irc-connect-ctcp

CTCP plugin for irc-connect

Basic CTCP support, emits 'ctcp_request' and 'ctcp_response' events, among others.

PROTIP: Run with DEBUG=irc:ctcp* to see all the events and data it throws, it's almost self-documenting!

Currently includes responders to PING, TIME, and VERSION requests but is easily extensible.

DCC CHAT and DCC SEND are in development and work well, currently only incoming requests (aka outgoing sockets) are supported. DCC SEND will unkindly shove received files in your os.tmpdir() (unless you set the targetPath) but won't overwrite (or resume) anything. There is an acceptance phase so this won't just happen unless you wire an event to call the accept method.

Documentation

All of the following assumes this init stub:

var irc = require('irc-connect')
var client = irc.connect(...)
var ircCtcp = require('irc-connect-ctcp')

CTCP Plugin [client.use(ircCtcp)]

Setup and configurables

Access internal plugin options using methods client.ctcpSetOption(key, value) and client.ctcpGetOption(key)

All settings are optional, there is a default provided for each one.

Set any of the autoresponses to literally false to disable the feature, such as to install your own handler on ctcp_response, or go "steath".

NOTE: associative false such as '' or 0 or null or undefined are all otherwise valid

For example, with the VERSION responder:

client.ctcpSetOption('versionRaw',false) // preferred
client.ctcpSetOption('version',false)    // courtesy

When set false and someone sends a VERSION request, there will be no response at all

CTCP VERSION responder

Default response is similar to

irc-connect-ctcp:UNKNOWN:NodeJS=0.10.30+(V8=3.14.5.9)

with your environments actual versions. Per some random official-looking protocol documentation I read somewhere (maybe the RFC?) the proper format is three colon-separated elements.

Set 'version' with a string and it will use the standard, with your string in the middle element

client.ctcpSetOption('version','SomeApp v4.2')

result: 'irc-connect-ctcp:SomeApp v4.2:NodeJS=0.10.30+(V8=3.14.5.9)'

Set 'versionRaw' with a string and it will take you literally (RFC be darned!)

NOTE: if you set this to '' it will still respond, with empty params

client.ctcpSetOption('versionRaw','SomeApp v4.2')

result: 'SomeApp v4.2'

CTCP TIME responder

Default response is the current date/time formatted like

Tue Aug 19 13:22:02 2014 -0600

THESE SETTINGS ARE PRELIMINARY AND ARE NOT IN THE CODE YET

Set 'timeSkew' with an offset in seconds to adjust the advertised time.

client.ctcpSetOption('timeSkew',3600)

CTCP TIME response will be current date minus one hour

Set 'time' with a Date to force the response to then and not the current time.

client.ctcpSetOption('time',new Date('Mon, 5 Nov 1955 02:20:00 -0800'))

CTCP TIME response: Tue Nov 5 04:20:00 1955 -0600 no matter what time it really is, although note it is in your default timezone regardless the zone on what you set

CTCP PING responder

Default response is whatever the other end sent us (usually a timestamp number) and then whatever their current time on reception of the response minus the reflected stamp, yields a reasonable idea of latency.

THE FOLLOWING SETTINGS ARE PRELIMINARY AND ARE NOT IN THE CODE YET

As there are really no settables for this service, only the disable works, via 'ping'

client.ctcpSetOption('ping',false)

CTCP PING will no longer respond at all

Events

This plugin emits the events 'ctcp_request' and 'ctcp_response' on incoming CTCP messages. Consume them as usual:

client.on('ctcp_request',function(event){...})
client.on('ctcp_response',function(event){...})

Where orig is the original 'PRIVMSG' or 'NOTICE' event...

member	content
event.type	from orig.params[0] (ex: 'DCC', 'FINGER', 'VERSION')
event.params	from orig.params[1..n] (ex: ['SEND','Funny.mp3','12945673','7654','54321'], [])
event.message	raw message, unsplit into params (in case you want to use your own encoding)

Methods

client.isCtcp(event)

Event test for CTCP formatted params. Returns true or false based on detection of a CTCP formatted message in the event.

This is of use in any PRIVMSG or NOTICE event handlers, as they will still propagate, showing up with params wrapped in \u0001 characters. So, to solve this, use this to bail out of your handler and skip anything that will have already emitted a ctcp_request or ctcp_response. Such as:

  client.on('PRIVMSG',
    function(event){
      if(client.isCtcp(event)) return;
      //... process PRIVMSG as normal ...
    }
  )

Formatting methods which proxy to client.send():

client.ctcpRequestSend(target, type, params)

sends a CTCP-encoded PRIVMSG

client.ctcpResponseSend(target, type, params)

sends a CTCP-encoded NOTICE

Usage is the same as main irc-connect methods, add your listener and then send off the request.

You could use client.once() to connect the listener, however if any other ctcp_response comes in out-of-order it will unbind the listener even though it wasn't a matching event. So, the example below shows a method for handling the .once() style manually.

With a little more you can add a setTimeout() to unbind your listener which is decent practice, if not best practice. Usually the target will respond within a second, or won't respond at all.

var target = 'someNickName'
var type   = 'VERSION'
var resHandler = function(event){
  //this is our fire escape (not the response we want)
  if((target !== event.nick) || type !== event.nick)) return
  //disconnect the emitter (this function, omg wormholes!)
  client.removeListener('ctcp_response',resHandler)
  //do whatever, in this case just bark the message to the console
  console.log('someNickName is using ' + event.message)
}
client.on('ctcp_response',resHandler)
//string literals used for better illustration
//could have just passed target/type vars
client.ctcpRequestSend('someNickName','VERSION')

DCC Plugin [client.use(ircCtcp.dcc)]

You need to client.use(ircCtcp) before this, it won't load by itself as it needs the CTCP ctcp_request event and the above two methods.

Setup and configurables

Access internal plugin options using methods client.dccSetOption(key, value) and client.dccGetOption(key)

All settings are optional, there is a default provided for each one.

Banner support for new DCC CHAT connections

Default is 'DCC CHAT ready'

Set 'banner' with a string to auto-respond on the opening of a DCC CHAT. Include '\n' for multiple line support. A trailing '\n' is assumed, do not include one (it gets trimmed anyway!). You can also set this to false to disable any outgoing greeting.

client.dccSetOption('banner','Welcome to DCC CHAT!\nPlease type back at me.') Future DCC CHAT connections will receive:

Welcome to DCC CHAT!
Please type back at me.

File placement for incoming DCC SEND requests

Default is whatever 'os.tmpdir()' says on your system

Set 'targetPath' with a string to the place you'd like DCC SEND to put files.

client.dccSetOption('targetPath','/some/place/safe')

Future DCC SEND requests will have for example '/some/place/safe/Funny.mp3' in event.filename

Events

This plugin consumes a 'ctcp_request' event, and emits events based on event.type (chat or send). It assigns a "handle" (random string) to each new session request, use this handle to identify the session to various methods. Other DCC methods are not supported.

Events from 'CHAT' type requests

client.on('ctcp_dcc_chat_request',function(event){...})

A new CTCP DCC CHAT request has been received.

Where orig is the original 'ctcp_request' event...

member	content
event.handle	randomly assigned internally, as a reference string/tag to this DCC request (ex: 'Z1LD02EWM')
event.type	from orig.params[0] always 'CHAT'
event.argument	from orig.params[1] generally always'chat' (ignored internally)
event.address	from orig.params[2] target IP, converted from integer (ex: '127.3.2.1')
event.port	from orig.params[3] target port, as number (ex: 4273)

Call the client.dccRequestAccept(handle) method with the event.handle to confirm the connection.

In the rest of the events, event format is the same as the 'ctcp_dcc_chat_request' event, as the entire structure is emitted from the sessions for every specific event, with possible additions.

client.on('ctcp_dcc_chat_error',function(event){...})

There has been an error, reason is in event.message.

client.on('ctcp_dcc_chat_connecting',function(event){...})

The socket is connecting.

client.on('ctcp_dcc_chat_connect',function(event){...})

The socket has connected successfully.

client.on('ctcp_dcc_chat_message',function(event){...})

The remote side sent a line, which is in event.message.

client.on('ctcp_dcc_chat_close',function(event){...})

The socket has closed. This can be either on purpose (other end closed the chat) or may be emitted alongside a 'ctcp_dcc_chat_error' event.

Events from 'SEND' type requests

client.on('ctcp_dcc_send_request',function(event){...})

A new CTCP DCC SEND request has been received.

Where orig is the original 'ctcp_request' event...

member	content
event.handle	randomly assigned internally, as a reference string/tag to this DCC request (ex: 'byBfoSG')
event.type	from orig.params[0] always 'SEND'
event.argument	from orig.params[1] the source basename (ex: 'Funny.mp3')
event.address	from orig.params[2] target IP, converted from integer (ex: '127.3.2.1')
event.port	from orig.params[3] target port, as number (ex: 4273)
event.size	[optional] from orig.params[4] file size, as number (ex: 1048576)
event.filename	generated local target with full path (ex: '/home/lolcats/Documents/Funny.mp3' or 'C:\\Users\\LOLcats\\Documents\\Funny.mp3')
event.wrote	how many bytes have been received/written so far, always 0 on the request event

Call the client.dccRequestAccept(handle) method with the event.handle to confirm the connection.

In the rest of the events, event format is the same as the 'ctcp_dcc_send_request' event, as the entire structure is emitted from the sessions for every specific event, with possible additions.

client.on('ctcp_dcc_send_error',function(event){...})

There has been an error, reason is in event.message.

client.on('ctcp_dcc_send_open',function(event){...})

The destination file (event.filename) has been successfully created for writing.

client.on('ctcp_dcc_send_connecting',function(event){...})

The socket is connecting.

client.on('ctcp_dcc_send_connect',function(event){...})

The socket has connected successfully.

client.on('ctcp_dcc_send_progress',function(event){...})

Progress reports are a snapshot of the session sent every second on a timer, basically a snapshot of the session. Therefore event.wrote should be rising each time. Use event.size if provided, to figure out and display progress or speed/completion estimations. There will always be at least one of these emitted.

client.on('ctcp_dcc_send_close',function(event){...})

The socket and file have closed. This can be either on purpose (other end closed the send) or may be emitted alongside a 'ctcp_dcc_send_error' event. If event.wrote does not equal event.size (if given) then something failed. Nobody knows what, there are no checksums (and sometimes not even expected size!) in this protocol. Some clients will send you a 'NOTICE' event to tell you what happened, others don't.

Methods

client.dccRequestAccept(handle)

Signal that the connection session (referenced by 'event.handle') should be accepted. If you do not want to connect just don't call this in the 'ctcp_dcc_*_request' handler. The request (and session) will expire 1 minute later.

client.dccChatWrite(handle,message)

Send message as a line (auto-appends the newline) to the DCC CHAT session identified by handle. If the session does not exist it will return false.

THE FOLLOWING METHODS ARE PRELIMINARY AND ARE NOT IN THE CODE YET

client.dccChatRequest(target)

client.dccSendRequest(target,filename)

Both of these initiate an outgoing DCC CHAT or DCC SEND request to the nick provided in target. The IP used is autoselected based on the one the IRC server says we have (which should bypass NAT issues), and port is randomly selected by the system as port 0 is given to the listener.