Jabber::Lite is a Jabber connection and XML stanza processing library implemented entirely in perl. Originally written to act as a Jabber client on old, non-upgradable perl versions, it has grown into a more generic library. From the DESCRIPTION in perldoc: Whats in the box? Jabber::Lite is able to connect to a Jabber server, read from the socket, and supply XML objects to the application as the application reads them. Its function calls are mostly compatible with Jab- ber::NodeFactory and Jabber::Connection. Surprisingly, it can also function as a stand-alone XML parser (which was not the author's original intent, but hey, it works). Whats not in the box? Any requirement for a recent perl version, UTF-8 support, as well as a fully XML-compliant Parser.