/** @page plugin-ids Plugin IDs

@section Introduction

Every plugin contains a unique identifier to prevent duplicate plugin

loading and conflicts. Third-party plugins (that is, plugins written by

anyone who is not a libpurple, Pidgin, or Finch developer) are expected

to use a plugin ID that follows a specific format. This format

categorizes plugins and makes duplicate IDs highly unlikely.

@section Format

The basic format of a plugin ID is as follows:

<tt><i>type</i>-<i>username</i>-<i>pluginname</i></tt>

The @em type indicator specifies the type of plugin. This must be one

of the following:

- core - A core libpurple plugin, capable of being loaded in any

program using libpurple. Core plugins may not contain any

UI-specific code.

- prpl - A protocol plugin. This is a special type of core plugin,

which provides libpurple the ability to connect to

another IM or chat network.

- lopl - A loader plugin, which loads scripts as plugins. Perl and

Tcl plugins are made possible by loader plugins.

- gtk - A GTK+ 2.x (a.k.a. Pidgin) plugin. These plugins may use

GTK+ code, but may not use window toolkit code, such as

X11, Win32, Cocoa, or Carbon.

- gtk-x11 - A GTK+ 2.x plugin that uses X11 code. These plugins may

use both GTK+ code and X11 code, allowing to hook into

features specific to X11.

- gtk-win32 - A GTK+ plugin that uses Win32 code. These plugins may use

both GTK+ code and Win32 code, allowing to hook into

features available on Windows.

- gnt - A GNT (a.k.a. Finch) plugin. These plugins may use GNT code.

- qpe - A plugin for the (now-abandoned) Qutopia user interface.

The @em username must be a unique identifier for you. It

@em should be your http://developer.pidgin.im Trac user ID. Failing that, you

could use your SourceForge user ID or your Freenode IRC nickname, if you

have either. The http://developer.pidgin.im Trac user ID is preferred.

Do @em not leave this field blank!

The @em pluginname is the name of your plugin. It is usually all

lowercase letters and matches the static plugin ID (the first argument to

the PURPLE_INIT_PLUGIN() macro call), although it can be anything you

like. Do @em not include version information in the plugin ID--the

#PurplePluginInfo structure already has a field for this.

@section nospaces One Last Rule for Plugin IDs

The last rule of plugin IDs is the most important of all. Plugin IDs may

@em NOT contain spaces. If you need a space, use another hyphen (-).

@section exceptions Exceptions to the Rule

As with any rule there are exceptions. If you browse through the source

tree you will see that the plugins we distribute with the Pidgin source

do not contain a username field. This is because while one developer may

have written each specific plugin, the plugins are maintained

collectively by the entire development team. This lack of a username

field is also an indicator that the plugin is one of our plugins and not

a third-party plugin.

Another exception to the rule is the <a

href="http://plugins.guifications.org/trac/wiki/PluginPack">Purple Plugin

Pack</a>. All plugins whose lives started in the Purple Plugin Pack use

<tt>"plugin_pack"</tt> for the username field to indicate origination in

the Purple Plugin Pack.

These two exceptions are mentioned here for completeness. We don't

encourage breaking the conventions set forth by the rules outlined above.

@section examples Examples of Well-Chosen Plugin IDs

The following is a list of well-chosen Plugin IDs listing a few good examples.

- <tt>"gtk-amc_grim-guifications"</tt> - This is the plugin ID for the

Guifications 2.x plugin.

- <tt>"gtk-rlaager-album"</tt> - This is the plugin ID for the Album

plugin, which is now part of the

Purple Plugin Pack. Its ID follows the

rules because its life started prior

to its inclusion in the Plugin Pack.

- <tt>"core-rlaager-irchelper"</tt> - This is the plugin ID for the IRC

Helper plugin, which is now part

of the Purple Plugin Pack. Its ID

follows the rules because its

life started prior to its

inclusion in the Plugin Pack.

@section plugin-db Plugin Database

Although it doesn't exist yet, in time there will be a plugin database

on the Pidgin website, where users can download and install new plugins.

Plugins will be accessed by your plugin ID, which is one reason why it

must be unique.

*/

// vim: syntax=c.doxygen tw=75 et