Flexbar is dead, anyone miss it?

[Mantioch]

I just recently started re-leveling my Pre-BC warlock through Outland in response to the forthcoming cross-faction transfers. Back when I was still playing this toon, I was using a very customizable addon called Flexbar to replace my default bar. It was tedious to set up, but it was very very customizable, and was able to make buttons appear or disappear according to different events. You could also configure what information appeared on/in the button. All of this used scripts, and I've been made aware that most of the functionality no longer works, or works in a completely different way than it did back before WoW had any expansions. I understood all this, and gave up hoping for Cnc to come back and rewrite his addon.

I was chugging along with a somewhat less custom interface, when I discovered two different addons that do *something* like what Flexbar did: TellMeWhen and PolMonitor. I've not used TellMeWhen, but PolMonitor seems to create clear-ish buttons, then skins them with the textures that you would typically see in the Spellbook. OmniCC interacts with them (Due to the cooldown whirlygig, I assume) to add text to the button displaying what the cooldown of the skill is, or what the duration of the buff/debuff is. It is further configurable with DogTag to configure both when it is displayed (the texture, the button stays the same regardless) and a label (separate from the one OmniCC adds). I've been playing with it, and other than some irritating side affects, it performs a little like the way I used to use Flexbar. I've been posting in the PolMonitor GE (The main addon isn't currently being updated) addon comments, and gotten a little more information, but I've sort of hit a wall in finding out how to make the addon behave even more like Flexbar.

Now may be a good time to say that I have absolutely zero skill at coding, programing, scripting, or anything else involving speaking computer languages. I was wondering if anyone either has the knowledge and willingness to create a 'new' Flexbar, or can modify (or tell me how to modify) an addon to do something like what I've been looking for. Maybe there's already something out there that would better fit my needs. Rather than reiterating what I've already posted in greater depth, I'm going to suggest that anyone who is looking for clarification as to what I'm looking for (to the extent that I even know) check out PolMonitor GE, and the posts I've made there.

I'm sure some of you Lua geniuses will be able to at least point me in the right direction, and someone may even decide to take a swing at resurrecting Flexbar. In the event I'm way off base, I'm sure I'll be flamed back into the hole I've crawled out of. In any event, thanks go to whomever is willing to assist.

Mantioch

[Syxx]

Macaroon is about as close as you'll get to Flex-bar.

I do think some worked on Flex-bar recently (and might still be) but I lost track I haven't seen anything on the WoWace forums on it in a while.

[Mantioch]

Originally Posted by Syxx Macaroon is about as close as you'll get to Flex-bar. I do think some worked on Flex-bar recently (and might still be) but I lost track I haven't seen anything on the WoWace forums on it in a while.

I'll check that out. Last I looked on the WoWAce forums, Flexbar2 was the last thing Flexbar-ish to have been worked on, and the last activity there was pre-WotLK. I very well might have missed something, I can never find anything over there.

Thanks,

Mantioch

[jonathon]

your right, flexbar2 was the last thing done... it had poor documentation compared to flexbar and no gui to speak of... I was able to get some basic stuff out of it, but no where near what I had with flexbar. but that is due mainly to blizz locking down so much of the UI with 1.12... yes, i've been playing at least that long.

As for maccaroon, it's pretty good, as long as maul is the one behind it. A few patches ago he took a break and a patch broke it, then a friend of his fixed it, but the update wiped the configs ppl had. so I have yet to go back to it, though I hear it is a alive and well, and working quite nicely.

[Waverian]

You will never get the old FlexBar functionality with the current wow UI restrictions.

Action bars cannot be dynamically hidden in combat based on arbitrary events, i.e. a debuff being present on a mob, a cooldown being available, etc. Action bars can now only be hidden or shown in combat with things called secure state headers. Secure state headers only accept valid macro conditionals as events to hide bars (List of macro conditionals). This was done intentionally to prevent the UI from making gameplay decisions for the users.

PolMonitor works because it doesn't actually use action buttons. You cannot click on them (or bind them) to cast the spell. It just uses textures to simulate the appearance of an action button, and we can do anything we want with textures at any point, there's no combat lock down on them. Textures aren't limited because the player still needs to see this information, interpret it themselves, and decide which ability to use manually.


It's worth mentioning that you can kind of, sort of replicate FlexBar visually... One thing we can do with action buttons in combat is change their alpha. That means technically we could 'hide' them by making them completely transparent, however the buttons will still eat mouse clicks. If you attempt to overlay two buttons and make one transparent, only the button on top will be usable, and we cannot change the strata (which is on top) in combat, either. It's not likely you'll see an addon like this made since using textures like PolMonitor does has virtually the same end result and is a lot easier to do.

[tophero21]

i used to love flexbar. sadly, once the ui changes broke it those two and a half/three years ago it never really recovered.

[Mantioch]

Originally Posted by Waverian You will never get the old FlexBar functionality with the current wow UI restrictions. Action bars cannot be dynamically hidden in combat based on arbitrary events, i.e. a debuff being present on a mob, a cooldown being available, etc. Action bars can now only be hidden or shown in combat with things called secure state headers. Secure state headers only accept valid macro conditionals as events to hide bars (List of macro conditionals). This was done intentionally to prevent the UI from making gameplay decisions for the users.

I understand all that, and I'm fairly certain that it was a good move on Blizzard's part. One of the more evil things that Flexbar could do was phase in a button with enormous proportion for say ... Overpower ... when it was usable, then, once hit, the button would literally disappear. This button covered the screen nearly completely, and ensured that Overpower was used when it was available for use. This functionality is one of the more obvious applications for making a game decision for the player, and was rightfully removed.

I have, however, not seen this secure state header business, and will have to look into that. Maybe I can get what I want by combining addons and macros?

Originally Posted by Waverian PolMonitor works because it doesn't actually use action buttons. You cannot click on them (or bind them) to cast the spell. It just uses textures to simulate the appearance of an action button, and we can do anything we want with textures at any point, there's no combat lock down on them. Textures aren't limited because the player still needs to see this information, interpret it themselves, and decide which ability to use manually.

I'm fairly certain that that's just what PolMonitor does, create clear (Alpha=0) buttons, then add a texture which it then manipulates. You -can- click the button to cast the spell, which is what initially drew me in. There's currently no keybind functionality, possibly because it's not possible in that context; however, you most certainly can use it to assist in the choice of the next spell to be cast, then click the place that you are already looking to create the affect you are already thinking about.

Originally Posted by Waverian It's worth mentioning that you can kind of, sort of replicate FlexBar visually... One thing we can do with action buttons in combat is change their alpha. That means technically we could 'hide' them by making them completely transparent, however the buttons will still eat mouse clicks. If you attempt to overlay two buttons and make one transparent, only the button on top will be usable, and we cannot change the strata (which is on top) in combat, either. It's not likely you'll see an addon like this made since using textures like PolMonitor does has virtually the same end result and is a lot easier to do.

This visual representation is exactly what I'm looking for. I want a button, bind-able if possible, that I can program to 'fade in' visually, display what I want, in the font and size that I want, then 'fade out' (visually only, mind) until the criteria I have set are again met. I'm aware that the screen real estate is still taken, I can't toggle click-through in combat (Right?). The real request here is to either have PolMonitor-like functionality added on to an existing bar mod, such as Macaroon (I've not really played with this one yet, so I'm not sure of it's abilities), or have bar-mod like properties built into a PolMonitor-like addon. And if that isn't a large enough request, I'm looking for even more customization of the resulting texture, so I can tell it to display the information applicable to that particular spell.

Maybe the simplest way to do this would be to use a barmod, set the alpha on the skills I want to zero, then use some addon (Yet to be created, I assume.) to then create textures with the detail text I'm looking for. I never really used Flexbar to make decisions for me or make incorrect decisions impossible, I used it to make finding the best decision faster, partially because I had (with a glance at the bar) all the information I needed to make the 'correct' decision quickly and decisively. I can gather all the information I need in a hundred separate places. Where I want the info is on the bar.

To create a 'similar' affect, I could just use ClassTimer (An addon I'm already using) and glance at that all the time. (Which is what I did previous to this.) I suppose you could call it lazy, but I want information to come to me, not vise-versa. I use a large screen (two, in fact), and I can't pay direct attention to everything I want to see all the time. If the info 'pops up' where I'm already likely to be looking, my bars, then I can save micro seconds of process time (My 286 brain, not the computer), and potentially use less CPU and RAM with addons I would, then, no longer need.

I'm currently looking into Macaroon, as Syxx suggested, but I don't quite see what I'm looking for as far as data display on the bars goes. (There is a bit about a macro 'note', but I think thats static text, and not changeable in response to events happening within the game.) I don't even know where to begin looking for an addon that only displays data on button, perhaps I'll have to burn my fingers on Lua again. I know that you can use an addon to display text on a button, linked to the ability it 'houses' that is changeable based on both buffs you have, and debuffs the target has. DrDamage does that. I just want different data.

The workaround I'm currently using is to place PolMonitor 'buttons' on top of my existing bar, turn on clickthrough (so when I click, I get what's underneath - my button) and then configure PolMonitor to show me what it can. It doesn't have the customization that I'm looking for, but it works until I can find (or make...) what I want.

I'm sure I sound ... special. I frequently come across this way due to the style in which I type. Kindly take the tone I 'say' things in with a grain of salt, there's no offense intended. So far, Waverian, you've given me wonderful information, and I would really appreciate a continued dialog. Is there anything other than PolMonitor doing something like this? Perhaps with more wiggle room as far as features goes?

Thanks,

Mantioch

[sully3592]

autobar is another one you may want to look into.