UI Editor Search

Hello,

I am building a ShopKeeper obj, Really great fun, thanks to Everyone who puts into this project.

So, in that end, I have some fairly complex desires when it comes to layout and control placement for this component.

I have been getting to know the XML files that support this goal, and frankly.. I am a bit daunted, hah.

I have glanced around but I am wondering if there is a standard for this layout someone might know, are there tools available to create and modify it that are supported?

So far, I have the UI up, and some message flow between client and server, and all the related scripts.
I am next going to make use of the relationships of the UI to the templates and obtain the graphics for the objects.
I plan to develop a drag and drop solution so basically a large drop window you can drop things into.

Then there is the selling side, this is where the graphic needs become more complex, I desire to have a series of chained frames with content that is operable much like a treeview control.
And then with frames inside of each branch to represent the selection.

Does anyone have any good ideas how to go about doing this?
Is this going to be a by hand thing for now?

If this is the case, I think I would throw in to have some support developed, would we add that to the world editor? the game? or a completely separated tool?

Thanks for reading!

oldschool, I love your avatar picture! 1.21 jiggawatz!

Just so I can understand your overall goal here. Your want to make a shop keeper in multiverse that allows a buy and sell interface with drag and drop ?

Just want to make sure I understand your end goal.

Thanks,
Shane
Cobalt Blues

Hah, awesome.
so many BA avatars around here, between you and Koron, I felt something kick ass was in order.

Yes, precisely for the ShopKeeper. But at the same time, I also have a number of other related GUI ideas I want to put together, and they are all going to
require some serious hand massage of those files.

I note the images used in the UI and the corresponding script for them where the image is 'sliced' into panels via the XML file.
This I think would be the first thing that needs to be toolified, I swear it must be already! somewhere!

I thought the mosaic editor would be tasked with this, but I could not find the support in the UI of that program to do it.

Second to that, would be the other XML files used to define the actual layouts, so frames and all the features they support.
Hand editing a complex UI with a number of entries and expanding components is going to be hard for me, cause I am lazy.

I plan to provide all of the ShopKeeper work to the Wiki, incase someone else might desire the functionality it will provide.
I am sick of game merchant / shopkeepers that don't resell the items sold to them, so gonna try that out


Edit:
*sigh*

Not sure how I missed this, but there is clearly a folder in the tools directory that looks like the UI editor.
Sorry. Clearly I will review it and go from there.

-Chris

Ok, so I did some review on the Project and well, it seems fairly far off still.

I really like the base portion of the design, there is a great deal of technology available to make a really kick ass editor.
So, after getting it to build, and running it and seeing what was working and what isn't I went and downloaded the parent project, which is the WoW Addon editor.

This one is at least working, but many features that I would want to see are either incomplete or not working.

Has anyone spent anytime looking at this? Is there perhaps someone with some work done they would like to share to move this project forward?

I am thinking that I need to determine if this fork from the Addon was earlier than the current version of the Wow addon editor.
If it is current with the now defunc Wow addon repository, then it is probably a good place to start.

But if it is from an older revision, a person might want to start with the WoW addon editor and bring in all the code from the other editor project.

All of this is pretty large in scope, and will take some new skills to be able to really make use of.

I am still working on hand building the shopkeeper UI, and while not impossible, I feel it would be a great boon to have this editor working.

Can anyone give me an idea of how they work with the UI XML? is it all by hand?

I work it all by hand. Once you get used to it it is not terrible.

Delurin wrote:

I work it all by hand. Once you get used to it it is not terrible.

Hey Delurin,

Thanks for the input! and I agree it is not terrible,

but I would still like an editor, hah. I will spend some time on it, and see if I can make it easier for us.

But yea it is hard to balance the desire for an editor with the weight of what needs to be done.
It does seem pretty frivolous.

I haven't worked with the gui yet but I think I'd also agree with Delurin based on what I have peeked at.

There is obviously a lot to tackle with Multiverse and the time spent on making a tool isn't spent (directly) on your project.

However...

I sure would /guru_bow to anyone who took the time off from their project to get the UI editor working!



Cheers

I could be wrong, but I think if a person wanted to use a simple visual editor, then the WoW addon one does seem to support the FrameXML.
it looks identical, so you can most likely use it to drag and drop a UI together that would be compatible to Multiverse, with perhaps minor tweaking.

My thinking is that if all it does is add move and resize the controls, it is not as useful of an editor than what I originally envisioned.

I am going to need the ability (its in visual studio amiright?) to have it be tightly integrated to the python code editing.
as well I want it to be able to manipulate a frame resource a bit lower than they do currently.

I want to be able to define the textures and placement of layers within a frame and all that jazz.
I was not able to locate all of the low level manipulation tools we would need to make the editor useful.
I could not identify the capability to create a 'composition' of the components, which for me, is a show stopper as far as editing this stuff goes.

More research required. I have not totally given up yet. But I did spend the night last night working in the XML by hand.

ShopKeeper buy is near complete, just got to fire the message off to server collect my response and populate inventory!
Next up, Sell!! lol.

oldschool wrote:

I could be wrong, but I think if a person wanted to use a simple visual editor, then the WoW addon one does seem to support the FrameXML.
it looks identical, so you can most likely use it to drag and drop a UI together that would be compatible to Multiverse, with perhaps minor tweaking.

My thinking is that if all it does is add move and resize the controls, it is not as useful of an editor than what I originally envisioned.

I am going to need the ability (its in visual studio amiright?) to have it be tightly integrated to the python code editing.
as well I want it to be able to manipulate a frame resource a bit lower than they do currently.

I want to be able to define the textures and placement of layers within a frame and all that jazz.
I was not able to locate all of the low level manipulation tools we would need to make the editor useful.
I could not identify the capability to create a 'composition' of the components, which for me, is a show stopper as far as editing this stuff goes.

More research required. I have not totally given up yet. But I did spend the night last night working in the XML by hand.

ShopKeeper buy is near complete, just got to fire the message off to server collect my response and populate inventory!
Next up, Sell!! lol.

Hi oldschool!

Did you manage to get this all working in the end?

Tristan

Heya , Jarod Here

I like the concept idea of an interactive AI. Sounds intriguing to say the least. I have tried (and failed I might add) to do the same thing to replace the "Find & Grab" style of adding to a player's inventory... which in my opinion just bites.

The "Shopkeeper" would basically replace an automated vending machine? why not simply attach all the scripts for a vending machine, add some speech parameters to an interactions menu... and you're there! well, almost there, but you get the idea.

I applaud this idea, and will offer any help with some mechanics if you need, but it sounds already like there's enough cooks at the present time. I can't wait to see your prototype.

Cheers, Jarod.