Beyond "Hello World!"

[Bodur]

Hello everyone,

Recently (ahem last weekend) I decided to join the ranks of those who write addons and found the "Hello World!" tutorial. I worked through that and it works. Great! Now I want to take the next step and use some function calls to make it more interesting.. Yay? No. I can't get the following code to work:

Bodur.toc file:
## Interface: 30000
## Title: Bodur
## Notes: My first AddOn
## Dependencies:
Bodur.lua
Bodur.xml


Bodur.lua file:
function HelloWorld()
message("Hello World!");

local s = "Hello everyone";

SendChatMessage("Hello Exodus", "GUILD");
SendChatMessage("Hello world", "SAY");
SendChatMessage("Hello everyone", YELL);

local index = GetChannelName("General") -- It finds General is a channel at index 1
if (index~=nil) then
SendChatMessage(s , "CHANNEL", nil, index);
end

SendChatMessage("Hello!", "WHISPER", "Common", "Lylmiss");

end


Bodur.xml file:
<Ui xmlns="http://www.blizzard.com/wow/ui/"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.blizzard.com/wow/ui/
..\..\FrameXML\UI.xsd">
<Frame name="HelloWorldFrame">
<Scripts>
<OnLoad>
HelloWorld();
</OnLoad>
</Scripts>
</Frame>
</Ui>


It appears that the function calls to SendChatMessage are not working. None of the above combinations work. On the other hand, the function call to message() works fine. I am sure there is something obvious I am missing. Any ideas?

take care,
Bodur

[Akryn]

My only thought is that it's too early to call SendChatMessage if you do it in a frames's OnLoad that's getting created at login. Perhaps consider creating a /command to call your function instead...

<OnLoad>
   HELLOWORLD_OnLoad()
</OnLoad>

-------

function HELLOWORLD_OnLoad()
     SlashCmdList["HELLOWORLD"] = "/helloworld"
     SLASH_HELLOWORLD1 = HelloWorld()
end

[Gimbli]

Try changing it from an "OnLoad" function to an "OnEvent" function and register PLAYER_ENTERING_WORLD. OnLoad, you're going to run into issues obtaining UI and Game Engine information because things are in an initializing state.

[hypehuman]

Have you tried typing "/script HelloWorld()" in the chat box after you've logged in? If that works, then the above posters' suggestions should help.

[Bodur]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will try them out as soon as the servers come back up.

In the line
SLASH_HELLOWORLD1 = HelloWorld()
should the "1" be there?

take care,
Bodur

[Akryn]

Originally Posted by Bodur Thanks for all the suggestions. I will try them out as soon as the servers come back up. In the line SLASH_HELLOWORLD1 = HelloWorld() should the "1" be there? take care, Bodur

Yes, although I completely screwed up other parts of it (I'm at work and thinking about other things :P)

It should be:

     
SlashCmdList["HELLOWORLD"] = HelloWorld
SLASH_HELLOWORLD1 = "/helloworld"

with no () on the function and the values swapped.

The reason for the 1 is that you can create additional /commands that will call the same function but won't override another addon's if their number is lower, for example if you wanted /hw to work as well, unless another addon used /hw as its only command, you could then do:

SLASH_HELLOWORLD2 = "/hw"

[Bodur]

Thank you Akryn. This new version works!

And you were right, Hypehuman. It can also be called in-game as a script. Thanks.

Gimbli, can you elaborate a little about how to register PLAYER_ENTERING_WORLD? I am very new to both Lua and the Blizzard API.

take care,
Bodur

[hypehuman]

I learned how to use events from this wowwiki tutorial: http://www.wowwiki.com/Events_%28API...vent_reception

[Mera]

Originally Posted by Bodur Thank you Akryn. This new version works! And you were right, Hypehuman. It can also be called in-game as a script. Thanks. Gimbli, can you elaborate a little about how to register PLAYER_ENTERING_WORLD? I am very new to both Lua and the Blizzard API. take care, Bodur

local event = CreateFrame("Frame") --not real frame but something that could detect event
event:SetScript("OnEvent", myFunc) -- myFunc() function called on event
event:RegisterEvent("PLAYER_ENTERING_WORLD") -- after which event myFunc() is called

not that PLAYER_LOGIN is preferred than PLAYER_ENTERING_WORLD because some api function could return nil values before player_login.

[Seerah]

Since they're using an xml file, they don't need to create an extra frame, and they can do the event registration/function call in their xml file.

In the OnLoad section, use self:RegisterEvent("PLAYER_ENTERING_WORLD") (or you can use "PLAYER_LOGIN" - see this: http://www.wowwiki.com/Events_that_f...oading_process). Then have an OnEvent section below that for your frame's scripts and put HelloWorld() or whatever function you wish to call. Just like the page that hypehuman linked you above.

[Mera]

he should know both methods so then he can see in just 3 lua lines he can do more than a ugly xml file, my opînion,just stay away from using that useless file format in wow. what does it make just is it shows things harder to code than they are

[Seerah]

I prefer lua, too, but he was working off of a tutorial. Most all tutorials, even the Blizzard ones use an xml file to begin with. It's already all set up for him, he's getting the hang of it. He can take the next step later instead of being pushed into the pool all at once.

[Bodur]

All of you are GREAT help! Thank you very much. I am working on trying the various suggestions to see the effects.

take care,
Bodur

PS I guess getting pushed off the deep end is OK as long as you don't also push my head under.