web commit by tschwinge: Further explanation.

[git.ikiwiki.info.git] / doc / plugins / write / external.mdwn

diff --git a/doc/plugins/write/external.mdwn b/doc/plugins/write/external.mdwn
index ca30dd229b74392c7f184e89381883ba2a5fdffa..0abc9b0a0d791eb3448dd11664d7b065101b88b6 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/plugins/write/external.mdwn
+++ b/doc/plugins/write/external.mdwn
@@ -8,6 +8,12 @@ written in perl, but is intended to be an example of how to write an
 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.
@@ -78,11 +84,14 @@ example, make an RPC call to `inject`. Pass it named parameters "name" and
 "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).
 
@@ -112,7 +121,8 @@ number of calls.
 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.