mirror of
https://github.com/mozilla/gecko-dev.git
synced 2024-11-05 16:46:26 +00:00
196 lines
6.7 KiB
Plaintext
196 lines
6.7 KiB
Plaintext
The Infobot Protocol
|
|
====================
|
|
|
|
Reverse engineered from infobot 0.45.3 by Ian Hickson.
|
|
|
|
|
|
QUERY
|
|
-----
|
|
|
|
If a bot is asked something by a user and does not know the answer, it
|
|
may send queries to all the bots it knows. Queries must be in private
|
|
messages and should have the following form:
|
|
|
|
:INFOBOT:QUERY <target> subject
|
|
|
|
...where "target" is the name of the user who sent the query in the
|
|
first place, and "subject" is the question that was asked.
|
|
|
|
In reality, "target" may be any string of non-whitespace character, so
|
|
it could be used as an internal ID.
|
|
|
|
A bot receiving a QUERY message must not try to contact the user given
|
|
by "target" (that string should be treated as opaque) and must not
|
|
make any assumptions about the "subject" string (it could contain
|
|
*anything*, including high bit characters and the works).
|
|
|
|
It is an error for the "subject" string to contain either "=is=>" or
|
|
"=are=>". Receiving bots may ignore this error, however.
|
|
|
|
Bot authors should carefully consider the potential for cascades
|
|
before writing bots that chain QUERY messages. (As in, send out QUERY
|
|
messages if they are unable to respond to a QUERY message themselves).
|
|
In general, this is not a recommended behaviour.
|
|
|
|
Bot authors are urged to write protection into their bots to avoid
|
|
being affected by poorly written bots that cause cascades.
|
|
|
|
|
|
REPLY
|
|
-----
|
|
|
|
Upon receiving a QUERY message, a bot may, if it has information on
|
|
"subject", opt to send a private message back to the originating bot
|
|
in the form of a REPLY message. Bots must not send unsolicited REPLY
|
|
messages. The form of the REPLY message is:
|
|
|
|
:INFOBOT:REPLY <target> subject =database=> object
|
|
|
|
...where "target" is the string of the same name from the original
|
|
QUERY message, "subject" is the second string from the original QUERY
|
|
message, "database" is one of "is" or "are" depending on the whether
|
|
"subject" is determined to be singular or plural respectively, and
|
|
"object" is the string that should be assumed to be the answer to
|
|
"subject". The string may contain special formatting codes, these are
|
|
described below.
|
|
|
|
Upon receiving a REPLY message, bots should first check that they are
|
|
expecting one. If they are, the user identified by the "target" string
|
|
should be contacted and given the information represented by the
|
|
"object" string. (Remember that the "target" string need not actually
|
|
be the nick of the original user; it could be an internal key that
|
|
indirectly identifies a user.)
|
|
|
|
Bots should carefully check the integrity and authenticity of the
|
|
"target" string, and must check that "database" is one of "is" or
|
|
"are". The "subject" string ends at the first occurance of either
|
|
"=is=>" or "=are=>". It is *not* an error for the "object" string to
|
|
contain either of those substrings.
|
|
|
|
Bots may opt to store the information given by a REPLY request so that
|
|
future questions may be answered without depending on other bots.
|
|
|
|
It is suggested that bots credit which bot actually knew the
|
|
information when reporting back to the user.
|
|
|
|
|
|
DUNNO
|
|
-----
|
|
|
|
(This is not part of the original infobot protocol. And is, as of
|
|
2002-02-05, only supported by the mozbot2 Infobot module.)
|
|
|
|
Upon receiving a QUERY message, a bot may, if it has no information on
|
|
the "subject" in question, reply with a DUNNO message. This message
|
|
has basically the same form as the QUERY message:
|
|
|
|
:INFOBOT:DUNNO <target> subject
|
|
|
|
The DUNNO message indicates that the bot is not aware of the answer to
|
|
the question, but would like to be informed of the answer, should the
|
|
first bot ever find out about it. The "target" string should, as with
|
|
the QUERY string, be considered opaque.
|
|
|
|
Upon receiving a DUNNO message, there are several possible responses.
|
|
If the bot is aware of the answer to "subject", then it should treat
|
|
the DUNNO message as if it was a QUERY message (typically resulting in
|
|
a REPLY message). This can occur if, for example, another bot has sent
|
|
a REPLY to the original QUERY before this bot has had the chance to
|
|
send the DUNNO message.
|
|
|
|
If the first bot still doesn't know the answer, however, it may store
|
|
the DUNNO request internally. If, at a future time, the bot is
|
|
informed (either directly by a user or through a REPLY message) about
|
|
the answer to "subject", then it may send a REPLY message to the bot
|
|
that sent the DUNNO request, informing the bot of the value it learnt.
|
|
|
|
|
|
SPECIAL STRINGS
|
|
---------------
|
|
|
|
The "object" string in the REPLY message may contain several special
|
|
flags.
|
|
|
|
$who
|
|
If the string contains the string "$who" then, when the string is
|
|
given to the user, it should be replaced by the name of the user.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Multiple alternative replies may be encoded in one reply, those
|
|
should be separated by a vertical bar.
|
|
|
|
<reply>
|
|
If the string is prefixed by "<reply>" then the string should not
|
|
be prefixed by "subject is" or "subject are" as usual.
|
|
|
|
<action>
|
|
The string should be returned via a CTCP ACTION.
|
|
|
|
<alias>
|
|
The string should be taken as the name of another entry to look up.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EXAMPLES
|
|
--------
|
|
|
|
In these examples, A, B and C are bots, and x, y and z are people.
|
|
|
|
The first example shows a simple case of one bots asking two other
|
|
bots for help, one of which gives a reply and the other of which says
|
|
it has no idea.
|
|
|
|
+-------- originator of private message
|
|
|
|
|
| +--- target of private message
|
|
| |
|
|
V V
|
|
z -> A: what is foo?
|
|
A -> z: I have no idea.
|
|
A -> B: :INFOBOT:QUERY <z> foo
|
|
A -> C: :INFOBOT:QUERY <z> foo
|
|
B -> A: :INFOBOT:REPLY <x> foo =is=> bar
|
|
C -> A: :INFOBOT:DUNNO <C> foo
|
|
A -> x: B knew: foo is bar
|
|
A -> C: :INFOBOT:REPLY <C> foo =is=> bar
|
|
|
|
Note how the DUNNO in this case comes after the REPLY and thus is
|
|
immediately answered.
|
|
|
|
The next example uses <alias>. One bot knows the answer to the
|
|
question as an alias to another word, but when the original bot asks
|
|
about _that_ word, it is the second bot that can help.
|
|
|
|
z -> A: what is foo?
|
|
A -> z: I have no idea.
|
|
A -> B: :INFOBOT:QUERY <z> foo
|
|
A -> C: :INFOBOT:QUERY <z> foo
|
|
B -> A: :INFOBOT:REPLY <x> foo =is=> <alias>bar
|
|
C -> A: :INFOBOT:DUNNO <C> foo
|
|
A -> B: :INFOBOT:QUERY <z> bar
|
|
A -> C: :INFOBOT:QUERY <z> bar
|
|
A -> C: :INFOBOT:REPLY <C> foo =is=> <alias>bar
|
|
B -> A: :INFOBOT:DUNNO <B> bar
|
|
C -> A: :INFOBOT:REPLY <x> bar =is=> baz
|
|
A -> z: C knew: bar is baz
|
|
A -> B: :INFOBOT:REPLY <B> bar =is=> baz
|
|
|
|
Note how the credit actually goes to the second bot. A better bot
|
|
might remember all the bots involved and credit all of them. A better
|
|
bot might also remember what the original question was and reply "foo
|
|
is baz" instead of "bar is baz".
|
|
|
|
Next we have some examples of special codes. If we have:
|
|
|
|
foo is bar|<alias>baz|<reply>foo to you too|<action>foos|$who
|
|
baz is foo
|
|
|
|
...then the following are valid responses when asked about foo:
|
|
|
|
<A> foo is bar
|
|
<A> baz is foo
|
|
<A> foo to you too
|
|
* A foos
|
|
<A> foo is z
|
|
|
|
-- end --
|