Set Name Icons Without Nameplates

[Mouse987]

Hello I've coded a lot before but only just started looking into addons for WoW.

What I have managed to do so far is place a custom icon at the top of the target nameplate.

What I would like to know is if it is possible to place that icon even when nameplates are off.

If it is I would much appreciate a nudge in the right direction.

Thanks for any help.

[tinyu]

what you wanna do will only work with nameplates turned on.

[Mouse987]

Hm ok, thanks for the info.

[semlar]

You could just show the nameplates, use them as an anchor for your icon, and then just hide all of the visible elements.

[Mouse987]

Hey Semlar

That seems like my best option. I understand what you mean, I have downloaded some other nameplate addons to try and see how they reference the original nameplate but I'm having trouble.

Is there somewhere I can read about how to reference them?

[Phanx]

I'd suggest taking a look at a simple optionless addon like bNameplates or pNameplates, rather than some big complicated addon with options and modules like Aloft or TidyPlates. The parts you'll be most interested in are the GetChildren and GetRegions calls.

[semlar]

Basically the addon periodically loops through children of WorldFrame and attempts to identify whether or not it's a nameplate, usually based on existence of a specific texture or attribute. Then it stores a reference to it in a table for later use.

There's very little information in the nameplate to help identify what unit it belongs to, so how complicated this needs to be depends on what you want to do with it.