Changing statusbar alpha independently of background alpha

[kaels]

Hi! I'm working on a GUI-configurable oUF layout. I think I have most of the bar elements down, but there's one that I can't figure out. I would like the user to be able to change the statusbar alpha while leaving the background alpha intact (to permit the transparent frames some people like to use).

I know this is theoretically possible because it works in Pitbull - I can make a statusbar transparent, and as it depletes, the transparent bar "uncovers" the visible background.

But I can't figure out how to make it work. If I parent the background to the bar and change the bar alpha, the background alpha changes. If I parent the background to the frame, the whole background is visible. Do I need to make the 'background' be a statusbar itself and have it show missing health?

(I've already technically got a way for the user to accomplish transparent frames - they can invert the bar (to show missing health), reverse the direction, and make the background transparent. But that seems a little unintuitive and confusing, and it won't work for partial opacity.)

Also, if the user wants to use the colorDisconnect flag and also use custom bar and background colors, is there a non-ugly way to make the custom color come back when a disconnected player reconnects?

[zork]

You only have to adjust the SetStatusBarColor() which is in RGBA. A is for alpha.

If you define bar.bg that will be your background. If your bar.bg has class-color and your statusbar is very dark-greyscale but a tiny bit transparent the class color will shine through a little bit.

Because bar.bg is a child of bar (your statusbar) and you adjust the SetAlpha() of it the bar.bg will follow. So use SetStatusBarColor() if you can. [http://wowprogramming.com/docs/widge...tatusBarColor]

[kaels]

I think maybe a picture would help. I want to make it so that it's possible to do this:

where the statusbar is transparent but the opaque background shows when it depletes.

It's possible to do that by manipulating the statusbar (run a PostUpdate to make it show missing health instead of remaining, reverse the direction, and make the backdrop transparent). But I'd prefer to make it so that that's simply the default behaviour of the statusbar - the background doesn't show under the part it 'covers', even if the bar itself is partly or fully transparent.

I think I know what the solution has to be. The background has to be a second statusbar, and I need to define its behaviour in a PostUpdate() on the main bar.

[zork]

Actually you must have an error. Just define bar.bg it's a known oUF object on statusbars. It will be behind your statusbar at full width. The statusbar itself may deplete but the background does not. If that is not the case for you check your code again.

[kaels]

Nono. It's working properly. The picture I posted is what I want to happen, not what's actually happening.

I think I've *almost* figured out the solution. The problem is that right now it's working properly for the power bar, but not for the health bar, even though the code is identical. See here:

The coloring on the power bar "background" bar (bottom, in blue) is applied properly, but the health bar (middle, in purple) background isn't colored. And if I make the 'foreground' bar transparent, I can also see that the power bar 'background' is updating properly, but the health bar 'background' is not:


Here's my bar constructor. I seriously have no idea why the two bars would behave differently - they're constructed identically.

lib.GenerateBar = function(f, n, b, isgroup)
    local style
    if isgroup then
        style = profile.groupframes[n].bars[b]
    else
        style = profile.unitframes[n].bars[b]
    end
    
    local bg = CreateFrame("StatusBar", nil, f)
    bg:SetStatusBarTexture(LSM:Fetch("statusbar", style.texture))
    bg:SetHeight(f.height * style.heightmult)
    bg:SetWidth(f.width * style.widthmult)
    bg:SetPoint(style.anchor, f, style.anchor, 
                f.width * style.xoffsetmult, f.height * style.yoffsetmult)
    bg:SetFrameLevel(style.level * 2 + 1)
    
    local s = CreateFrame("StatusBar", nil, f)
    s:SetStatusBarTexture(LSM:Fetch("statusbar", style.texture))
    s:SetHeight(f.height * style.heightmult)
    s:SetWidth(f.width * style.widthmult)
    s:SetPoint(style.anchor, f, style.anchor, 
                f.width * style.xoffsetmult, f.height * style.yoffsetmult)
    s:SetFrameLevel(style.level * 2 + 3)
    
    local h = CreateFrame("Frame", nil, s)
    h:SetPoint("TOPLEFT", -style.bginset, style.bginset)
    h:SetPoint("BOTTOMRIGHT", style.bginset, -style.bginset)
    h:SetFrameLevel(style.level * 2)
    lib.GenerateBackdrop(h, style)
    
    if (style.reverse and not style.invert) or (style.invert and not style.reverse) then
        s:SetReverseFill(true)
        bg:SetReverseFill(false)
    else
        s:SetReverseFill(false)
        bg:SetReverseFill(true)
    end
    
    if style.vertical then
        s:SetOrientation("VERTICAL")
        s:SetRotatesTexture(true)
        bg:SetOrientation("VERTICAL")
        bg:SetRotatesTexture(true)
    else
        s:SetOrientation("HORIZONTAL")
        s:SetRotatesTexture(false)
        bg:SetOrientation("HORIZONTAL")
        bg:SetRotatesTexture(false)
    end
    
    s.bar_bg = bg
    s.backdrop = h
    local iscustombg = style.bgcolorCustom
    local mult = style.barbgmultiplier
    if b == 1 then
        f.Health = s
        if style.invert then
            f.Health.PostUpdate = function(self, unit, min, max)
                self.bar_bg:SetMinMaxValues(0, max)
                self.bar_bg:SetValue(min)
                self:SetValue(max - min)
                if not iscustombg then
                    local r, g, b = self:GetStatusBarColor()
                    self.bar_bg:SetStatusBarColor(r*mult, g*mult, b*mult)
                end
            end
        else
            f.Health.PostUpdate = function(self, unit, min, max)
                self.bar_bg:SetMinMaxValues(0, max)
                self.bar_bg:SetValue(max - min)
                if not iscustombg then
                    local r, g, b = self:GetStatusBarColor()
                    self.bar_bg:SetStatusBarColor(r*mult, g*mult, b*mult)
                end
            end
        end
    elseif b ==2 then
        f.Power = s
        if style.invert then
            f.Power.PostUpdate = function(self, unit, min, max)
                self.bar_bg:SetMinMaxValues(0, max)
                self.bar_bg:SetValue(min)
                self:SetValue(max - min)
                if not iscustombg then
                    local r, g, b = self:GetStatusBarColor()
                    self.bar_bg:SetStatusBarColor(r*mult, g*mult, b*mult)
                end
            end
        else
            f.Power.PostUpdate = function(self, unit, min, max)
                self.bar_bg:SetMinMaxValues(0, max)
                self.bar_bg:SetValue(max - min)
                if not iscustombg then
                    local r, g, b = self:GetStatusBarColor()
                    self.bar_bg:SetStatusBarColor(r*mult, g*mult, b*mult)
                end
            end
        end
    elseif b == 3 then
        f.AltPowerBar = s
        if style.invert then
            f.AltPowerBar.PostUpdate = function(self, min, cur, max)
                self.bar_bg:SetMinMaxValues(0, max)
                self.bar_bg:SetValue(cur)
                self:SetValue(max - cur)
                if not iscustombg then
                    local r, g, b = self:GetStatusBarColor()
                    self.bar_bg:SetStatusBarColor(r*mult, g*mult, b*mult)
                end
            end
        else
            f.AltPowerBar.PostUpdate = function(self, min, cur, max)
                self.bar_bg:SetMinMaxValues(0, max)
                self.bar_bg:SetValue(max - cur)
                if not iscustombg then
                    local r, g, b = self:GetStatusBarColor()
                    self.bar_bg:SetStatusBarColor(r*mult, g*mult, b*mult)
                end
            end
        end
    end
end

[kaels]

And this is getting incredibly frustrating. I know it's *trying* to SetStatusBarColor, because if I change it to SetVertexColor, it spams me with errors. But no matter how many times it tries to set the color, the color doesn't get set.

I tried, as an experiment, changing the Health element code in oUF itself to do what I want instead of doing it in a PostUpdate. It behaves exactly the same way. White bar that doesn't update. What can I possibly be doing wrong that only affects the Health element?

[Phanx]

Install BugSack/!BugGrabber and report the errors you're getting at load, if any.

Also, post the rest of your addon code.

[kaels]

I tried adding some debug text and moving the background bar out of the frame so I could see it clearly:

else
            f.Health.PostUpdate = function(self, unit, min, max)
                self.bar_bg:SetMinMaxValues(0, max)
                self.bar_bg:SetValue(max - min)
                oUF_Kael:Print("Intended value is "..(max - min))
                oUF_Kael:Print("My value is "..self.bar_bg:GetValue())
                if not iscustombg then
                    local r, g, b = self:GetStatusBarColor()
                    oUF_Kael:Print("Statusbar color is "..r.." "..g.." "..b)
                    self.bar_bg:SetStatusBarColor(r*mult, g*mult, b*mult)
                    local testr, testb, testg = self.bar_bg:GetStatusBarColor()
                    oUF_Kael:Print("My color is "..testr.." "..testg.." "..testb)
                end
            end
        end

As you can see, it *thinks* it has a color and a value, it's getting them properly from the health bar updates, but it's not actually displaying them; it's permanently white and full. The dark blue bar (mana) is behaving properly using exactly the same syntax.

[kaels]

Originally Posted by Phanx Install BugSack/!BugGrabber and report the errors you're getting at load, if any. Also, post the rest of your addon code.

There's way more code than anyone would want to wade through on a forum...any suggestions on where to post it?

I haven't documented it yet, either. And most of it isn't called until the GUI is called, and the GUI portion is a mess that nobody wants to read. I could just post the lib functions that are called for constructing the frames?

Will definitely try BugSack/!BugGrabber. I haven't seen any errors in the standard Lua error frame.

[kaels]

Got BugSack. No errors on load, and I'm unable to trigger any errors except by triggering GUI functions that reference the old static bar background texture.

[Phanx]

Originally Posted by kaels There's way more code than anyone would want to wade through on a forum...any suggestions on where to post it?

Just zip it up and attach it to a post. My main thought was that it might be easier for someone to load your addon in-game and see the behavior in question than try to make sense of screenshots.

Originally Posted by kaels I haven't seen any errors in the standard Lua error frame.

The problem with the standard error frame is that it does not show errors that occur early during the loading process, which is where many addon errors occur if there is a problem with your code.

Also, BugSack has the advantage of being able to store errors for later perusal, instead of forcing you to deal with it immediately or lose it forever.

[kaels]

Ah, ok. Here:

(the chat command to open the GUI is /kael or /kl. Most of the options currently implemented work, but the color selections for the bars do nothing at the moment - edit values in database.lua under default.unitframes.**.bars.** to change them.)

[kaels]

Followup: I have absolutely no idea why, but splitting out the background constructor into its own function fixed the problem. Thanks Phanx and Zork for the advice, and thanks especially for pointing me to BugSack

Oh! I figured out the problem. It wasn't actually the health bar that was misbehaving - it was the alternate power bar, which just happened to default to being exactly on top of the health bar.