external plugin in your favorite programming language. Wow us at how much
easier you can do the same thing in your favorite language. ;-)
+There's now a second external plugin, the [[rst]] plugin, written in
+python. (Could someone convert it into a python library that can be used by
+other plugins?)
+
+[[toc ]]
+
## How external plugins use XML RPC
While XML RPC is typically used over http, ikiwiki doesn't do that.
"Ikiwiki::rcs_update" and "call" is the RPC call ikiwiki will make whenever
that function is run.
+If the RPC call is memoizable, you can also pass a "memoize" parameter, set
+to 1.
+
## Limitations of XML RPC
Since XML RPC can't pass around references to objects, it can't be used
with functions that take or return such references. That means you can't
-use XML RPC for `cgi` or `formbuilder` hooks (which are passed CGI and
+100% use XML RPC for `cgi` or `formbuilder` hooks (which are passed CGI and
FormBuilder perl objects), or use it to call `template()` (which returns a
perl HTML::Template object).
Injecting a replacement for a commonly called ikiwiki function
could result in a lot more RPC calls than expected and slow
eveything down. `pagetitle`, for instance, is called about 100 times
-per page build.
+per page build. Whenever possible, you should tell ikiwiki to memoize
+injected functions.
In general, use common sense, and your external plugin will probably
perform ok.