what event should i register

[Spawnova]

I have an addon that monitors buffs and i have it display the duration left but since I'm currently using
"RegisterEvent("UNIT_AURA", "player")" it only fires if i gain or lose a buff.

So my question is, what's the correct event to have updated durations on buffs?

[Clamsoda]

I believe that you will need an OnUpdate function to continually poll the buff(s) for their current duration. Additionally, you'll likely need some throttling of the function, as it fires for every frame update, which could be 60+ times per second. You are most likely interested in seconds or tenths of a second.

[Spawnova]

Thanks, I've included that and now it works just fine =)

[ravagernl]

Originally Posted by Clamsoda I believe that you will need an OnUpdate function to continually poll the buff(s) for their current duration.

On the contrary, an OnUpdate function is not needed and possible even advised against.

You need to use COMBAT_LOG_EVENT_UNFILTERED. http://www.wowwiki.com/API_COMBAT_LOG_EVENT and look at the sub events:

SPELL_AURA_APPLIED,
SPELL_AURA_REMOVED,
SPELL_AURA_REFRESH

and possible more.

You can use the arguments to filter by spell id / destGUID.

[Phanx]

You still need an OnUpdate script to update the time visibly displayed by your fontstring, statusbar, etc.

Also, I'd argue that using CLEU to detect aura changes on a single unit is actually less efficient than using RegisterUnitEvent with UNIT_AURA. Not only does CLEU fire for every aura change on every unit, it also fires for thousands of other things.

However, you shouldn't poll UnitAura every time your OnUpdate script runs. Store the aura's expiration time or remaining duration in a variable, and use that in your OnUpdate script to update your GUI.

[ravagernl]

I stand corrected. I was under the impression that BuffFrame/DebuffFrame both use CLEU, but it seems they also use an onupdate script.

Sorry for giving false info!

[Phanx]

Originally Posted by ravagernl I was under the impression that BuffFrame/DebuffFrame both use CLEU, but it seems they also use an onupdate script.

Even if they used CLEU instead of UNIT_AURA to detect auras being added or removed, they would still need an OnUpdate script to update the displayed duration text, because CLEU only tells you when an aura is added or removed (or refreshed, but that's bascially the same thing). CLEU doesn't re-fire 10 times a second for every aura to tell you that the aura's remaining duration has decreased by 1/10th of a second.

[zork]

Hmm...if you re-apply a buff that is already on that unit you still need to update the expiration time of the aura already in your queue list.

/run f=CreateFrame("Frame");f:RegisterUnitEvent("UNIT_AURA","player","vehicle");f:SetScript("OnEvent",function(self,...) print(...) end);

Plus if an aura is removed you need to run over the queue list to find out which aura is it.

For rFilter3 I decided to have a single onUpdate script that runs over all auras updating the timers/icons.

To bad that UNIT_AURA does not tell you about the aura that got applied.