C Plugin HOWTO

Introduction

C plugins are native plugins. They have complete access to all of the API, and can do basically whatever they want. All of the protocol plugins, as well as the Mono, Perl, and Tcl loader plugins are written in C.

Getting Started

To develop a plugin you need to have the libpurple and (for UI plugins) the Pidgin/Finch source code or development headers. It is generally a good idea to compile against the same version of Pidgin that you are running. You may also want to develop against the code in our Monotone repository if you need to use a new feature. Please do not abuse our Monotone repository, however.

All plugins must have PURPLE_PLUGINS defined and the definition must be before including any libpurple, Pidgin, or Finch header files. Failure to do so can lead to strange errors that are hard to diagnose. Just don't forget!

Hello World!

I know every tutorial has a hello world, so why should libpurple be any different?

#define PURPLE_PLUGINS
 
#include <glib.h>
 
#include "notify.h"
#include "plugin.h"
#include "version.h"
 
static gboolean
plugin_load(PurplePlugin *plugin) {
    purple_notify_message(plugin, PURPLE_NOTIFY_MSG_INFO, "Hello World!",
                        "This is the Hello World! plugin :)", NULL, NULL, NULL);
 
    return TRUE;
}
 
static PurplePluginInfo info = {
    PURPLE_PLUGIN_MAGIC,
    PURPLE_MAJOR_VERSION,
    PURPLE_MINOR_VERSION,
    PURPLE_PLUGIN_STANDARD,
    NULL,
    0,
    NULL,
    PURPLE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT,
 
    "core-hello_world",
    "Hello World!",
    VERSION,
 
    "Hello World Plugin",
    "Hello World Plugin",
    NULL,
    "http://helloworld.tld",
 
    plugin_load,
    NULL,
    NULL,
 
    NULL,
    NULL,
    NULL,
    NULL,
    NULL,
    NULL,
    NULL,
    NULL
};
 
static void
init_plugin(PurplePlugin *plugin)
{
}
 
PURPLE_INIT_PLUGIN(hello_world, init_plugin, info);

Okay, so what does all this mean? We start off by defining PURPLE_PLUGINS like described before. Next we include glib.h, mainly for gboolean and the glib wrappers of the standard C types.

Next, we include plugin.h which has all the plugin specific stuff that we need. For example: PurplePlugin, PurplePluginInfo, PURPLE_PLUGIN_MAGIC, and PURPLE_INIT_PLUGIN().

Our last include is version.h which defines PURPLE_MAJOR_VERSION, and PURPLE_MINOR_VERSION. There is not much you need to know about these, except that they are required and will stop your plugin from crashing Pidgin when something has changed that your plugin does not know about yet.

plugin_load is not required. It is called when the plugin is loaded so that you can initialize any variables and so on. In this plugin we'll just use it to display a message.

Next we have the PurplePluginInfo structure. Every plugin MUST have one of these. Below is a code snipet of the same struct used in hello_world with comments describing what each is.

static PurplePluginInfo info = {
    PURPLE_PLUGIN_MAGIC,    /* Plugin magic, this must always be
                                   PURPLE_PLUGIN_MAGIC.
                                  /
    PURPLE_MAJOR_VERSION,   /* This is also defined in libpurple.  It helps
                                   libpurple's plugin system determine which
                                   version of libpurple this plugin was
                                   compiled for, and whether loading it will
                                   cause problems.
                                  /
    PURPLE_MINOR_VERSION,   /* See previous */
    PURPLE_PLUGIN_STANDARD, /* PurplePluginType: There are 4 different
                                   values for this field.  The first is
                                   PURPLE_PLUGIN_UNKNOWN, which should not be
                                   used.  The second is PURPLE_PLUGIN_STANDARD;
                                   this is the value most plugins will use.
                                   Next, we have PURPLE_PLUGIN_LOADER; this is
                                   the type you want to load if your plugin
                                   is going to make it possible to load non-
                                   native plugins.  For example, the Perl and
                                   Tcl loader plugins are of this type.
                                   Last, we have PURPLE_PLUGIN_PROTOCOL.  If
                                   your plugin is going to allow the user to
                                   connect to another network, this is the
                                   type you'd want to use.
                                  /
    NULL,                   /* This field is the UI requirement.  If you're
                                   writing a core plugin, this must be NULL
                                   and the plugin must not contain any UI
                                   code.  If you're writing a Pidgin plugin,
                                   you need to use PIDGIN_PLUGIN_TYPE.  If you
                                   are writing a Finch plugin, you would use
                                   FINCH_PLUGIN_TYPE.
                                  /
    0,                      /* This field is for plugin flags.  Currently,
                                   the only flag available to plugins is
                                   invisible (PURPLE_PLUGIN_FLAG_INVISIBLE).
                                   It causes the plugin to NOT appear in the
                                   list of plugins.
                                  /
    NULL,                   /* This is a GList of plugin dependencies.  In
                                   other words, a GList of plugin id's that
                                   your plugin depends on.  Set this value to
                                   NULL no matter what.  If your plugin has
                                   dependencies, set them at run-time in the
                                   plugin_init function.
                                  /
    PURPLE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT,/* This is the priority libpurple with give your
                                   plugin.  There are three possible values
                                   for this field, PURPLE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT,
                                   PURPLE_PRIORITY_HIGHEST, and
                                   PURPLE_PRIORITY_LOWEST
                                  /
 
    "core-hello_world",     /* This is your plugin's id.  There is a whole
                                   page dedicated to this in the Related Pages
                                   section of the API docs.
                                  /
    "Hello World!",         /* This is your plugin's name.  This is what
                                   will be displayed for your plugin in the UI.
                                  /
    1.1,                    /* This is the version of your plugin. */
 
    "Hello World Plugin",   /* This is the summary of your plugin.  It
                                   should be a short little blurb.  The UI
                                   determines where, if at all, to display
                                   this.
                                  /
    "Hello World Plugin",   /* This is the description of your plugin. It
                                   can be as long and as descriptive as you
                                   like.  And like the summary, it's up to the
                                   UI where, if at all, to display this (and
                                   how much to display).
                                  /
    NULL,                   /* This is where you can put your name and
                                   email address.
                                  /
    "http://helloworld.tld",/* This is the website for the plugin.  This
                                   tells users where to find new versions,
                                   report bugs, etc.
                                  /
 
    plugin_load,            /* This is a pointer to a function for
                                   libpurple to call when it is loading the
                                   plugin.  It should be of the type:
 
                                   gboolean plugin_load(PurplePlugin *plugin)
 
                                   Returning FALSE will stop the loading of the
                                   plugin.  Anything else would evaluate as
                                   TRUE and the plugin will continue to load.
                                  /
    NULL,                   /* Same as above except it is called when
                                   libpurple tries to unload your plugin.  It
                                   should be of the type:
 
                                   gboolean plugin_unload(PurplePlugin *plugin)
 
                                   Returning TRUE will tell libpurple to
                                   continue unloading while FALSE will stop
                                   the unloading of your plugin.
                                  /
    NULL,                   /* Similar to the two above members, except
                                   this is called when libpurple tries to
                                   destory the plugin.  This is generally only
                                   called when for some reason or another the
                                   plugin fails to probe correctly.  It should
                                   be of the type:
 
                                   void plugin_destroy(PurplePlugin *plugin)
                                  /
 
    NULL,                   /* This is a pointer to a UI-specific struct.
                                   For a Pidgin plugin it will be a pointer to a
                                   PidginPluginUiInfo struct, for example.
                                  /
    NULL,                   /* This is a pointer to either a 
                                   PurplePluginLoaderInfo struct or a
                                   PurplePluginProtocolInfo struct, and is
                                   beyond the scope of this document.
                                  /
    NULL,                   /* This is a pointer to a PurplePluginUiInfo
                                   struct.  It is a core/ui split way for
                                   core plugins to have a UI configuration
                                   frame.  You can find an example of this
                                   code in:
                                     libpurple/plugins/pluginpref_example.c
                                  /
    NULL,                   /* This is a function pointer where you can define
                                   "plugin actions".  The UI controls how
                                   they're displayed.  It should be of the
                                   type:
 
                                   GList *function_name(PurplePlugin *plugin, 
                                                        gpointer context)
 
                                    It must return a GList of
                                    PurplePluginActions.
                                  /
    NULL,                   /* This is a pointer reserved for future use.
                                   We set it to NULL to indicate we don't
                                   need it.
                                  /
    NULL,                   /* This is a pointer reserved for future use.
                                   We set it to NULL to indicate we don't
                                   need it.
                                  /
    NULL,                   /* This is a pointer reserved for future use.
                                   We set it to NULL to indicate we don't
                                   need it.
                                  /
    NULL                    /* This is a pointer reserved for future use.
                                   We set it to NULL to indicate we don't
                                   need it.
                                  /
};

Finally we have init_plugin and PURPLE_INIT_PLUGIN. init_plugin is a function that gets called when libpurple probes the plugin. Most plugins will add their preferences to the pref tree here–more about that later. PURPLE_INIT_PLUGIN is a macro that EVERY plugin MUST have. PURPLE_INIT_PLUGIN tells libpurple some very basic things about your plugin, like what name to use if the plugin is compiled staticly, the init_plugin function, and the name of the PurplePluginInfo structure. As you may have guessed, this also gets read when libpurple is probing your plugin. If this is missing, the plugin will not load.