Not to sound too fussy here, but my experience so far with Net::Jabber is less than great. A simple script using it produces several errors stemming from careless code in XML::Stream::Parser:

"my" variable $file masks earlier declaration in same scope at /usr/lo
+cal/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.1/XML/Stream/Parser.pm line 298.

Use of uninitialized value in string ne at /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_p
+erl/5.6.1/XML/Stream/Parser.pm line 134.

Use of uninitialized value in split at /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/
+5.6.1/Net/Jabber.pm line 759.
[download]

Is this package supported? If so, why are errors like the first one still present? (It results from this code:

sub parsefile {
  my $self = shift;
  my $file = shift;

  open(FILE,$file);
  my $file;
  while(<FILE>) { $file .= $_; }
  ...
[download]

Note the two appearances of "my $file".

Edit by tye to replace PRE tags with CODE tags

Well, I can't comment on the specific problems you are having with this module. I haven't used it in a bit -- although, when I did use it some time ago, I don't recall having any sort of issues with it.

In regards to support, the Jabber protocol is better documented then any of the other commonly used instant messanging platforms. That being the case, I can't imagine that any other instant messaging system would as simple to program for as Jabber is. But in regards to the actual support of the Net::Jabber module itself, if you feel there is a bug, the author seems to be available to talk to about that, although I haven't tried myself. You can go to the Net::Jabber CPAN page or XML::Stream::Parser page, and email the author regarding the problems you are having. If you feel that you definitely have found a bug, he even includes a link labeled "View Reported Bugs", where you can both view existing bugs, and report new ones.

Good luck!
-Eric

I don't have any specific advice, but you might want to poke around with Jabber. It supports gateways to mainstream IM services, but it's really more of a messaging platform than an IM server so would likely be much more flexible. It's got Perl support through Net::Jabber and Jabber::Connection, and an O'Reilly book as well. (The book seems well-done, but I'm only through a couple of chapters so far.)

Chris
M-x auto-bs-mode

To all who noted that Jabber may be the way to go: wouldn't this require that the end-users have a Jabber account? In our environment, most have ICQ, but some don't; some have AOL, but not all; and so on.

I think that's what you can use the gateway plugins for -- you should be able to send a message to a jabber server to tell it to forward the message to a user on another IM system. But I haven't tried this yet, so I'm not sure. Another thing working against you is that other IM systems aren't fond of making their protocols public, making it difficult to use them in any way other than they intended.

Chris
M-x auto-bs-mode