UI Developer Noobie

eluthria · #1 04-01-2009, 08:43 PM

Hi folks,

Just looking for a little guidance and advice here as I am a complete noobie to eq2interface.com and UI development in general.

I've been using Mother's Health Windows for many months now and I've been keeping it up-to-date on my local system after each GU. Mother unfortunately seems to have gone MIA and hasn't updated his interface in a long time now.

As mother seems to have abandoned the UI I'd like to enquire as to what might be the process to re-release this UI under my own account (obviously with credit to Mother) so as I can keep it going. Is this allowed? Would I be stepping on any toes or breaking any rules in doing this?

On another topic...

- Is there a manual or resource somewhere that explains what each of the UI attributes do/mean?

- Is there anyway to check your UI changes short of completely restarting EQ2 each time you tweak your UI?

Thanks in advance,

- Roldy

**Drumstix42** · #2 04-01-2009, 09:12 PM

If you goto that exact link you gave, you'll notice on the right hand side there are 2 text links: [Upload Patch|Upload Add-on]

Uploading as a patch would generally be the same thing as keeping the window up-to-date with being able to credit the original author. If you feel you've changed the window enough to make it more of your own, you can always release it under it's own page, and give credit where it is due.

There is a UI manual that comes with the game UIBuilder.zip called EQ2_UI_Customization.doc that describes a lot of the attributes and such.

To view your changes in-game, you can use the /loadui command, but there are some things that will not update quite perfectly, but it's a useful in many cases.

eluthria · #3 04-06-2009, 12:28 AM

Thanks for the response Drums. I've actually started re-writing my UI completely from scratch now so I will release my interface pieces under my own account in a few days or so. I'm actually having a lot of fun with it putting all the pieces together and learning how things are layed out.

The /loadui function has been a huge time saver, thanks very much! I do get strange behaviour post /loadui for example some of my hot bars disappear and my group windows go a bit strange. Is there a work around for this?

How best do I go about releasing my UI when it's done... it's not a complete UI just the player, group, target and implied target which are all intended to be used as a set not seperate pieces. Which area should I upload something like this too?

- Roldy

**Drumstix42** · #4 04-06-2009, 01:40 AM

There's a compilation section for downloads. So it doesn't have to be a full set, but since it's meant to be together, I would release it under one download there.

The only way to work with /loadui messing with things such as hotbars, is to do a /load_uisettings right afterward. Some things will still be wonky, but they'll show fine after relogging completely.

**gm9** · #5 04-06-2009, 03:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drumstix42

The only way to work with /loadui messing with things such as hotbars, is to do a /load_uisettings right afterward. Some things will still be wonky, but they'll show fine after relogging completely.

You don't need to do the /load_uisettings if you relog anyway, so depending on what you need to test you can either do the /load_uisettings (make a macro with the filename if you intend to keep modding) or do a /quit <charname>. Few things that are left broken after than can be fixed via the /refreshuidata command, some after zoning, but yeah, if in doubt: you'll only get a 100% working game and UI after restarting the client. For a quick initalization of dynamic data after a loadui you can also target yourself and hit autoattack.

That's all the tricks I know and use.

eluthria · #6 09-06-2009, 07:26 PM

I have a couple more noobie questions I wanted to add.

1. I have been tweaking my group window to expand on my click 2 cure. When I click my Curse Cure I’d like to be able send a message to my chat that says >> Curse Cure cast on %t <<. I have the text going to the chat but what is the equivalent of %t in a UI mod?

2. I’d like to be able to setup the group members in my group window in a two column arrangement i.e. member0, member1 and member2 in the first column and member3, member4 and member5 in the second column. I have tried using the location coordinates to position the members correctly but it doesn’t work. As members join the group it places them in entirely different locations (I have rechecked my locations a few times). After a bit of testing I’m thinking that this issue is being caused by the auto positioning that happens when you resize certain UI elements e.g. with the default group window if you resize the window to be wider than it is tall then the group members begin re-ordering themselves into a horizontal configuration rather than a vertical one. Could anyone help me nut out this column arrangement or maybe can I disable the auto re-positioning feature (is that even my problem?).

- Roldy

**lordebon** · #7 09-06-2009, 09:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eluthria

I have a couple more noobie questions I wanted to add.

1. I have been tweaking my group window to expand on my click 2 cure. When I click my Curse Cure I’d like to be able send a message to my chat that says >> Curse Cure cast on %t <<. I have the text going to the chat but what is the equivalent of %t in a UI mod?

2. I’d like to be able to setup the group members in my group window in a two column arrangement i.e. member0, member1 and member2 in the first column and member3, member4 and member5 in the second column. I have tried using the location coordinates to position the members correctly but it doesn’t work. As members join the group it places them in entirely different locations (I have rechecked my locations a few times). After a bit of testing I’m thinking that this issue is being caused by the auto positioning that happens when you resize certain UI elements e.g. with the default group window if you resize the window to be wider than it is tall then the group members begin re-ordering themselves into a horizontal configuration rather than a vertical one. Could anyone help me nut out this column arrangement or maybe can I disable the auto re-positioning feature (is that even my problem?).

- Roldy

Re 1: You can't use tokens like %t, the best you can do is find the name and then navigate to it via parent.parent.whatever and then combine it all together to form the final message.

eluthria · #8 09-06-2009, 10:32 PM

Thanks for the reply lordebon. I don't really understand what you mean by first find the name and then navigate to it. I have seen the words parent.parent repeated in other folks UI mods but I'm not really understanding its purpose or how to use it in my own mods. Could you perhaps show me a couple of examples?

Here is the code I am using:

Code:

<Button BackgroundOpacity="0.000" Location="104,1" LocalTooltip="Cure Curse" Name="CureCurse" OnPress="clearabilityqueue; cancel_spellcast; 1 Curse Cure Cast; useability Cure Curse; target_previous" ScrollExtent="16,16" Size="16,16" Style="/ButtonStyles.invisible" />

- Roldy

EQAditu · #9 09-07-2009, 01:49 AM

There's not much you can do about the group members repositioning themselves. I ran into that issue as well.

http://www.eq2interface.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=12321

You can always put the player as the sixth slot instead of the first.

The parent stuff is just the hierarchical relationship of the XML elements and attributes.

<Page Name="One" A="1" B="2">
___<Page Name="Two" A="7" B="8" OnShow="say A Parent.A Parent.Two.B" />
</Page>

The above OnShow event will say in chat, "7 1 8". The UI scripting will assume a word is a variable name unless it is undefined, then it will be text. So A ends up referring to the A attribute within its own XML node. Parent means it wants to look at the node's parent object; so Parent.A is the A attribute of the Parent node. The last example is simply convoluted... it references the parent, but then specifies itself by name. So Parent.Two.B is the same as simply B within the context of itself.

Feel free to say that was confusing and I'll think of some different examples. But if you understand... the entire UI is set up this way. You can go upwards into the hierarchy into other windows your mod doesn't even own. Though at run-time the top XML nodes will be merged into one... I don't remember the name, but gm9 would mention it every so often. (How he knows, I have no idea)

**Drumstix42** · #10 09-07-2009, 02:00 AM

Yeah, you can think of it like a family tree. There are parents and children
(normally known as a Child attribute)

Each time you navigate backwards through the structure of code, you're referring to the "Parent" object. For each step backward, you need to add another "Parent." to the code reference. To navigate back down the tree, you directly use the names of each object.

This is where properly formatted code makes it easier to decipher things. That, and the UIBuilder.