G13ActionBars

G13ActionBars is a simple, lightweight action bar tailored for use with a Logitech G13 Advanced Gameboard. The bars are based on the default action bars so if an addon works with the default WoW action bars, they should work with G13ActionBars.

IMPORTANT!
This addon has NO in-game configuration. Not even slash commands. It does however use a Config.lua file which you can edit to move bars around, change sizes, have bars fade out until you hover over them, etc. This is a complete action bar replacement that includes all the standard bars, menu bar, bag bar, extra button, pet bar, stance/shapeshift bar, and totem bar. It will NOT automatically work with a G13. You have to setup your G13 keys with the software that comes with the G13, and then bind those keys using the standard Blizzard keybindings in game.



The Problem
For the most part, standard action bars work fine for the G13 and many people are very happy with their layouts. Some people choose to use some of their G13 keys for tab, alt/shift/ctrl modifiers, and other such keys that don't directly map to action bar buttons. There are, however, some of us (like myself) that prefer to use every single key of the G13 as action buttons.

If you are like me, then you have used action bar addons and stacked the bars up into rows. This is simple enough at first and does indeed work, but there are some problems with this. For one, it can be a bit wasteful since the G13 uses 2 rows of 7, a row of 5, and then a row of 3. If you use 4 bars, you are wasting a lot of slots that could be used on auxiliary bars.

You may then search for an addon that lets you have a single bar span multiple rows. This still isn't perfect, because the numbers just don't match up. You can't create a single bar for both of the top rows of the G13 (7 + 7 = 14, which is 2 more than standard action bar allows). You could use one bar for the top row, then use a single bar for the 2nd and 3rd rows. That bar works out perfectly to 12 buttons. But then you still have that 4th little bar of just 3 buttons, and a top bar with wasted buttons as well.

Another problem with the last method I mentioned is that most bars when using a single bar to create 2 rows it will attempt to "balance" the rows, when you really want one row to have 7 and the next to have 5 (with the second row centered under the first).



The Solution
That's where this simple addon comes in. It simply combines your main action bar, and the bottom left action bar into a single bar, and then you still have 3 full auxiliary bars leftover.

Here's how it works. The top 7 buttons are the first 7 buttons of your standard "bottom left bar". The next two rows (one with 7 buttons and one with 5) is your main action bar. It can be paged as usual, and will handle shapeshifts, stances, stealth, etc. Then you have the last row of 3 buttons which again comes from the bottom left bar. If you like to assign the two flat thumb buttons on your G13 to abilities, then you can optionally enable the "thumb buttons" which will add 2 more buttons to the bottom row for a total of 5.

So now you have an action bar laid out in the same arrangement of your G13, using standard action bars which is great if you then play on another computer without your G13, your spells will still be in normal locations on the default UI bars.



To Do:
Lots of bug testing is needed as I just whipped this addon up over the past couple days. I'll take some screenshots and get them up shortly and I'll whip up a little diagram to make it easy to setup your keybinds.



Credits:
This action bar mod is based on the very awesome rActionBarStyler addon created by zork. If you haven't seen his addons, you should check them out. He makes the beautiful Roth UI (a diablo looking UI). Many thanks to zork and all the other addon developers out there.

As I continue working on this addon I'll certainly run into problems and find solutions from other addon developers, and I'll add them to my list here.



DVCS
https://bitbucket.org/vibrid/g13actionbars