Addon to split *emotes* out of messages

[Folji]

Basically, I'm looking for an addon that'll let me write *asterisk emotes* in a chat message and have those split into separate /emotes once the message is posted.

If I, for instance, write a message that goes:

Some message. *some emote.*

It'll be output in the chat as:

<Player> says: Some message. <Player> some emote.

________________________
Vice versa, if I write the emote before the message, like this:

*some emote.* Some message.

It'll appear as:

<Player> some emote. <Player> says: Some message.

________________________
Or if I do both several times within a message:

Some message. *some emote.* Some message. *some emote.*

That'll work too:

<Player> says: Some message. <Player> some emote. <Player> says: Some message. <Player> some emote.

________________________
Support for the game's built-in emotes would also be nice:

Some message. *openfire* (or */openfire*)

Becomes:

<Player> says: Some message. <Player> gives the order to open fire.

I had something that did this some time ago, but it was part of a bigger addon together with lots of other integrated features. It's been a while since I used that addon, it's been a while since last time there was much word from the developer, and it seems a bit crude to seek him out just to ask if he can extract that feature and make it an independent addon. So if there are anyone here with the time and energy to whip up an addon like this (can't imagine it being that hard), that'd be totally awesome (alternatively, if anyone knows of an addon that already does this, that'd be even more awesome).

[Vlad]

I think I see what you mean, basically something like this I guess?


It should be possible by pre-hooking SendChatMessage I reckon.

local orig = SendChatMessage
function SendChatMessage(text, chan, ...)
  if chan ~= "EMOTE" then
    local emote = text:match("*(.+)*")
    if emote then
      text = text:gsub("*(.+)*", "")
      orig(text, chan, ...)
      return DoEmote(emote)
    end
  end
  return orig(text, chan, ...)
end

It's just an example, haven't tested it and there may be an easier way to do this. In short what I tried to do is match the "*string*" remove it from the message then send the message and finally the emote in the ** tags.

[Folji]

Yeah, that's pretty much exactly what I'm after, though I'm judging by the third line that it would kick in whenever the channel is not EMOTE (I've programmed in AS3, but never in Lua). The best way would be if it only does its work when it's posted to the SAY channel. Still, that is pretty much what I'm after.

[SDPhantom]

Originally Posted by Vladinator local orig = SendChatMessage function SendChatMessage(text, chan, ...) if chan ~= "EMOTE" then local emote = text:match("*(.+)*") if emote then text = text:gsub("*(.+)*", "") orig(text, chan, ...) return DoEmote(emote) end end return orig(text, chan, ...) end

There's a couple errors in the pattern. The asterisk is a magic character that needs to be escaped. Also, you need the capture to match as little as possible so it doesn't try to overflow outside the terminating asterisk if another one exists in the message or multiple emotes are in the message. You should use either "%*([^%*]-)%*" or "%*(.-)%*".

[Ketho]

The Lua patterns gods have spoken

Sorry, couldn't keep it down

[SDPhantom]

I put together some code to do exactly what was described. It only operates on /say and it will attempt to use the emote slash command if it finds one that matches, otherwise, it'll send the emote out through the emote channel. Theoreticly, the slash command emotes support a target argument that lets you specify what UnitID to target. This option has been added in to this code as well.

local Send=SendChatMessage;
local pieces={};
function SendChatMessage(msg,chan,...)
    chan=chan:upper();--    Convert to make checks easier (channel is case-insensitive)
    if chan=="SAY" then
--      Clear our piece table
        table.wipe(pieces);
 
--      Remove empty emotes and strip all spaces around "*" (try to replace empty emotes with a single space)
        msg=strtrim(msg):gsub("%s*%*%s*%*%s*"," "):gsub("%s*%*%s*","%*");
 
--      Split string (strsplit() isn't working the way we need it to)
        for i in msg:gmatch("[^%*]+") do pieces[#pieces+1]=i; end
        if msg:sub(1,1)=="*" then table.insert(pieces,1,""); end
 
--      Iterate through pieces
        for i,j in ipairs(pieces) do
            if #j>0 then--  Don't do anything if string is empty
                if i%2>0 then-- Evaluates to 1 if say, 0 if emote
                    Send(j,chan);
                else
--                  Try to separate command and args
                    local cmd,arg=j:match("(%S+) (.+)");
                    if not cmd then cmd=j; end
 
--                  This is tricky, we need to check if the emote slash command exists
                    local token;
                    local tokencheck,tokenid=EMOTE1_TOKEN,1;
                    while tokencheck do
                        local cmdcheck,cmdid=_G["EMOTE"..tokenid.."_CMD1"],1;
                        while cmdcheck do
                            local slashcmd=cmdcheck:sub(2):lower();--   Skip the slash for the emote command
                            if slashcmd==cmd:lower() then-- Command matches, token found
                                token=tokencheck;
                                break;
                            end
 
--                          Increment command
                            cmdcheck,cmdid=_G["EMOTE"..tokenid.."_CMD"..(cmdid+1)],cmdid+1;
                        end
 
--                      Break if token found
                        if token then break; end
 
--                      Increment token
                        tokencheck,tokenid=_G["EMOTE"..(tokenid+1).."_TOKEN"],tokenid+1;
                    end
 
                    if token then
                        DoEmote(token,arg);--   Performs the same emote operation as supported by chat
                    else
                        Send(j,"EMOTE");
                    end
                end
            end
        end
    else
        Send(msg,chan,...);
    end
end

[Vlad]

Take a look on what I wrote and give me some feedback:

local trim = function(str)
  return str:trim(" \t\r\n")
end
 
local match = function(str)
  local ret = {}
  for msg, emote in str:gmatch("(.-)%*(.-)%*") do
    str = str:replace(msg, "")
    str = str:replace("*"..emote.."*", "")
    msg = trim(msg)
    emote = trim(emote)
    table.insert(ret, {
      msg:len() > 0 and msg or nil,
      emote:len() > 0 and emote or nil,
    })
  end
  str = trim(str)
  if str:len() > 0 then
    table.insert(ret, {str, nil})
  end
  return #ret > 0 and ret or nil
end

In short, match("message") will return either nil if nothing matched or a table containing {message, emote} that you can go trough each one, unpack each entry and send the message in the /say or /emote channels depending if it's a string or nil.

Far better than my first sketch, aye?

[SDPhantom]

string.trim() does not exist in the Lua core, however, the WoW API supplies strtrim() to do this and the default character string is " \t\r\n" if left undefined.

I still prefer my string splitting approach plus the added features the OP requested. Also to note, DoEmote() requires an emote token to run, you need to send it through the EMOTE channel with SendChatMessage() for custom emotes.

[Folji]

Originally Posted by SDPhantom I put together some code to do exactly what was described. It only operates on /say and it will attempt to use the emote slash command if it finds one that matches, otherwise, it'll send the emote out through the emote channel. Theoreticly, the slash command emotes support a target argument that lets you specify what UnitID to target. This option has been added in to this code as well. local Send=SendChatMessage; function SendChatMessage(msg,chan,...);     chan=chan:upper();--    Convert to make checks easier (channel is case-insensitive)     if chan=="SAY" then --      Strip all spaces around "*" and split into segments         local pieces={strsplit("*",msg:gsub("%s*%*%s*","%*"))};   --      Iterate through pieces         for i,j in ipairs(pieces) do             if #j>0 then--  Don't do anything if string is empty                 if i%2>0 then-- Evaluates to 1 if say, 0 if emote                     Send(j,chan);                 else --                  Try to separate command and args                     local cmd,arg=j:match("(%S+) (.+)");                     if not cmd then cmd=j; end   --                  This is tricky, we need to check if the emote slash command exists                     local token;                     local tokencheck,tokenid=EMOTE1_TOKEN,1;                     while tokencheck do                         local cmdcheck,cmdid=_G["EMOTE"..tokenid.."_CMD1"],1;                         while cmdcheck do                             local slashcmd=cmdcheck:sub(2):lower();--   Skip the slash for the emote command                             if slashcmd==cmd:lower() then-- Command matches, token found                                 token=tokencheck;                                 break;                             end   --                          Increment command                             cmdcheck,cmdid=_G["EMOTE"..tokenid.."_CMD"..(cmdid+1)],cmdid+1;                         end   --                      Break if token found                         if token then break; end   --                      Increment token                         tokencheck,tokenid=_G["EMOTE"..(tokenid+1)"_TOKEN",tokenid+1;                     end                       if token then                         DoEmote(token,arg);--   Performs the same emote operation as supported by chat                     else                         Send(j,"EMOTE");                     end                 end             end         end     else         Send(msg,chan,...);     end end

So basically, I could take that code, put it in a .lua file, write a .toc file for it, put them in a folder and place it in the AddOns folder, and it'll work right out of the box? (Though it'd probably be better if someone who knows their way around the stuff does it, so that more people than just myself can benefit from it. )

[Vlad]

Yes, you just gotta write it a .toc and put it in a folder so it becomes an addon.

Anyway gonna put this here http://pastey.net/149152 and now I can delete the local file from my PC, hehe.

Both will work, you pick what ever you like.