MSNP8 Protocol (client only) - semi-experimental

This module provides support for clients using the MSN Protocol (MSNP8). There are basically 3 servers involved in any MSN session:

Dispatch server

The DispatchClient class handles connections to the dispatch server, which basically delegates users to a suitable notification server.

You will want to subclass this and handle the gotNotificationReferral method appropriately.

Notification Server

The NotificationClient class handles connections to the notification server, which acts as a session server (state updates, message negotiation etc...)

Switcboard Server

The SwitchboardClient handles connections to switchboard servers which are used to conduct conversations with other users.

There are also two classes (FileSend and FileReceive) used for file transfers.

Clients handle events in two ways.

each client request requiring a response will return a Deferred, the callback for same will be fired when the server sends the required response
Events which are not in response to any client request have respective methods which should be overridden and handled in an adequate manner

Most client request callbacks require more than one argument, and since Deferreds can only pass the callback one result, most of the time the callback argument will be a tuple of values (documented in the respective request method). To make reading/writing code easier, callbacks can be defined in a number of ways to handle this 'cleanly'. One way would be to define methods like: def callBack(self, (arg1, arg2, arg)): ... another way would be to do something like: d.addCallback(lambda result: myCallback(*result)).

If the server sends an error response to a client request, the errback of the corresponding Deferred will be called, the argument being the corresponding error code.

NOTE: Due to the lack of an official spec for MSNP8, extra checking than may be deemed necessary often takes place considering the server is never 'wrong'. Thus, if gotBadLine (in any of the 3 main clients) is called, or an MSNProtocolError is raised, it's probably a good idea to submit a bug report. ;) Use of this module requires that PyOpenSSL is installed.

TODO

check message hooks with invalid x-msgsinvite messages.
font handling
switchboard factory

Author Sam Jordan

Class	SSLRequired	This exception is raised when it is necessary to talk to a passport server using SSL, but the necessary SSL dependencies are unavailable.
Function	checkParamLen	Undocumented
Class	PassportNexus	Used to obtain the URL of a valid passport login HTTPS server.
Class	PassportLogin	This class is used internally to obtain a login ticket from a passport HTTPS server -- it should not be used directly.
Class	MSNProtocolError	No summary
Class	MSNCommandFailed	The server said that the command failed.
Class	MSNMessage	I am the class used to represent an 'instant' message.
Class	MSNContact	This class represents a contact (user).
Class	MSNContactList	This class represents a basic MSN contact list.
Class	MSNEventBase	This class provides support for handling / dispatching events and is the base class of the three main client protocols (DispatchClient, NotificationClient, SwitchboardClient)
Class	DispatchClient	This class provides support for clients connecting to the dispatch server @ivar userHandle: your user handle (passport) needed before connecting.
Class	NotificationClient	This class provides support for clients connecting to the notification server.
Class	NotificationFactory	No summary
Class	SwitchboardClient	This class provides support for clients connecting to a switchboard server.
Class	FileReceive	This class provides support for receiving files from contacts.
Class	FileSend	This class provides support for sending files to other contacts.
Function	_parseHeader	No summary
Function	_parsePrimitiveHost	Undocumented
Function	_login	This function is used internally and should not ever be called directly.

Parameters	h	the header's key
	v	the header's value as a string

t.w.p.msn : module documentation

TODO