 and so SleekXMPP must use UTF-8 as well. In Python3 this is simple because Unicode is the default string type. For Python2.6+ the situation is not as easy because standard strings are simply byte arrays and use ASCII. We can get Python to use UTF-8 as the default encoding by including: .. code-block:: python if sys.version_info < (3, 0): from sleekxmpp.util.misc_ops import setdefaultencoding setdefaultencoding('utf8') .. warning:: Until we are able to ensure that SleekXMPP will always use Unicode in Python2.6+, this may cause issues embedding SleekXMPP into other applications which assume ASCII encoding. Creating the EchoBot Class -------------------------- There are three main types of entities within XMPP — servers, components, and clients. Since our echo bot will only be responding to a few people, and won't need to remember thousands of users, we will use a client connection. A client connection is the same type that you use with your standard IM client such as Pidgin or Psi. SleekXMPP comes with a :class:`ClientXMPP <sleekxmpp.clientxmpp.ClientXMPP>` class which we can extend to add our message echoing feature. :class:`ClientXMPP <sleekxmpp.clientxmpp.ClientXMPP>` requires the parameters ``jid`` and ``password``, so we will let our ``EchoBot`` class accept those as well. .. code-block:: python class EchoBot(sleekxmpp.ClientXMPP): def __init__(self, jid, password): super(EchoBot, self).__init__(jid, password) Handling Session Start ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The XMPP spec requires clients to broadcast its presence and retrieve its roster (buddy list) once it connects and establishes a session with the XMPP server. Until these two tasks are completed, some servers may not deliver or send messages or presence notifications to the client. So we now need to be sure that we retrieve our roster and send an initial presence once the session has started. To do that, we will register an event handler for the :term:`session_start` event. .. code-block:: python def __init__(self, jid, password): super(EchoBot, self).__init__(jid, password) self.add_event_handler('session_start', self.start) Since we want the method ``self.start`` to execute when the :term:`session_start` event is triggered, we also need to define the ``self.start`` handler. .. code-block:: python def start(self, event): self.send_presence() self.get_roster() .. warning:: Not sending an initial presence and retrieving the roster when using a client instance can prevent your program from receiving presence notifications or messages depending on the XMPP server you have chosen. Our event handler, like every event handler, accepts a single parameter which typically is the stanza that was received that caused the event. In this case, ``event`` will just be an empty dictionary since there is no associated data. Our first task of sending an initial presence is done using :meth:`send_presence <sleekxmpp.basexmpp.BaseXMPP.send_presence>`. Calling :meth:`send_presence <sleekxmpp.basexmpp.BaseXMPP.send_presence>` without any arguments will send the simplest stanza allowed in XMPP: .. code-block:: xml <presence /> The second requirement is fulfilled using :meth:`get_roster <sleekxmpp.clientxmpp.ClientXMPP.get_roster>`, which will send an IQ stanza requesting the roster to the server and then wait for the response. You may be wondering what :meth:`get_roster <sleekxmpp.clientxmpp.ClientXMPP.get_roster>` returns since we are not saving any return value. The roster data is saved by an internal handler to ``self.roster``, and in the case of a :class:`ClientXMPP <sleekxmpp.clientxmpp.ClientXMPP>` instance to ``self.client_roster``. (The difference between ``self.roster`` and ``self.client_roster`` is that ``self.roster`` supports storing roster information for multiple JIDs, which is useful for components, whereas ``self.client_roster`` stores roster data for just the client's JID.) It is possible for a timeout to occur while waiting for the server to respond, which can happen if the network is excessively slow or the server is no longer responding. In that case, an :class:`IQTimeout <sleekxmpp.exceptions.IQTimeout>` is raised. Similarly, an :class:`IQError <sleekxmpp.exceptions.IQError>` exception can be raised if the request contained bad data or requested the roster for the wrong user. In either case, you can wrap the ``get_roster()`` call in a ``try``/``except`` block to retry the roster retrieval process. The XMPP stanzas from the roster retrieval process could look like this: .. code-block:: xml <iq type="get"> <query xmlns="jabber:iq:roster" /> </iq> <iq type="result" to="echobot@example.com" from="example.com"> <query xmlns="jabber:iq:roster"> <item jid="friend@example.com" subscription="both" /> </query> </iq> Responding to Messages ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now that an ``EchoBot`` instance handles :term:`session_start`, we can begin receiving and responding to messages. Now we can register a handler for the :term:`message` event that is raised whenever a messsage is received. .. code-block:: python def __init__(self, jid, password): super(EchoBot, self).__init__(jid, password) self.add_event_handler('session_start', self.start) self.add_event_handler('message', self.message) The :term:`message` event is fired whenever a ``<message />`` stanza is received, including for group chat messages, errors, etc. Properly responding to messages thus requires checking the ``'type'`` interface of the message :term:`stanza object`. For responding to only messages addressed to our bot (and not from a chat room), we check that the type is either ``normal`` or ``chat``. (Other potential types are ``error``, ``headline``, and ``groupchat``.) .. code-block:: python def message(self, msg): if msg['type'] in ('normal', 'chat'): msg.reply("Thanks for sending:\n%s" % msg['body']).send() Let's take a closer look at the ``.reply()`` method used above. For message stanzas, ``.reply()`` accepts the parameter ``body`` (also as the first positional argument), which is then used as the value of the ``<body />`` element of the message. Setting the appropriate ``to`` JID is also handled by ``.reply()``. Another way to have sent the reply message would be to use :meth:`send_message <sleekxmpp.basexmpp.BaseXMPP.send_message>`, which is a convenience method for generating and sending a message based on the values passed to it. If we were to use this method, the above code would look as so: .. code-block:: python def message(self, msg): if msg['type'] in ('normal', 'chat'): self.send_message(mto=msg['from'], mbody='Thanks for sending:\n%s' % msg['body']) Whichever method you choose to use, the results in action will look like this: .. code-block:: xml <message to="echobot@example.com" from="someuser@example.net" type="chat"> <body>Hej!</body> </message> <message to="someuser@example.net" type="chat"> <body>Thanks for sending: Hej!</body> </message> .. note:: XMPP does not require stanzas sent by a client to include a ``from`` attribute, and leaves that responsibility to the XMPP server. However, if a sent stanza does include a ``from`` attribute, it must match the full JID of the client or some servers will reject it. SleekXMPP thus leaves out the ``from`` attribute when replying using a client connection. Command Line Arguments and Logging ---------------------------------- While this isn't part of SleekXMPP itself, we do want our echo bot program to be able to accept a JID and password from the command line instead of hard coding them. We will use the ``optparse`` module for this, though there are several alternative methods, including the newer ``argparse`` module. We want to accept three parameters: the JID for the echo bot, its password, and a flag for displaying the debugging logs. We also want these to be optional parameters, since passing a password directly through the command line can be a security risk. .. code-block:: python if __name__ == '__main__': optp = OptionParser() optp.add_option('-d', '--debug', help='set logging to DEBUG', action='store_const', dest='loglevel', const=logging.DEBUG, default=logging.INFO) optp.add_option("-j", "--jid", dest="jid", help="JID to use") optp.add_option("-p", "--password", dest="password", help="password to use") opts, args = optp.parse_args() if opts.jid is None: opts.jid = raw_input("Username: ") if opts.password is None: opts.password = getpass.getpass("Password: ") Since we included a flag for enabling debugging logs, we need to configure the ``logging`` module to behave accordingly. .. code-block:: python if __name__ == '__main__': # .. option parsing from above .. logging.basicConfig(level=opts.loglevel, format='%(levelname)-8s %(message)s') Connecting to the Server and Processing --------------------------------------- There are three steps remaining until our echo bot is complete: 1. We need to instantiate the bot. 2. The bot needs to connect to an XMPP server. 3. We have to instruct the bot to start running and processing messages. Creating the bot is straightforward, but we can also perform some configuration at this stage. For example, let's say we want our bot to support `service discovery <http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0030.html>`_ and `pings <http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0199.html>`_: .. code-block:: python if __name__ == '__main__': # .. option parsing and logging steps from above xmpp = EchoBot(opts.jid, opts.password) xmpp.register_plugin('xep_0030') # Service Discovery xmpp.register_plugin('xep_0199') # Ping If the ``EchoBot`` class had a hard dependency on a plugin, we could register that plugin in the ``EchoBot.__init__`` method instead. .. note:: If you are using the OpenFire server, you will need to include an additional configuration step. OpenFire supports a different version of SSL than what most servers and SleekXMPP support. .. code-block:: python import ssl xmpp.ssl_version = ssl.PROTOCOL_SSLv3 Now we're ready to connect and begin echoing messages. If you have the package ``dnspython`` installed, then the :meth:`sleekxmpp.clientxmpp.ClientXMPP` method will perform a DNS query to find the appropriate server to connect to for the given JID. If you do not have ``dnspython``, then SleekXMPP will attempt to connect to the hostname used by the JID, unless an address tuple is supplied to :meth:`sleekxmpp.clientxmpp.ClientXMPP`. .. code-block:: python if __name__ == '__main__': # .. option parsing & echo bot configuration if xmpp.connect(): xmpp.process(block=True) else: print('Unable to connect') .. note:: For Google Talk users withouth ``dnspython`` installed, the above code should look like: .. code-block:: python if __name__ == '__main__': # .. option parsing & echo bot configuration if xmpp.connect(('talk.google.com', 5222)): xmpp.process(block=True) else: print('Unable to connect') To begin responding to messages, you'll see we called :meth:`sleekxmpp.basexmpp.BaseXMPP.process` which will start the event handling, send queue, and XML reader threads. It will also call the :meth:`sleekxmpp.plugins.base.base_plugin.post_init` method on all registered plugins. By passing ``block=True`` to :meth:`sleekxmpp.basexmpp.BaseXMPP.process` we are running the main processing loop in the main thread of execution. The :meth:`sleekxmpp.basexmpp.BaseXMPP.process` call will not return until after SleekXMPP disconnects. If you need to run the client in the background for another program, use ``block=False`` to spawn the processing loop in its own thread. .. note:: Before 1.0, controlling the blocking behaviour of :meth:`sleekxmpp.basexmpp.BaseXMPP.process` was done via the ``threaded`` argument. This arrangement was a source of confusion because some users interpreted that as controlling whether or not SleekXMPP used threads at all, instead of how the processing loop itself was spawned. The statements ``xmpp.process(threaded=False)`` and ``xmpp.process(block=True)`` are equivalent. .. _echobot_complete: The Final Product ----------------- Here then is what the final result should look like after working through the guide above. The code can also be found in the SleekXMPP `examples directory <http://github.com/fritzy/SleekXMPP/tree/master/examples>`_. .. compound:: You can run the code using: .. code-block:: sh python echobot.py -d -j echobot@example.com which will prompt for the password and then begin echoing messages. To test, open your regular IM client and start a chat with the echo bot. Messages you send to it should be mirrored back to you. Be careful if you are using the same JID for the echo bot that you also have logged in with another IM client. Messages could be routed to your IM client instead of the bot. .. include:: ../../examples/echo_client.py :literal: