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authorJosé Bollo <jose.bollo@iot.bzh>2016-05-27 22:18:26 +0200
committerJosé Bollo <jose.bollo@iot.bzh>2016-05-27 22:18:26 +0200
commitd96d0533b8326570db57d13b8f808bc62d1a7fa4 (patch)
treedeee50d324e9b8a44f832f4ac77370cee2e42e61 /doc/afb-plugin-writing.md
parentb81bab801d1a39cce7254b0c056d991412ec4331 (diff)
improves documentation
Change-Id: Idbd1b735571c2e35daed23d43f8d5d3990881533 Signed-off-by: José Bollo <jose.bollo@iot.bzh>
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/afb-plugin-writing.md')
-rw-r--r--doc/afb-plugin-writing.md179
1 files changed, 131 insertions, 48 deletions
diff --git a/doc/afb-plugin-writing.md b/doc/afb-plugin-writing.md
index 734b15a5..7861021b 100644
--- a/doc/afb-plugin-writing.md
+++ b/doc/afb-plugin-writing.md
@@ -178,6 +178,65 @@ This plugin example is in *plugins/samples/tic-tac-toe.c*.
This plugin is named ***tictactoe***.
+Dependencies when compiling
+---------------------------
+
+Afb-daemon provides a configuration file for *pkg-config*.
+Typing the command
+
+ pkg-config --cflags afb-daemon
+
+will print the flags to use for compiling, like this:
+
+ $ pkg-config --cflags afb-daemon
+ -I/opt/local/include -I/usr/include/json-c
+
+For linking, you should use
+
+ $ pkg-config --libs afb-daemon
+ -ljson-c
+
+As you see, afb-daemon automatically includes dependency to json-c.
+This is done through the **Requires** keyword of pkg-config
+because almost all plugin will use **json-c**.
+
+If this behaviour is a problem, let us know.
+
+Internally, afb-daemon uses **libsystemd** for its event loop
+and for its binding to D-Bus.
+Plugins developpers are encouraged to also use this library.
+But it is a matter of choice.
+Thus there is no dependency to **libsystemd**.
+
+> Afb-daemon provides no library for plugins.
+> The functions that the plugin need to have are given
+> to the plugin at runtime through pointer using read-only
+> memory.
+
+Header files to include
+-----------------------
+
+The plugin *tictactoe* has the following lines for its includes:
+
+ #define _GNU_SOURCE
+ #include <stdio.h>
+ #include <string.h>
+ #include <json-c/json.h>
+ #include <afb/afb-plugin.h>
+
+The header *afb/afb-plugin.h* includes all the features that a plugin
+needs except two foreign header that must be included by the plugin
+if it needs it:
+
+- *json-c/json.h*: this header must be include to handle json objects;
+- *systemd/sd-event.h*: this must be include to access the main loop;
+- *systemd/sd-bus.h*: this may be include to use dbus connections.
+
+The *tictactoe* plugin does not use systemd features so it is not included.
+
+When including *afb/afb-plugin.h*, the macro **_GNU_SOURCE** must be
+defined.
+
Choosing names
--------------
@@ -248,53 +307,6 @@ It is also a good practice, even for arguments, to not
rely on the case sensitivity and to avoid the use of
names different only by the case.
-Options to set when compiling plugins
--------------------------------------
-
-Afb-daemon provides a configuration file for *pkg-config*.
-Typing the command
-
- pkg-config --cflags afb-daemon
-
-will print the flags to use for compiling, like this:
-
- $ pkg-config --cflags afb-daemon
- -I/opt/local/include -I/usr/include/json-c
-
-For linking, you should use
-
- $ pkg-config --libs afb-daemon
- -ljson-c
-
-As you see, afb-daemon automatically includes dependency to json-c.
-This is done through the **Requires** keyword of pkg-config.
-
-If this behaviour is a problem, let us know.
-
-Header files to include
------------------------
-
-The plugin *tictactoe* has the following lines for its includes:
-
- #define _GNU_SOURCE
- #include <stdio.h>
- #include <string.h>
- #include <json-c/json.h>
- #include <afb/afb-plugin.h>
-
-The header *afb/afb-plugin.h* includes all the features that a plugin
-needs except two foreign header that must be included by the plugin
-if it needs it:
-
-- *json-c/json.h*: this header must be include to handle json objects;
-- *systemd/sd-event.h*: this must be include to access the main loop;
-- *systemd/sd-bus.h*: this may be include to use dbus connections.
-
-The *tictactoe* plugin does not use systemd features so it is not included.
-
-When including *afb/afb-plugin.h*, the macro **_GNU_SOURCE** must be
-defined.
-
Writing a synchronous verb implementation
-----------------------------------------
@@ -755,7 +767,7 @@ The description of the plugin is defined as below.
static const struct AFB_verb_desc_v1 plugin_verbs[] = {
/* VERB'S NAME SESSION MANAGEMENT FUNCTION TO CALL SHORT DESCRIPTION */
{ .name= "new", .session= AFB_SESSION_NONE, .callback= new, .info= "Starts a new game" },
- { .name= "play", .session= AFB_SESSION_NONE, .callback= play, .info= "Tells the server to play" },
+ { .name= "play", .session= AFB_SESSION_NONE, .callback= play, .info= "Asks the server to play" },
{ .name= "move", .session= AFB_SESSION_NONE, .callback= move, .info= "Tells the client move" },
{ .name= "board", .session= AFB_SESSION_NONE, .callback= board, .info= "Get the current board" },
{ .name= "level", .session= AFB_SESSION_NONE, .callback= level, .info= "Set the server level" },
@@ -920,10 +932,81 @@ journal, syslog or kmsg. (See man sd-daemon).
Sending events
--------------
+Since version 0.5, plugins can broadcast events to any potential listener.
+This kind of bradcast is not targeted. Event targeted will come in a future
+version of afb-daemon.
+
+The plugin *tic-tac-toe* broadcasts events when the board changes.
+This is done in the function **changed**:
+
+ /*
+ * signals a change of the board
+ */
+ static void changed(struct board *board, const char *reason)
+ {
+ ...
+ struct json_object *description;
+
+ /* get the description */
+ description = describe(board);
+
+ ...
+
+ afb_daemon_broadcast_event(afbitf->daemon, reason, description);
+ }
+
+The description of the changed board is pushed via the daemon interface.
+
+Within the plugin *tic-tac-toe*, the *reason* indicates the origin of
+the change. For the function **afb_daemon_broadcast_event**, the second
+parameter is the name of the broadcasted event. The third argument is the
+object that is transmitted with the event.
+
+The function **afb_daemon_broadcast_event** is defined as below:
+
+ /*
+ * Broadcasts widely the event of 'name' with the data 'object'.
+ * 'object' can be NULL.
+ * 'daemon' MUST be the daemon given in interface when activating the plugin.
+ */
+ void afb_daemon_broadcast_event(struct afb_daemon daemon, const char *name, struct json_object *object);
+
+In fact the event name received by the listener is prefixed with
+the name of the plugin. So when the change occurs after a move, the
+reason is **move** and then the clients receive the event **tictactoe/move**.
+
+> Note that nothing is said about the case sensitivity of event names.
+> However, the event is always prefixed with the name that the plugin
+> declared, with the same case, followed with a slash /.
+> Thus it is safe to compare event using a case sensitive comparison.
+
Writing an asynchronous verb implementation
-------------------------------------------
+/*
+ * signals a change of the board
+ */
+static void changed(struct board *board, const char *reason)
+{
+ struct waiter *waiter, *next;
+ struct json_object *description;
+
+ /* get the description */
+ description = describe(board);
+
+ waiter = board->waiters;
+ board->waiters = NULL;
+ while (waiter != NULL) {
+ next = waiter->next;
+ afb_req_success(waiter->req, json_object_get(description), reason);
+ afb_req_unref(waiter->req);
+ free(waiter);
+ waiter = next;
+ }
+
+ afb_event_sender_push(afb_daemon_get_event_sender(afbitf->daemon), reason, description);
+}
How to build a plugin
---------------------