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# Sign in, Send a Message, and Disconnect

Note

If you have any issues working through this quickstart guide join the chat room at slixmpp@muc.poez.io.

A common use case for Slixmpp is to send one-off messages from time to time. For example, one use case could be sending out a notice when a shell script finishes a task.

We will create our one-shot bot based on the pattern explained in Slixmpp Quickstart - Echo Bot. To start, we create a client class based on `ClientXMPP` and register a handler for the session_start event. We will also accept parameters for the JID that will receive our message, and the string content of the message.

    import slixmpp

    class SendMsgBot(slixmpp.ClientXMPP):

        def __init__(self, jid, password, recipient, msg):
            super().__init__(jid, password)

            self.recipient = recipient
            self.msg = msg

            self.add_event_handler('session_start', self.start)

        async def start(self, event):
            self.send_presence()
            await self.get_roster()

Note that as in Slixmpp Quickstart - Echo Bot, we need to include send an initial presence and request the roster. Next, we want to send our message, and to do that we will use `send_message`.

    async def start(self, event):
        self.send_presence()
        await self.get_roster()

        self.send_message(mto=self.recipient, mbody=self.msg)

Finally, we need to disconnect the client using `disconnect`. Now, sent stanzas are placed in a queue to pass them to the send routine. `disconnect` by default will wait for an acknowledgement from the server for at least 2.0 seconds. This time is configurable with the wait parameter. If 0.0 is passed for wait, `disconnect` will not close the connection gracefully.

    async def start(self, event):
        self.send_presence()
        await self.get_roster()

        self.send_message(mto=self.recipient, mbody=self.msg)

        self.disconnect()

Warning

If you happen to be adding stanzas to the send queue faster than the send thread can process them, then `disconnect()` will block and not disconnect.

## Final Product

The final step is to create a small runner script for initialising our `SendMsgBot` class and adding some basic configuration options. By following the basic boilerplate pattern in Slixmpp Quickstart - Echo Bot, we arrive at the code below. To experiment with this example, you can use:

    python send_client.py -d -j oneshot@example.com -t someone@example.net -m "This is a message"

which will prompt for the password and then log in, send your message, and then disconnect. To test, open your regular IM client with the account you wish to send messages to. When you run the `send_client.py` example and instruct it to send your IM client account a message, you should receive the message you gave. If the two JIDs you use also have a mutual presence subscription (they’re on each other’s buddy lists) then you will also see the `SendMsgBot` client come online and then go offline.

    #!/usr/bin/env python3

    # Slixmpp: The Slick XMPP Library
    # Copyright (C) 2010  Nathanael C. Fritz
    # This file is part of Slixmpp.
    # See the file LICENSE for copying permission.

    import logging
    from getpass import getpass
    from argparse import ArgumentParser

    import asyncio
    import slixmpp

    class SendMsgBot(slixmpp.ClientXMPP):

        """
        A basic Slixmpp bot that will log in, send a message,
        and then log out.
        """

        def __init__(self, jid, password, recipient, message):
            slixmpp.ClientXMPP.__init__(self, jid, password)

            # The message we wish to send, and the JID that
            # will receive it.
            self.recipient = recipient
            self.msg = message

            # The session_start event will be triggered when
            # the bot establishes its connection with the server
            # and the XML streams are ready for use. We want to
            # listen for this event so that we we can initialize
            # our roster.
            self.add_event_handler("session_start", self.start)

        async def start(self, event):
            """
            Process the session_start event.

            Typical actions for the session_start event are
            requesting the roster and broadcasting an initial
            presence stanza.

            Arguments:
                event -- An empty dictionary. The session_start
                         event does not provide any additional
                         data.
            """
            self.send_presence()
            await self.get_roster()

            self.send_message(mto=self.recipient,
                              mbody=self.msg,
                              mtype='chat')

            self.disconnect()

    if __name__ == '__main__':
        # Setup the command line arguments.
        parser = ArgumentParser(description=SendMsgBot.__doc__)

        # Output verbosity options.
        parser.add_argument("-q", "--quiet", help="set logging to ERROR",
                            action="store_const", dest="loglevel",
                            const=logging.ERROR, default=logging.INFO)
        parser.add_argument("-d", "--debug", help="set logging to DEBUG",
                            action="store_const", dest="loglevel",
                            const=logging.DEBUG, default=logging.INFO)

        # JID and password options.
        parser.add_argument("-j", "--jid", dest="jid",
                            help="JID to use")
        parser.add_argument("-p", "--password", dest="password",
                            help="password to use")
        parser.add_argument("-t", "--to", dest="to",
                            help="JID to send the message to")
        parser.add_argument("-m", "--message", dest="message",
                            help="message to send")

        args = parser.parse_args()

        # Setup logging.
        logging.basicConfig(level=args.loglevel,
                            format='%(levelname)-8s %(message)s')

        if args.jid is None:
            args.jid = input("Username: ")
        if args.password is None:
            args.password = getpass("Password: ")
        if args.to is None:
            args.to = input("Send To: ")
        if args.message is None:
            args.message = input("Message: ")

        # Setup the EchoBot and register plugins. Note that while plugins may
        # have interdependencies, the order in which you register them does
        # not matter.
        xmpp = SendMsgBot(args.jid, args.password, args.to, args.message)
        xmpp.register_plugin('xep_0030') # Service Discovery
        xmpp.register_plugin('xep_0199') # XMPP Ping

        # Connect to the XMPP server and start processing XMPP stanzas.
        xmpp.connect()
        asyncio.get_event_loop().run_until_complete(xmpp.disconnected)