goirc/README.md

GoIRC Client Framework
======================

### Acquiring and Building

Pretty simple, really:

	go get github.com/fluffle/goirc/client

There is some example code that demonstrates usage of the library in `client.go`. This will connect to freenode and join `#go-nuts` by default, so be careful ;-)

Please note: this branch has been feature-frozen for a while. Check out master
for some interesting (but not backwards-compatible) changes that will become
the new go1 branch when they're stable. See `fix/goirc.go` and the README there
for a quick way to migrate.

### Using the framework

Synopsis:

    import "flag"
	import irc "github.com/fluffle/goirc/client"

	func main() {
        flag.Parse() // parses the logging flags.
		c := irc.SimpleClient("nick")
		// Optionally, enable SSL
		c.SSL = true

		// Add handlers to do things here!
		// e.g. join a channel on connect.
		c.AddHandler(irc.CONNECTED,
			func(conn *irc.Conn, line *irc.Line) { conn.Join("#channel") })
		// And a signal on disconnect
		quit := make(chan bool)
		c.AddHandler(irc.DISCONNECTED,
			func(conn *irc.Conn, line *irc.Line) { quit <- true })

		// Tell client to connect
		if err := c.Connect("irc.freenode.net"); err != nil {
			fmt.Printf("Connection error: %s\n", err.String())
		}

		// Wait for disconnect
		<-quit
	}

The test client provides a good (if basic) example of how to use the framework.
Reading `client/handlers.go` gives a more in-depth look at how handlers can be
written. Commands to be sent to the server (e.g. PRIVMSG) are methods of the
main `*Conn` struct, and can be found in `client/commands.go` (not all of the
possible IRC commands are implemented yet). Events are produced directly from
the messages from the IRC server, so you have to handle e.g. "332" for
`RPL_TOPIC` to get the topic for a channel.

The vast majority of handlers implemented within the framework deal with state
tracking of all nicks in any channels that the client is also present in. These
handers are in `client/state_handlers.go`. State tracking is optional, disabled
by default, and can be enabled and disabled by calling `EnableStateTracking()`
and `DisableStateTracking()` respectively. Doing this while connected to an IRC
server will probably result in an inconsistent state and a lot of warnings to
STDERR ;-)

### Misc.

Sorry the documentation is crap. Use the source, Luke.

[Feedback](mailto:a.bramley@gmail.com) on design decisions is welcome. I am
indebted to Matt Gruen for his work on
[go-bot](http://code.google.com/p/go-bot/source/browse/irc.go) which inspired
the re-organisation and channel-based communication structure of `*Conn.send()`
and `*Conn.recv()`. I'm sure things could be more asynchronous, still.

This code is (c) 2009-11 Alex Bramley, and released under the same licence terms
as Go itself.