Send/Receive IQ Stanzas ======================= Unlike :class:`~sleekxmpp.stanza.message.Message` and :class:`~sleekxmpp.stanza.presence.Presence` stanzas which only use text data for basic usage, :class:`~sleekxmpp.stanza.iq.Iq` stanzas require using XML payloads, and generally entail creating a new SleekXMPP plugin to provide the necessary convenience methods to make working with them easier. Basic Use --------- XMPP's use of :class:`~sleekxmpp.stanza.iq.Iq` stanzas is built around namespaced ``<query />`` elements. For clients, just sending the empty ``<query />`` element will suffice for retrieving information. For example, a very basic implementation of service discovery would just need to be able to send: .. code-block:: xml <iq to="user@example.com" type="get" id="1"> <query xmlns="http://jabber.org/protocol/disco#info" /> </iq> Creating Iq Stanzas ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SleekXMPP provides built-in support for creating basic :class:`~sleekxmpp.stanza.iq.Iq` stanzas this way. The relevant methods are: * :meth:`~sleekxmpp.basexmpp.BaseXMPP.make_iq` * :meth:`~sleekxmpp.basexmpp.BaseXMPP.make_iq_get` * :meth:`~sleekxmpp.basexmpp.BaseXMPP.make_iq_set` * :meth:`~sleekxmpp.basexmpp.BaseXMPP.make_iq_result` * :meth:`~sleekxmpp.basexmpp.BaseXMPP.make_iq_error` * :meth:`~sleekxmpp.basexmpp.BaseXMPP.make_iq_query` These methods all follow the same pattern: create or modify an existing :class:`~sleekxmpp.stanza.iq.Iq` stanza, set the ``'type'`` value based on the method name, and finally add a ``<query />`` element with the given namespace. For example, to produce the query above, you would use: .. code-block:: python self.make_iq_get(queryxmlns='http://jabber.org/protocol/disco#info', ito='user@example.com') Sending Iq Stanzas ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Once an :class:`~sleekxmpp.stanza.iq.Iq` stanza is created, sending it over the wire is done using its :meth:`~sleekxmpp.stanza.iq.Iq.send()` method, like any other stanza object. However, there are a few extra options to control how to wait for the query's response. These options are: * ``block``: The default behaviour is that :meth:`~sleekxmpp.stanza.iq.Iq.send()` will block until a response is received and the response stanza will be the return value. Setting ``block`` to ``False`` will cause the call to return immediately. In which case, you will need to arrange some way to capture the response stanza if you need it. * ``timeout``: When using the blocking behaviour, the call will eventually timeout with an error. The default timeout is 30 seconds, but this may be overidden two ways. To change the timeout globally, set: .. code-block:: python self.response_timeout = 10 To change the timeout for a single call, the ``timeout`` parameter works: .. code-block:: python iq.send(timeout=60) * ``callback``: When not using a blocking call, using the ``callback`` argument is a simple way to register a handler that will execute whenever a response is finally received. Using this method, there is no timeout limit. In case you need to remove the callback, the name of the newly created callback is returned. .. code-block:: python cb_name = iq.send(callback=self.a_callback) # ... later if we need to cancel self.remove_handler(cb_name) Properly working with :class:`~sleekxmpp.stanza.iq.Iq` stanzas requires handling the intended, normal flow, error responses, and timed out requests. To make this easier, two exceptions may be thrown by :meth:`~sleekxmpp.stanza.iq.Iq.send()`: :exc:`~sleekxmpp.exceptions.IqError` and :exc:`~sleekxmpp.exceptions.IqTimeout`. These exceptions only apply to the default, blocking calls. .. code-block:: python try: resp = iq.send() # ... do stuff with expected Iq result except IqError as e: err_resp = e.iq # ... handle error case except IqTimeout: # ... no response received in time pass If you do not care to distinguish between errors and timeouts, then you can combine both cases with a generic :exc:`~sleekxmpp.exceptions.XMPPError` exception: .. code-block:: python try: resp = iq.send() except XMPPError: # ... Don't care about the response pass Advanced Use ------------ Going beyond the basics provided by SleekXMPP requires building at least a rudimentary SleekXMPP plugin to create a :term:`stanza object` for interfacting with the :class:`~sleekxmpp.stanza.iq.Iq` payload. .. seealso:: * :ref:`create-plugin` * :ref:`work-with-stanzas` * :ref:`using-handlers-matchers` The typical way to respond to :class:`~sleekxmpp.stanza.iq.Iq` requests is to register stream handlers. As an example, suppose we create a stanza class named ``CustomXEP`` which uses the XML element ``<query xmlns="custom-xep" />``, and has a :attr:`~sleekxmpp.xmlstream.stanzabase.ElementBase.plugin_attrib` value of ``custom_xep``. There are two types of incoming :class:`~sleekxmpp.stanza.iq.Iq` requests: ``get`` and ``set``. You can register a handler that will accept both and then filter by type as needed, as so: .. code-block:: python self.register_handler(Callback( 'CustomXEP Handler', StanzaPath('iq/custom_xep'), self._handle_custom_iq)) # ... def _handle_custom_iq(self, iq): if iq['type'] == 'get': # ... pass elif iq['type'] == 'set': # ... pass else: # ... This will capture error responses too pass If you want to filter out query types beforehand, you can adjust the matching filter by using ``@type=get`` or ``@type=set`` if you are using the recommended :class:`~sleekxmpp.xmlstream.matcher.stanzapath.StanzaPath` matcher. .. code-block:: python self.register_handler(Callback( 'CustomXEP Handler', StanzaPath('iq@type=get/custom_xep'), self._handle_custom_iq_get)) # ... def _handle_custom_iq_get(self, iq): assert(iq['type'] == 'get')