New and wanting to learn

brb2mins · 09-04-12, 05:39 PM

Hi all, i been using add ons and using ui pakages from this website for quite a long time but im not at the point where i would like to start making my own package, mainly for my own personal use at least at first anyway.Im not sure if posting this in the correct forum but what im basically after and advice you gus could give to someone who is a complete noob to this entire thing. Aside from installing add ons (mostly via curse) and downloading ready made packages from here or other sites i have no knowledge what so ever about coding, programs to use etc.
I kinda asking for any recommendations on good sites, tutorials you may know of and simple to use programs that could help get me started. Im really looking forward to giving this a try and hopefully coming up with something completely of my own design!
Thanks in advance for any help you may have and i apologise if if i have posted this in the wrong forum.

Brb

Fizzlemizz · 09-04-12, 06:37 PM

Most UI packages are made up of a collection of already available addons. This is just a matter of finding the bits and pieces and configuring them to your needs. The best way to do this is to go through a site like this and display the addons by category and then try and find the one in each category that works best for you.

If you want to start programming to make various addons yourself you might want to try some smaller addons, open them up and see what they are doing. Ask questions here and maybe try of the various WOW programming books.

brb2mins · 09-05-12, 01:04 AM

Thanks for the reply. I guess what im wanting to at the moment is to use some existing ones and put them together in a way that i like. So each box looks the same, some dont appear unless hovered over, grid looks the same as the rest of the interface etc. I was of the understanding that to do this i would need know/learn at least a small amount of lua?
I have found a ui that parts of i really like, but i would also like to be able to move some of the unit frames for example and know how to apply the skin to grid and recount (or other variations that do the same job) and also change the scale of some of the features. Having read through the info on this pack it says its entirely lua based and uses an add on called !beautycase to do the skins. It does say that people are welcom to take the bits the like and use them in their own packages but i just dont know where to start!

Phanx · 09-05-12, 01:49 AM

If you really want to get started with writing addons, I'd suggest picking one addon you use that's small and simple. It probably only does one or two things. Now open the addon's Lua file in Notepad (for now, stick with addons that only have one Lua file) and spend some time reading it. Try to figure out how it works. Then try to change how it works in some small way.

There are tons of references, tutorials, and other resources listed in this thread:
http://www.wowinterface.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=43699

Originally Posted by brb2mins

I guess what im wanting to at the moment is to use some existing ones and put them together in a way that i like. ... I was of the understanding that to do this i would need know/learn at least a small amount of lua?

Most addons do not require any Lua knowledge or Lua editing to configure; they have in-game options panels or slash commands. Most addons that do require Lua editing to configure have alternatives that can be configured in-game.

I have found a ui that parts of i really like, but i would also like to be able to move some of the unit frames for example and know how to apply the skin to grid and recount ... also change the scale of some of the features.

Both of the addons you mentioned have tons of in-game options, including options to change their size and appearance. If you want to change something that doesn't have an option, you'll need to be a lot more specific, but both of those addons are quite large and complex, and the exact opposite of the kind of addon I'd suggest a beginner try to modify.

... uses an add on called !beautycase to do the skins.

There are a number of threads on these forums about using !Beautycase; if you want to play with Lua to add borders to other frames, you should do a search and see if any of the existing threads help you.

Anyway, if you're looking for help customizing a compliation/addon pack, you should provide a link to its download page, or at least its name. Otherwise, it's pretty hard to give you any specific suggestions.

brb2mins · 09-05-12, 02:28 AM

Many thanks for your reply Phanx and for your advice, its much aprecciated. The ui that i mentioned i like is called Bob ui

http://www.wowinterface.com/download...502-BobUI.html

i like the unti frames and the buttons in this pack but i would also like to try and make grid look the same if not similar to the style of the button, and also try and use the same borders for recount and a chat box if possible and to remove the the xp bar at the top. The author says its entirely lua so i thought i would have to learn how to use it to achieve this.
If i can start out and making some basic changes to something like this then i can slowly start to learn how to make thing for myslef. I really enjoy playing around with my ui and i find my changing things on a regular basis so to eventually have something that is all my work would be amazing for me

10leej · 11-25-12, 11:31 PM

Sorry I'm posting this really really late reply you'll never look at but here's what BobUI basically is

the actionbar coding for BobUI is essentially Roth's Actionbarstyler condensed to one file gutted out then modified.

All the borders are built off using the library I turned !Beautycase into (I gutted a lot of it for my own reasons)

Unitframes are largely my own creation but are heavily based off whoa UnitFrames so yeah there's the default unitframes

chat windows are a modified older version of Monolit's mChat out of his UI

Bags were something I pulled out of aftermathui

I use Adapt for the 3d portraits and working on building a configuration for rfilter3

So basically BobUI is a modified compilation of addons. You can get all the textures from my media file download

Make sure you get permission from the addon authors before you modify anything and post it though.