X-Git-Url: http://git.vanrenterghem.biz/git.ikiwiki.info.git/blobdiff_plain/30f7aef67902cbb04d35854e01be21c29ba2de0d..ba480baa9ec9e2d5d04c6eb06fd3ab4dafd60794:/doc/plugins/write/external.mdwn

diff --git a/doc/plugins/write/external.mdwn b/doc/plugins/write/external.mdwn
index 05da1b8f8..2ee841e61 100644
--- a/doc/plugins/write/external.mdwn
+++ b/doc/plugins/write/external.mdwn
@@ -8,6 +8,9 @@ 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. It uses a `proxy.py`, a helper library for ikiwiki python plugins.
+
 [[toc ]]
 
 ## How external plugins use XML RPC
@@ -45,6 +48,14 @@ to access any such global hash. To get the "url" configuration value,
 call `getvar("config", "url")`. To set it, call 
 `setvar("config", "url", "http://example.com/)`.
 
+The `%pagestate` is a special hash with a more complex format. To access
+it, external plugins can use the `getstate` and `setstate` RPCs. To access
+stored state, call `getstate("page", "id", "key")`, and to store state,
+call `setstate("page", "id", "key", "value")`.
+
+To access ikiwiki's ARGV, call `getargv()`. To change its ARGV, call
+`setargv(value)`.
+
 ## Notes on function parameters
 
 The [[plugin_interface_documentation|write]] talks about functions that take
@@ -87,13 +98,10 @@ to 1.
 
 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).
 
-Also. the `getopt` hook doesn't work, as ARGV is not available to the external
-plugin.
-
 ## Performance issues
 
 Since each external plugin is a separate process, when ikiwiki is
@@ -117,8 +125,8 @@ 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. Memoizing injected functions whenever possible is a very
-good idea.
+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.