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09-04-12, 11:04 AM   #1
Foxlit
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Make PetJournal API easier to work with

(Updated to highlight functionality added in Patch 5.1.0 + Patch 5.2.0)

The PetJournal API as it appears in 5.0.4 is rather closely tailored to the Blizzard_PetJournal addon, and is not particularly nice to work with in other addons. Here are a couple of suggestions:


Add table = C_PetJournal.GetAllPetIDs([table])
Currently, the only way to figure out which pets are known to the player is to iterate using C_PetJournal.GetPetInfoByIndex, which is affected by four separate PetJournal filter types. One of these filter types takes enumerated flags -- if you decided to add a new one tomorrow, addons would require code updates to get the unfiltered information they need. Saving and restoring these four filters is painful, but necessary to keep the Blizzard_PetJournal in a sane state after an addon is done with GetPetInfoByIndex.

Add petID = C_PetJournal.GetPetIDBySpeciesID(speciesID)
This could be used to determine whether a player owns any pet of a particular species -- for instance, if an addon wants to display a button to summon a particular unique pet (e.g. Grunty).

Patch 5.1.0: Added C_PetJournal.GetNumCollectedInfo.

Expose pet cooldowns
Some pets, like the Guild Herald, are still subject to a cooldown. PetJournal does not expose this information, and GetSpellCooldown (with a correct spell ID that cannot currently be retrieved through the PetJournal API) can only be used if the player character already knew the pet before 5.0.4.

Patch 5.2.0: Added C_PetJournal.GetPetCooldownByGUID.


Fix /cast Battle Pet Name, or add /summonpet Battle Pet Name
Pre-5.0.4, companions could be summoned using /cast and /castsequence commands, which could be used in a macro by ordinary players. Currently, the /cast commands fail with a non-intuitive error ("You do not have a pet") if you knew the pet 5.0.4 or fail silently if you didn't, and the only way to summon a pet is using C_PetJournal.SummonPetByID(petID), which is non-trivial to use in a macro, as the petID is player-specific.

Patch 5.1.0: Added /summonpet Pet Name, /randompet, and /randomfavoritepet slash commands, backed by C_PetJournal.FindPetIDByName and C_PetJournal.SummonRandomPet API functions.


The API as a whole would be easier to work with if the filtering required by Blizzard_PetJournal was done in that addon's Lua code, rather than using C-side state that's shared between all addons, but it's probably too late to change that now.



Addon authors: End wrote LibPetJournal-2.0, a library that simplifies retrieving petIDs of known pets from the PetJournal, and provides a callback that fires when the available pets change, which may be useful if you're dealing with the PetJournal API in its present state.
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Last edited by Foxlit : 01-03-13 at 04:53 AM.
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09-04-12, 11:10 AM   #2
endx7
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Alternatively I think adding a flag to GetNumPets/GetPetInfoByIndex that caused those functions to completely ignore the currently set filters would help a bunch too.

Last edited by endx7 : 09-04-12 at 01:05 PM.
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WoWInterface » Developer Discussions » Wish List » Make PetJournal API easier to work with

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