NAME WebService::LiveJournal - Interface to the LiveJournal API VERSION version 0.04 SYNOPSIS new interface use WebService::LiveJournal; my $client = WebService::LiveJournal->new( username => 'foo', password => 'bar' ); same thing with the old interface use WebService::LiveJournal::Client; my $client = WebService::LiveJournal::Client->new( username => 'foo', password => 'bar' ); die "connection error: $WebService::LiveJournal::Client::error" unless defined $client; See WebService::LiveJournal::Event for creating/updating LiveJournal events. See WebService::LiveJournal::Friend for making queries about friends. See WebService::LiveJournal::FriendGroup for getting your friend groups. DESCRIPTION This is a client class for communicating with LiveJournal using its API. It is different from the other LJ modules on CPAN in that it originally used the XML-RPC API. It now uses a hybrid of the flat and XML-RPC API to avoid bugs in some LiveJournal deployments. There are two interfaces: WebService::LiveJournal The new interface, where methods throw an exception on error. WebService::LiveJournal::Client The legacy interface, where methods return undef on error and set $WebService::LiveJournal::Client::error It is recommended that for any new code that you use the new interface. CONSTRUCTOR WebService::LiveJournal::Client->new( %options ) Connects to a LiveJournal server using the host and user information provided by %options. Signals an error depending on the interface selected by throwing an exception or returning undef. options server The server hostname, defaults to www.livejournal.com port The server port, defaults to 80 username [required] The username to login as password [required] The password to login with mode One of either "cookie" or "challenge", defaults to "cookie". ATTRIBUTES These attributes are read-only. server The name of the LiveJournal server port The port used to connect to LiveJournal with username The username used to connect to LiveJournal userid The LiveJournal userid of the user used to connect to LiveJournal. This is an integer. fullname The fullname of the user used to connect to LiveJournal as LiveJournal understands it usejournals List of shared/news/community journals that the user has permission to post in. message Message that should be displayed to the end user, if present. useragent Instance of LWP::UserAgent used to connect to LiveJournal cookie_jar Instance of HTTP::Cookies used to connect to LiveJournal with fastserver True if you have a paid account and are entitled to use the fast server mode. METHODS $client->create_event( %options ) Creates a new event and returns it in the form of an instance of WebService::LiveJournal::Event. This does not create the event on the LiveJournal server itself, until you use the "update" methods on the event. %options contains a hash of attribute key, value pairs for the new WebService::LiveJournal::Event. The only required attributes are "subject" and "event", though you may set these values after the event is created as long as you set them before you try to "update" the event. Thus this: my $event = $client->create( subject => 'a new title', event => 'some content', ); $event->update; is equivalent to this: my $event = $client->create; $event->subject('a new title'); $event->event('some content'); $event->update; This method signals an error depending on the interface selected by throwing an exception or returning undef. $client->get_events( $select_type, %query ) Selects events from the LiveJournal server. The actual %query parameter requirements depend on the $select_type. Returns an instance of WebService::LiveJournal::EventList. Select types: syncitems This query mode can be used to sync all entries with multiple calls. lastsync The date of the last sync in the format of "yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss" day This query can be used to fetch all the entries for a particular day. year 4 digit integer month 1 or 2 digit integer, 1-31 day integer 1-12 lastn Fetch the last n events from the LiveJournal server. howmany integer, default = 20, max = 50 beforedate date of the format "yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss" This method signals an error depending on the interface selected by throwing an exception or returning undef. $client->get_event( $itemid ) Given an "itemid" (the internal LiveJournal identifier for an event). This method signals an error depending on the interface selected by throwing an exception or returning undef. $client->sync_items( [ last_sync => $time ], $cb ) Fetch all of the items which have been created/modified since the last sync. If "last_sync => $time" is not provided then it will fetch all events. For each item that has been changed it will call the code reference $cb with three arguments: $cb->($action, $type, $id) action One of "create" or "update" type For "events" (journal entries) this is "L" id The internal LiveJournal server id for the item. An integer. For events, the actual event can be fetched using the "get_event" method. If the callback throws an exception, then no more entries will be processed. If the callback does not throw an exception, then the next item will be processed. This method returns the time of the last entry successfully processed, which can be passed into "sync_item" the next time to only get the items that have changed since the first time. Here is a broad example: # first time: my $time = $client->sync_items(sub { my($action, $type, $id) = @_; if($type eq 'L') { my $event = $client->get_item($id); # ... if(error condition) { die 'error happened'; } } }); # if an error happened during the sync my $error = $client->error; # next time: $time = $client->sync_items(last_sync => $time, sub { ... }); Because the "syncitems" rpc that this method depends on can make several requests before it completes it can fail half way through. If this happens, you can restart where the last successful item was processed by passing the return value back into "sync_items" again. You can tell that "sync_item" completed without error because the "$client->error" accessor should return a false value. $client->get_friends( %options ) Returns friend information associated with the account with which you are logged in. complete If true returns your friends, stalkers (users who have you as a friend) and friend groups # $friends is a WS::LJ::FriendList containing your friends # $friend_of is a WS::LJ::FriendList containing your stalkers # $groups is a WS::LJ::FriendGroupList containing your friend groups my($friends, $friend_of, $groups) = $client-Eget_friends( complete => 1 ); If false (the default) only your friends will be returned # $friends is a WS::LJ::FriendList containing your friends my $friends = $client-Eget_friends; friendlimit If set to a numeric value greater than zero, this mode will only return the number of results indicated. $client->get_friend_of( %options ) Returns the list of users that are a friend of the logged in account. Returns an instance of WebService::LiveJournal::FriendList, a list of WebService::LiveJournal::Friend. Options: friendoflimit If set to a numeric value greater than zero, this mode will only return the number of results indicated $client->get_friend_groups Returns your friend groups. This comes as an instance of WebService::LiveJournal::FriendGroupList that contains zero or more instances of WebService::LiveJournal::FriendGroup. $client->console_command( $command, @arguments ) Execute the given console command with the given arguments on the LiveJournal server. Returns the output as a list reference. Each element in the list represents a line out output and consists of a list reference containing the type of output and the text of the output. For example: my $ret = $client->console_command( 'print', 'hello world' ); returns: [ [ 'info', "Welcome to 'print'!" ], [ 'success', "hello world" ], ] $client->batch_console_commands( $command1, $callback, [ $command2, $callback, [ ... ] ) Execute a list of commands on the LiveJournal server in one request. Each command is a list reference. Each callback associated with each command will be called with the results of that command (in the same format returned by "console_command" mentioned above, except it is passed in as a list instead of a list reference). Example: $client->batch_console_commands( [ 'print', 'something to print' ], sub { my @output = @_; ... }, [ 'print', 'something else to print' ], sub { my @output = @_; ... }, ); $client->set_cookie( $key => $value ) This method allows you to set a cookie for the appropriate security and expiration information. You shouldn't need to call it directly, but is available here if necessary. $client->send_request( $procname, @arguments ) Make a low level request to LiveJournal with the given $procname (the rpc procedure name) and @arguments (should be RPC::XML types). On success returns the appropriate RPC::XML type (usually RPC::XML::struct). This method signals an error depending on the interface selected by throwing an exception or returning undef. $client->send_flat_request( $procname, @arguments ) Sends a low level request to the LiveJournal server using the flat API, with the given $procname (the rpc procedure name) and @arguments. On success returns the appropriate response. This method signals an error depending on the interface selected by throwing an exception or returning undef. $client->error Returns the last error. This just returns $WebService::LiveJournal::Client::error, so it is still a global, but is a slightly safer shortcut. my $event = $client->get_event($itemid) || die $client->error; It is still better to use the newer interface which throws an exception for any error. EXAMPLES These examples are included with the distribution in its 'example' directory. Here is a simple example of how you would login/authenticate with a LiveJournal server: use strict; use warnings; use WebService::LiveJournal; print "user: "; my $user = ; chomp $user; print "pass: "; my $password = ; chomp $password; my $client = WebService::LiveJournal->new( server => 'www.livejournal.com', username => $user, password => $password, ); print "$client\n"; if($client->fastserver) { print "fast server\n"; } else { print "slow server\n"; } Here is a simple example showing how you can post an entry to your LiveJournal: use strict; use warnings; use WebService::LiveJournal; print "user: "; my $user = ; chomp $user; print "pass: "; my $password = ; chomp $password; my $client = WebService::LiveJournal->new( server => 'www.livejournal.com', username => $user, password => $password, ); print "subject: "; my $subject = ; chomp $subject; print "content: (^D or EOF when done)\n"; my @lines = ; chomp @lines; my $event = $client->create( subject => $subject, event => join("\n", @lines), ); $event->update; print "posted $event with $client\n"; print "itemid = ", $event->itemid, "\n"; print "url = ", $event->url, "\n"; print "anum = ", $event->anum, "\n"; Here is an example of a script that will remove all entries from a LiveJournal. Be very cautious before using this script, once the entries are removed they cannot be brought back from the dead: use strict; use warnings; use WebService::LiveJournal; print "WARNING WARNING WARNING\n"; print "this will remove all entries in your LiveJournal account\n"; print "this probably cannot be undone\n"; print "WARNING WARNING WARNING\n"; print "user: "; my $user = ; chomp $user; print "pass: "; my $password = ; chomp $password; my $client = WebService::LiveJournal->new( server => 'www.livejournal.com', username => $user, password => $password, ); print "$client\n"; my $count = 0; while(1) { my $event_list = $client->get_events('lastn', howmany => 50); last unless @{ $event_list } > 0; foreach my $event (@{ $event_list }) { print "rm: ", $event->subject, "\n"; $event->delete; $count++; } } print "$count entries deleted\n"; HISTORY The code in this distribution was written many years ago to sync my website with my LiveJournal. It has some ugly warts and its interface was not well planned or thought out, it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal (or at least wildly inaccurate), but it (possibly) scores over the older LiveJournal modules on CPAN in that it has been used in production for many many years with very little maintenance required, and at the time of its original writing the documentation for those modules was sparse or misleading. SEE ALSO * , * Net::LiveJournal, * LJ::Simple AUTHOR Graham Ollis COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE This software is copyright (c) 2013 by Graham Ollis. This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.