R – Terminate hook processing in ejabberd module

You can reload a module when it has already been imported by using importlib.reload():

from importlib import reload  # Python 3.4+
import foo

while True:
    # Do some things.
    if is_changed(foo):
        foo = reload(foo)

In Python 2, reload was a builtin. In Python 3, it was moved to the imp module. In 3.4, imp was deprecated in favor of importlib. When targeting 3 or later, either reference the appropriate module when calling reload or import it.

I think that this is what you want. Web servers like Django's development server use this so that you can see the effects of your code changes without restarting the server process itself.

To quote from the docs:

• Python module’s code is recompiled and the module-level code re-executed, defining a new set of objects which are bound to names in the module’s dictionary by reusing the loader which originally loaded the module. The init function of extension modules is not called a second time.
• As with all other objects in Python the old objects are only reclaimed after their reference counts drop to zero.
• The names in the module namespace are updated to point to any new or changed objects.
• Other references to the old objects (such as names external to the module) are not rebound to refer to the new objects and must be updated in each namespace where they occur if that is desired.

As you noted in your question, you'll have to reconstruct Foo objects if the Foo class resides in the foo module.

Here is the mod I wrote that fixes my problem.

To make it work you'll need receipts to be activated client side and the client should be able to handle duplicate messages.

Firstly I created a table called confirm_delivery. I save every 'chat' message to that table. I set a 10 second timer, if I receive a confirmation back, I delete the table entry.

If I don't get a confirmation back, I save the message manually to the offline_msg table and try and resend it again (this might be over the top, but for you to decide) and then delete it from our confirm_delivery table

I've chopped out all the code I perceive as unnecessary, so I hope this will still compile.

Hope this is of help to other ejabberd devs out there!

https://github.com/johanvorster/ejabberd_confirm_delivery.git

%% name of module must match file name
-module(mod_confirm_delivery).

-author("Johan Vorster").

%% Every ejabberd module implements the gen_mod behavior
%% The gen_mod behavior requires two functions: start/2 and stop/1
-behaviour(gen_mod).

%% public methods for this module
-export([start/2, stop/1, send_packet/3, receive_packet/4, get_session/5, set_offline_message/5]).

%% included for writing to ejabberd log file
-include("ejabberd.hrl").

-record(session, {sid, usr, us, priority, info}).
-record(offline_msg, {us, timestamp, expire, from, to, packet}).

-record(confirm_delivery, {messageid, timerref}).

start(_Host, _Opt) -> 

        ?INFO_MSG("mod_confirm_delivery loading", []),
        mnesia:create_table(confirm_delivery, 
            [{attributes, record_info(fields, confirm_delivery)}]),
        mnesia:clear_table(confirm_delivery),
        ?INFO_MSG("created timer ref table", []),

        ?INFO_MSG("start user_send_packet hook", []),
        ejabberd_hooks:add(user_send_packet, _Host, ?MODULE, send_packet, 50),   
        ?INFO_MSG("start user_receive_packet hook", []),
        ejabberd_hooks:add(user_receive_packet, _Host, ?MODULE, receive_packet, 50).   

stop(_Host) -> 
        ?INFO_MSG("stopping mod_confirm_delivery", []),
        ejabberd_hooks:delete(user_send_packet, _Host, ?MODULE, send_packet, 50),
        ejabberd_hooks:delete(user_receive_packet, _Host, ?MODULE, receive_packet, 50). 

send_packet(From, To, Packet) ->    
    ?INFO_MSG("send_packet FromJID ~p ToJID ~p Packet ~p~n",[From, To, Packet]),

    Type = xml:get_tag_attr_s("type", Packet),
    ?INFO_MSG("Message Type ~p~n",[Type]),

    Body = xml:get_path_s(Packet, [{elem, "body"}, cdata]), 
    ?INFO_MSG("Message Body ~p~n",[Body]),

    MessageId = xml:get_tag_attr_s("id", Packet),
    ?INFO_MSG("send_packet MessageId ~p~n",[MessageId]), 

    LUser = element(2, To),
    ?INFO_MSG("send_packet LUser ~p~n",[LUser]), 

    LServer = element(3, To), 
    ?INFO_MSG("send_packet LServer ~p~n",[LServer]), 

    Sessions = mnesia:dirty_index_read(session, {LUser, LServer}, #session.us),
    ?INFO_MSG("Session: ~p~n",[Sessions]),

    case Type =:= "chat" andalso Body =/= [] andalso Sessions =/= [] of
        true ->                

        {ok, Ref} = timer:apply_after(10000, mod_confirm_delivery, get_session, [LUser, LServer, From, To, Packet]),

        ?INFO_MSG("Saving To ~p Ref ~p~n",[MessageId, Ref]),

        F = fun() ->
            mnesia:write(#confirm_delivery{messageid=MessageId, timerref=Ref})
        end,

        mnesia:transaction(F);

    _ ->
        ok
    end.   

receive_packet(_JID, From, To, Packet) ->
    ?INFO_MSG("receive_packet JID: ~p From: ~p To: ~p Packet: ~p~n",[_JID, From, To, Packet]), 

    Received = xml:get_subtag(Packet, "received"), 
    ?INFO_MSG("receive_packet Received Tag ~p~n",[Received]),    

    if Received =/= false andalso Received =/= [] ->
        MessageId = xml:get_tag_attr_s("id", Received),
        ?INFO_MSG("receive_packet MessageId ~p~n",[MessageId]);       
    true ->
        MessageId = []
    end, 

    if MessageId =/= [] ->
        Record = mnesia:dirty_read(confirm_delivery, MessageId),
        ?INFO_MSG("receive_packet Record: ~p~n",[Record]);       
    true ->
        Record = []
    end, 

    if Record =/= [] ->
        [R] = Record,
        ?INFO_MSG("receive_packet Record Elements ~p~n",[R]), 

        Ref = element(3, R),

        ?INFO_MSG("receive_packet Cancel Timer ~p~n",[Ref]), 
        timer:cancel(Ref),

        mnesia:dirty_delete(confirm_delivery, MessageId),
        ?INFO_MSG("confirm_delivery clean up",[]);     
    true ->
        ok
    end.


get_session(User, Server, From, To, Packet) ->   
    ?INFO_MSG("get_session User: ~p Server: ~p From: ~p To ~p Packet ~p~n",[User, Server, From, To, Packet]),   

    ejabberd_router:route(From, To, Packet),
    ?INFO_MSG("Resend message",[]),

    set_offline_message(User, Server, From, To, Packet),
    ?INFO_MSG("Set offline message",[]),

    MessageId = xml:get_tag_attr_s("id", Packet), 
    ?INFO_MSG("get_session MessageId ~p~n",[MessageId]),    

    case MessageId =/= [] of
        true ->        

        mnesia:dirty_delete(confirm_delivery, MessageId),
        ?INFO_MSG("confirm_delivery clean up",[]);

     _ ->
        ok
    end.

set_offline_message(User, Server, From, To, Packet) ->
    ?INFO_MSG("set_offline_message User: ~p Server: ~p From: ~p To ~p Packet ~p~n",[User, Server, From, To, Packet]),    

    F = fun() ->
        mnesia:write(#offline_msg{us = {User, Server}, timestamp = now(), expire = "never", from = From, to = To, packet = Packet})
    end,

    mnesia:transaction(F).