4.13, and full documentation!

[Zweider]

I've updated to 4.13. Not that much new stuff in the mod itself. I've added in the changes the DivineBovine made (See the mod's comments - thanks, DB!). I have also made all variables so that they now use Blizzard's new built-in per-character save variables functionality. This probably won't be noticable for most, but should result in BibMod using less memory, since variables for other characters won't be loaded in. This should also make it so that when Blizz releases 1.9, the problem with same-named characters on different realms having the same save variables will go away.

The main new addition to BibMod is that it now has full documentation! It is well-illustrated, and describes how to use all of BibMod's functionality. In addition, it includes a programmer's guide at the end, for those of you who might like to make BibMod AddOns, or who would like to add some of BibMod's features, like resize tabs and drag bars, to frames in other mods. After unzipping, you will find the documentation in the AddOns directory. The filename is BibMod Documentation.doc

[Blaster]

not works, all bars disapeared with 4.13, it's a bug?

[Jsunv]

need instructions on what to delete etc. so we can get these to work again.... i've tried deleting my character folders and all bib folders and reinstalling altogether and i still get errors.

what do we need to do to get bib to work again... plzzzz

[Blaster]

%Wowpatch%ft\WTF\Account\Youraccount\Yourcharacter\SavedVariables
Delete all in this folder

[DSanai]

Originally Posted by Blaster %Wowpatch%ft\WTF\Account\Youraccount\Yourcharacter\SavedVariables Delete all in this folder

No, it's here:
World of Warcraft\WTF\Account\YOURACCT\SavedVariables\Bib*.lua

Don't delete all your SV files, just the ones that start with "Bib."

I can't include a BibMod in my UI that requires users to remove that file, though. I'm hoping that it'll be possible to make it backward compatible. :-/

EDIT: My brain is SO fried. For some reason, it said "Titan" instead of "Bib," lol.

[markvon]

hi i just download it.. and i LOVE it! just one tiny problem... is there any way to locky my minimap? coz its still movable

[Zweider]

Hey, guys, when I transitioned my variables to use Blizz's new per-character save stuff, it seems to have caused some conflicts with the old variables. To solve this, you may need to delete your BibMod saved variable files. They are:

\WTF\Account\Accountname\SavedVariables\BibCore.lua
\WTF\Account\Accountname\SavedVariables\BibToolbars.lua
\WTF\Account\Accountname\SavedVariables\BibWindowMods.lua
\WTF\Account\Accountname\Charactername\SavedVariables\BibCore.lua
\WTF\Account\Accountname\Charactername\SavedVariables\BibToolbars.lua
\WTF\Account\Accountname\Charactername\SavedVariables\BibWindowMods.lua

If there's a conflict with another mod, it's possible you might need to delete other variables. Hopefully, this is the last time I'll have to have users delete their saved stuff.

[BlackKnight6667]

Hi,
I installed the latest versions of Bib, and titan. started getting the Full screen Minimap error. Dumped the titan lua as sugested, and the bars disapeared, dumped both sets, everything was fine till i logged out and in. logging back in, brought BOTH errors back.

Pulled Titan and all its mods from the Interface directory. dumped the entire WTF folder. Logged in reset everything the way I want. logged out and Poof... All the bars half way off the screen and the wrong scale again. I think the errors that are poping up have to do with titans ability to shift the screen elements downward to make room, and Bibwindowmod's ability to scale and change the way the windows are placed, clearly they are compeating over the same variables or something..

I Love your mod, and would have a hard time playing without it, I also love my titan bars and would also have the same hard time without it.

I'm not really willing to part with either mod, but with all these errors I may have to...

[DSanai]

I guess my question is, is it not possible to convert the old data?

I understand that you're using ##SavedVariablesPerCharacter.

That said, wouldn't it make more sense to continue to include ##SavedVariables: with the same names they had before (just for this interim version, if nothing else -- see below), and name all of the ##SavedVariablesPerCharacter variables with a slightly different name (add "PC" to the end of their names, maybe) -- then globally change all of them in the files (to the "PC" version, so they'll operate as normal), and then add a conversion upon VARIABLES_LOADED that'll check for new data, and if it's missing, will check for the old variables, and convert them over to the new variable names.

This would allow all the data to transfer over, the first time it's run, and you can even clear that character's profile from the old files after it's been done on the first login, so the old SV file will shrink.

Then, in version 4.15, you can either leave that check in (for people who skipped versions, perhaps), or remove it (but I recommend leaving it in, as it'll also prevent errors with characters who hadn't been logged in between the two versions, even though they had 4.14 before it).

This may seem like a bit of work, but it wouldn't actually take that long I'd wager. Notepad++ can open multiple files (all the LUA and XMLs at the same time) and Search/Replace in all open files in one swoop.

If this sounds viable, please let me know if I can be of any assistance. I believe this should work.

[Zweider]

Hi, DSanai, it's more complicated than you'd think at first glance. The problem isn't that the variables have new names now, but rather that they have the same names as before, but different variable types.

It used to be that all my variables were indexed by the player's name, so I could save different settings for different characters. Thus, every save variable in BibMod was a hash table (and in some cases, a two-dimensional hash table). However, Blizz's new feature gets rid of the need to do that, so I was able to go and change those variables to regular old variables (or regular one-dimensional hash tables, for the ones that used to be two-dimensional). What's causing the conflict is that BibMod now tries to treat those variables as regular variables (doing arithemetic on their values and so forth) but the values that are being read in for them are still hash tables, so it causes errors when this happens.

If someone really wanted to keep their old saves, they could go through all their lua save files for BibMod, and manually edit everything to remove the indexes by player name. However, this would take a long time, would be easy to screw up, and is too convoluted for me to tell everyone to do.

It might be possible to write a temporary version of BibMod that could transition the values, but it would take a while, and by the time we were done, everyone would've erased their values and set everything back up anyway. This sucks, but hopefully it's the last time I'll have to advise a saved variable wipe. I don't envision Blizz adding anything else like this.

[Gevouden]

ive noticed that if ou dont use bibwindows mod you dont get any errors or conflicts. And quite frankly, all i want is the toolbars.

[Devla]

I have an idea....why not call the savedvariables string a different name for the new version, and do an 'if blah blah old bibmod settings then bibmod_blah == {}'

That way, the new settings would take, and the old settings would be set to zippo

Possible? I'd play with it but I'm on my way out the door and will be gone all day.

[DSanai]

@Gev: That's not true, in my case. I *only* use BibCore and BibToolbars, and it freaks out.

I understand the issue, now, but I still think it's worth the effort.

If the user misses my note that they have to remove that file before they log in, they'll get those nasty errors, not be able to see the Main Menu button (and some won't know to hit ESC to get it, so they'll possibly terminate the app or reboot their computers to get out), and if they do come to me before they delete the whole UI out of frustration, and delete that file, they'll still have lost their layout-cache positions for the bars.

Out of curiosity, would it have worked if you'd *kept* the multidimensional arrays as they were, but still shifted the variables into PerCharacter locations? I mean, yes, it'd be nice for them to eventually become single-dimensional -- but until then, can't the PerCharacter SV file remain within a [Char|Server] table block? Wouldn't hurt anything that I know of.

[DSanai]

Originally Posted by Devla I have an idea....why not call the savedvariables string a different name for the new version, and do an 'if blah blah old bibmod settings then bibmod_blah == {}' That way, the new settings would take, and the old settings would be set to zippo Possible? I'd play with it but I'm on my way out the door and will be gone all day.

That's precisely what I suggested above.

The only thing that I said differently is that the new SV strings must be the ones that get renamed -- since otherwise, people would need to edit their old SV files to change to the new variable name -- or the settings wouldn't load.

[Zweider]

Hi, Devla, that would've been a good idea. I'd actually tried to make a mental note last time something like this happened to change the variable names if I ever needed to change them again, but I forgot about. It's a bit late for that now, unfortunately. Thankfully, at this point, I think Blizz has given me everything I'll want to use for variable options, so this shouldn't be an issue again.

Originally Posted by Devla I have an idea....why not call the savedvariables string a different name for the new version, and do an 'if blah blah old bibmod settings then bibmod_blah == {}' That way, the new settings would take, and the old settings would be set to zippo Possible? I'd play with it but I'm on my way out the door and will be gone all day.

[Zweider]

That would've worked too. I can't really go back now though, without screwing over the people who have wiped their BibMod variables and started again.

Out of curiosity, would it have worked if you'd *kept* the multidimensional arrays as they were, but still shifted the variables into PerCharacter locations? I mean, yes, it'd be nice for them to eventually become single-dimensional -- but until then, can't the PerCharacter SV file remain within a [Char|Server] table block? Wouldn't hurt anything that I know of.

[DSanai]

What's the term I'm looking for... oh yes, I'm a sad, sad panda.

I understand your position, Zweider, and truly appreciate all the work you've done since taking this project over.

I *so* dread telling all of my UI users to delete that file, though. You have no idea.

I'll just have to write it prominantly in all my release descriptions and hope that most people see it.

I'll beg one last time.

The people who HAVE deleted their files to make the new Bib work *have* the technical expertise required to do so -- whereas the people who install UI's need know nothing more than to unzip a file into a folder someplace. If you changed it now, the people who have already demonstrated their ability to listen and follow directions would just need to do what they've already done once before. And it would save the shakily-computer-literate users from having to go through having their bars disappear and errors appear.

If that doesn't sway you, I'll fold.

[JattilaB]

Removed -- the all BI*.lua & Titan*.lua Files from WTF\Account\AccountName\SavedVariables folder
then I did not load the titan panle or any titan addons just the bib addons...
reconfigured the buttons then I added back the titan addons.....

seemed to work for me....


give that a shot

[Zweider]

Hi, DSanai, I've had to do things that required variable wipes a few times since I first created BibMod. It's not as bad as you think. Of course, nobody is ever happy with it (including myself), but with instructions, people can figure it out. However, it is getting a bit more complicated to do. Perhaps putting together a batch file to erase the saves and reset everything would be a good idea? I could do that. Could anybody write one for Mac users?

Originally Posted by DSanai What's the term I'm looking for... oh yes, I'm a sad, sad panda. I understand your position, Zweider, and truly appreciate all the work you've done since taking this project over. I *so* dread telling all of my UI users to delete that file, though. You have no idea. I'll just have to write it prominantly in all my release descriptions and hope that most people see it. I'll beg one last time. The people who HAVE deleted their files to make the new Bib work *have* the technical expertise required to do so -- whereas the people who install UI's need know nothing more than to unzip a file into a folder someplace. If you changed it now, the people who have already demonstrated their ability to listen and follow directions would just need to do what they've already done once before. And it would save the shakily-computer-literate users from having to go through having their bars disappear and errors appear. If that doesn't sway you, I'll fold.

[DSanai]

True, I was thinking there was no way for the batch file to locate the right directory, but if it's run from the AddOns folder (which is where the UI would install), or in the BibMod folder, it could back up the appropriate number of directories, and then delete BibCore.lua and the other files with a recursive switch -- should kill every one of them, no matter how far in they go.

Not ideal, but workable -- especially since people could check a BAT file to make sure they like the instructions in it; whereas an EXE could be scary.

Something like (from BibMod folder):

@del /s/q ..\..\..\WTF\Account\Bib*.lua

Should get them all, unless I miss my guess.