NAME

       POE::Component::IKC::ClientLite - Small client for IKC

SYNOPSIS

           use POE::Component::IKC::ClientLite;

           $poe=create_ikc_client(port=>1337);
           die POE::Component::IKC::ClientLite::error() unless $poe;

           $poe->post("Session/event", $param)
               or die $poe->error;

           # bad way of getting a return value
           my $foo=$poe->call("Session/other_event", $param)
               or die $poe->error;

           # better way of getting a return value
           my $ret=$poe->post_respond("Session/other_event", $param)
               or die $poe->error;

           # make sure connectin is aliave
           $poe->ping()
               or $poe->disconnect;

DESCRIPTION

       ClientLite is a small, pure-Perl IKC client implementation.  It is very basic because it
       is intented to be used in places where POE wouldn't fit, like mod_perl.

       It handles automatic reconnection.  When you post an event, ClientLite will try to send
       the packet over the wire.  If this fails, it tries to reconnect.  If it can't it returns
       an error.  If it can, it will send he packet again.  If *this* fails, well, tough luck.

METHODS

   create_ikc_client
       Creates a new PoCo::IKC::ClientLite object.  Parameters are supposedly compatible with
       PoCo::IKC::Client, but unix sockets aren't handled yet...  What's more, there are 3
       additional parameters:

       block_size
           Size, in octets (8 bit bytes), of each block that is read from the socket at a time.
           Defaults to 65535.

       timeout
           Time, in seconds, that "call" and "post_respond" will wait for a response.  Defaults
           to 30 seconds.

       connect_timeout
           Time, in seconds, to wait for a phase of the connection negotiation to complete.
           Defaults to "timeout".  There are 4 phases of negotiation, so a the default
           "connect_timeout" of 30 seconds means it could potentialy take 2 minutes to connect.

       protocol
           Which IKC negociation protocol to use.  The original protocol ("IKC") was synchronous
           and slow.  The new protocol ("IKC0") sends all information at once.  IKC0 will degrade
           gracefully to IKC, if the client and server don't match.

           Default is IKC0.

   connect
           $poe->connect or die $poe->error;

       Connects to the remote kernel if we aren't already. You can use this method to make sure
       that the connection is open before trying anything.

       Returns true if connection was successful, false if not.  You can check "error" to see
       what the problem was.

   disconnect
       Disconnects from remote IKC server.

   error
           my $error=POE::Component::IKC::ClientLite::error();
           $error=$poe->error();

       Returns last error.  Can be called as a object method, or as a global function.

   post
           $poe->post($specifier, $data);

       Posts the event specified by $specifier to the remote kernel.  $data is any parameters you
       want to send along with the event.  It will return 1 on success (ie, data could be sent...
       not that the event was received) and undef() if we couldn't connect or reconnect to remote
       kernel.

   post_respond
           my $ret=$poe->post_respond($specifier, $data);

       Posts the event specified by $specifier to the remote kernel.  $data is any parameters you
       want to send along with the event.  It waits until the remote kernel sends a message back
       and returns it's payload.  Waiting timesout after whatever you value you gave to
       POE::Component::IKC::Client->spawn.

       Events on the far side have to be aware of post_respond.  In particular, ARG0 is not $data
       as you would expect, but an arrayref that contains $data followed by a specifier that
       should be used to post back.

           sub my_event
           {
               my($kernel, $heap, $args)=@_[KERNEL, HEAP, ARG0];
               my $p=$args->[0];
               $heap->{rsvp}=$args->[1];
               # .... do lotsa stuff here
           }

           # eventually, we are finished
           sub finished
           {
               my($kernel, $heap, $return)=@_[KERNEL, HEAP, ARG0];
               $kernel->post(IKC=>'post', $heap->{rsvp}, $return);
           }

   responded
           my $ret = $poe->responded( $state );
           my @ret = $poe->responded( $state );

       Waits for $state from the remote kernel.  $state must be a simple state name.  Any
       requests from the remotre kernel for other states are rejected.  A remote handler would
       respond by using the proxy sender.

   call
           my $ret=$poe->call($specifier, $data);

       This is the bad way to get information back from the a remote event.  Follows the expected
       semantics from standard POE.  It works better then post_respond, however, because it
       doesn't require you to change your interface or write a wrapper.

   ping
           unless($poe->ping) {
               # connection is down!  connection is down!
           }

       Find out if we are still connected to the remote kernel.  This method will NOT try to
       reconnect to the remote server

   name
       Returns our local name.  This is what the remote kernel thinks we are called.  I can't
       really say this is the local kernel name, because, well, this isn't really a kernel.  But
       hey.

AUTHOR

       Philip Gwyn, <perl-ikc at pied.nu>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

       Copyright 1999-2011 by Philip Gwyn.  All rights reserved.

       This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same
       terms as Perl itself.

       See <http://www.perl.com/language/misc/Artistic.html>

SEE ALSO

       POE, POE::Component::IKC