WoW UI Designer Release Notes

These notes refer to wowuides.exe version 1.1.x, the beta release.

Introduction

This is the WoW UI Designer initially mentioned here. It started off as an idea I had to be able to load in any addon frame and edit it like you would a form in Borland C++ Builder (my development environment of choice until recently). From that it developed into a full IDE, with the ability to edit lua scripts, and xml files in both code and designer views. Hopefully in the months ahead, it will develop into the only choice for WoW interface developers even if the visual designer is not powerful enough for them.

Features

• Native Win32 application developed in C# 2005 requiring .Net v2.0. Compatible with Windows XP Home(Untested) and Professional(Tested), Windows 2003 Server (Untested), and Windows 2000 Professional (Tested) with the latest service packs;
• Multiple docking form interface in the style of Microsoft's development environments, provides flexibility for the user and developer;
• Tight integration with Blizzard's World of Warcraft game, providing editors for their open User Interface standard that use XML and Lua 5.0 standards;
• Flexible renderer to display any LayoutFrame element defined in an XML file validated against Blizzard's UI.XSD schema;
• Embedded ActiproSoftware SyntaxEditor provides syntax highlighting for XML and LUA files, and the ability to display calltips in the future;
• Visual designer to create new forms and edit them. Uses skin files to define what components can be placed, what properties they have, and how to convert between the XML and Windows.Forms;
• This release WILL NOT handle your existing UI files within the editor, it can only handle files that it itself created.
• Lots of other stuff yet to do!

Installation

1. Install all latest service packs: Windows Update.
2. Install Windows Installer 3.1, if you don't already have it installed. Unfortunately this requires genuine Windows validation, not sure how to get around it.
3. Install Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package (x86)
4. If you have issues later with the Lua interpretor, install the Microsoft .NET Framework Version 1.1 Redistributable Package, not sure if this is required or not.
5. Ensure that a copy of World of Warcraft is installed correctly on your system. Use regedit.exe to check HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Blizzard Entertainment/World of Warcraft/InstallPath to see if you have a good install. You can change the path in the wowuides program options later, but this reduces the problems.
6. Should now be good to go, run the installer WoW UI Designer v1.1.X.msi and follow the prompts.

Notes

• As of WoW version 1.8.0, the Blizzard XML files no longer conform to their schema exactly. In order to load these files correctly, there is an option in the General tab of the options dialog to not validate the Blizzard XML files against the schema.
• The loading process can take a bit of time, but hopefully you wont have to do it as many times as I did when developing it.
• Many addons do not validate against the Blizzard schema, the program does not attempt to load these files and will display one error about that file. These can be safely ignored unless you want order. You can use Tools | Validate XML to validate the current buffer against the schema, if no errors are displayed then it is valid. You can then use Tools | Reload Addons to attempt to reload all the addons to the file list again.
• The pixel values for location and size are accurate at 1024x768 resolution, but are scaled down for lower resolutions by the WoW renderer.
• The image reader looks for .TGA files first, then .BLP files.
• There are 2 skins installed with the designer with overlapping component types. The Default skin has fewer properties and should be easier for a beginner to start playing with, the Basic skin has most of the properties available exposed and is good for users requiring more control. There is no way to convert a component from one skin to another without recreating it.

Known Bugs

• Structure view does not work correctly with table element names in the [expr] format if expr is not a straight integer.
• Lots of potential exceptions are not correctly trapped, debug output not available to users.
• Application uses a s**t load of memory once everything is loaded (~200MB), will work to reduce this (but it is beta after all).
• New forms added to a project, but not edited and saved before closing the project will load them back as normal xml files.
• Font drawing is a bit off, with characters offset a little high and a bit wider than the WoW rendering.
• Find and Replace dialog is not finished.

To Do

• Implement Undo throughout, you can use CTRL-Z or the context menu on the edit control to undo its actions, you cannot Undo what you have done in the visual designer.
• Expand the default skin, and provide an interface to add more skins. Document the skin file format. Maybe rename to Component Libraries?
• Improve the renderer speed and functionality, so that it more closely represents the WoW experience.
• Change the property script editor interface so that it is embedded directly into the document view like a normal lua script, thus giving the author access to all the resources possible.
• Tighten application security to make the current skin files less dangerous.
• Allow multiple message view windows to be created, each with their own filtering states.

Planned

• Implement calltips for LUA and XML code. Use information provided on wowwiki to get the current function listing. Eventually provide all the wowwiki information to the developer contextually through help windows.
• Improve the editor interface so that all the functionality available in ActiproSoftware.SyntaxEditor is exposed to the user, and can be customised fully.
• Develop the UI section of the WoW sandbox, so that most scripts can be run to see their effect in the renderer.
• Change the renderer to a DirectX implementation to provide faster drawing speed and more effects on texture drawing than the current GDI+ implementation.

Contributors

• Steven Haworth - AKA Nulkris, 60 Alliance Rogue on Proudmoore; and Barbucan, 65 Rogue on Torvonnilous.
• Jason Harrell - AKA Aegean, 60 Alliance Hunter on Proudmoore.

Other Contributors (though they didn't know it)

• Fabio Mascarenhas - Author of Lua Interface 1.3.0
• gserack - Author of ScintillaNET 0.61
• Neil Hodgson and Co. - Authors of Scintilla 1.66
• Weifen Luo - Author of Dock Panel Suite 0.99.0.3
• Technetium - Author of blp2decode.dll
• Developers of FreeImage 1.3.0
• Shadowflare - Developer of sfmpq dll
• Mike Krueger - Developer of #ziplib

History

1.0.0.100: Initial limited release
+ All new

1.0.0.100a1: Alpha 1 Patch
+ Added a view menu to recover lost windows.

1.0.100.2: Alpha 2 Patch
* Redone version numbering to match the correct format.
+ Added a project menu to duplicate what is on the Project Explorer context menu.
+ Added a selector box to the properties window so that you can easily select components in the visual editor. (Fixed up so it worked properly in release 2 of this version).
+ More properties for the form component, all components have the hidden property now.
* Made it so you can load up forms from any version of the software
* Changed the rename functionality.
* Changed the name of new items so that they match up with the project title.
* Made it so you cannot access functionality while the program is loading up the file list.
* Various other fixes.

1.0.100.3: Alpha 4 Patch
+ Added keywords for WoW API so that they are syntax highlighed (Thanks Beladona for the list)
+ Added skin file page to options.
+ Added editor customisation page to options.
+ Added per character saved variable support (1.8 feature).
+ Added support for changing the file load order in the project explorer, can use context menu or drag files around.
* Fixed copy/paste for UI visual editor.
* Fixed globalisation issues.
* Find form has some improved functionality.
* Debug file written to same directory as wowuides.exe.
* Hopefully fixed hard crashes with lua interpretor and text labels with odd characters.
- Removed need for wow.exe to be in WoW override folder.

1.0.100.4: Alpha 5 Release
+ About box.
+ Tooltips for known WoW functions displayed in editor, added apidoc.xsd containing the schema for the docfile. Some functions defined in api/*.xml
+ Added a toolbar with basic functions.
+ Expand scripts defined in an XML file within the project explorer.
+ Added support for include tag for XML files, this is now used alot in 1.8.
+ Now includes its own Lua parser.
+ Added a structure window for editing Lua Files, shows functions and variables defined within the file.
+ Options to not verify XML files against the schema, can turn off verification for Blizzard files only.
+ Now has a proper application icon!
+ Added a tutorial

1.0.100.5: Alpha 6 Release
* Ensure line endings are all CRLF, and specify UTF-8 encoding when saving.
+ Structure view now tries to show tables that are defined in the source.
* Structure view now updates on error, and will only show contents prior to the error.
+ Message window will now show a Lua syntax error if available, as you are typing.
* Structure view should remember what is opened as things appear and disappear when typing.
* Docking state file is now stored in the same directory as the executable.
* Structure view will clear when buffer is closed.

1.0.100.6: Alpha 7 Release
+ Comes in an install package now.
* Script support in the designer should be a little better now, can access scripts of sub-frames.

1.0.100.7: Alpha 8 Release
+ Now handles reading in lua files for the interpreter, should handle Euro globalstrings.lua correctly now.
* Fixed a bug where an invalid XML file in a project would cause the whole project not to load.
* Updated version numbers on DLLs so that the installer will overwrite old ones if they are present.

1.0.100.8: Alpha 9 Release
* Fixed freezing when lua parser couldn't find a token before the end of the file.
+ Added a window menu to display the list of windows in the document view.
+ Added a format menu to the UI designer view with some component alignment commands.
* When pasting components back onto a form, the new components are centred within the parent, instead of over the top of the old components.
+ Added a Renderer menu when the Renderer is displayed.
+ Project Explorer now contains a tree listing of all the frames defined in the project, this is updated when any file is saved.
+ New command with the Renderer allows you to rewrite the XML file that contains the frame you are viewing, changing properties will change those values in the output.
* Mass code changes to better support outputting XML that is close to what is read in, taking into account inheritance.

1.0.100.9: Beta Release Candidate 1
* Fixed up a bug in the XML loader not correctly inheriting sub-frames, also ScrollFrames fixed up.
* When positioning frames, the renderer will now look for named parents.
+ Added some icons to the File List tree view to represent frame types.
+ Added icons to the format menu.
+ Added a texture viewer editor to xml properties that use textures.
* Changed the color type to use the standard colour editor.
+ Added filtering to the message view, and column-click sorting.
* Error marker now showing up when lua parser finds a syntax error.
* Changed Delete key handling for the editor control.

1.0.100.10: Beta Release Candidate 1a
* Quick fix for Euro machines when loading Color tags.

1.0.100.11: Beta Release Candidate 2
+ Added a new skin called "Basic", this exposes most of the frame types and a majority of their properties.
* Changed the skin format and handling a little to make it more straightforward.
* Made it so placing any xml file in the skins directory will install it as a skin.
+ Added functionality to the Slider and StatusBar frame types to draw the bar and thumb texture.
+ Added custom type converter to backdrop that allows you to select from a list of predefined backdrops.
+ Added custom type converter to textures and fontstrings that allows you to clear and set them properly.
* Fixed a hang bug with the editor error marking.

1.0.100.12: Beta Release Candidate 2a
* Release to test the program against the release version of the tools and framework.

1.0.100.13: Beta Release Candidate 3
* Changed the update strategy of the structure form to update only when the lua file is valid, this is a bit less distracting when typing.
* Now clears error markers from the whole file to eradicate left behind tails.
* Played with the message view to make it a bit less flashy when typing Lua.
+ Added the ability to set the GetLocale() return value (see the Options dialog), be careful as it isn't checked.
* Made addon loading take into account dependencies.

1.0.200.0: Beta Release
* New version number for first public release.

1.0.200.1: Beta Release 1
* Changed manifest file to work on IA-64 Windows versions.
+ Added a context menu to the file list to easily allow a project to be opened.
* Put in a work around so that addons with circular dependencies will still load.
+ Added an option to disable real-time error marking on the edit control.
* Changed the way window locations are stored between sessions, now stored in the registry and not version dependant.

1.0.200.2: Beta Release 2
* Found what was causing extra error markers in the XML syntax highlighting and fixed with a new lexer dll.
+ Added line numbers and code folding to the editor, with options to turn them on and off, rearranged the options dialog to suite.
* Can now open text files with the Open File... command.
* Fixed up a few frame definitions so that they can be used as base frames in skins.
+ Added a new component to the Default skin, Multiline Edit Box with full scroll capabilities.

1.0.200.3: Beta Release 3
+ Added a hide context menu command to the Frame explorers to hide sub-frames from the render.
* Xml files that do not validate are included in the File List with an error marker.
* Fixed BLP reader to read uncompressed texture files.
+ Options to add file extensions pointing to the application.
+ Project editor form now allows you to set localized properties, and handles 1.9 LoadWith property.
* Fixed a bug that didn't allow more than one instance of the application to run.

1.0.200.4: Beta Release 4
* Some more text editor enhancements, including auto-indenting/unindenting, and brace highlighting.
+ Now has full support for reading data files directly from the MPQ files.
* Options has 2 separate directory entries, one for the install directory (containing the MPQ files), and another work directory.
+ Added a zip library and a utility to zip up your addon project files.
+ Added a utility to copy addon project files from the work directory to the WoW install directory.

1.0.200.5: Beta Release 5
* Hopefully made the auto-indent a little more intelligent.
+ Added a Go To command for going to a line number.
+ Added initial support for XML autocomplete.
* Fixed up defaultCopy skin mechanism to set parent propertly.
+ Added Uppercase/Lowercase to context menu of edit control.
* Fixed up all forms to have consistant appearance with different themes.

1.0.300.0: Beta Release 6
* Large rewrite with new editor control and image editor.

1.0.300.1: Beta Release 7
+ Added outlining and bookmarking functionality to the text editor.
* Improved drawing speed within the renderer.
+ Added null functions for seterrorhandler() and GetItemQualityColor() so they don't bring up errors when loading the default 1.10 files.

1.0.300.2: Beta Release 8
+ Added a help window that links directly to WoWWiki. Press F1 on a known function and it will bring up the wiki for that function.
* Reintroduced tooltips for known functions within the editor. Hovering the mouse over the function name will bring up a short summary.
* Updated highlighting definitions for new 1.10 functions.
* Updated apidoc definitions for new 1.10 functions (still very incomplete).
* Filled in more functionality in the Project Explorer, most of the context menus will work now.
+ Added code folding for block comments.
+ Added special region tokens for folding arbrarily defined regions of a file, use --#region [Description] to start, --#endregion to end (note: no space between -- & #)

1.0.300.3: Beta Release 9
+ Added a symbol library. When the application first starts, it will parse each lua file for symbols, and whilst editing you can CONTROL-LEFT CLICK on a symbol to go to where it is defined.
+ Added an update application feature.
* Fixed path comparision when trailing '\' were different.

1.0.300.4: Beta Release 10
* Fixed a bug with the texture browser not showing.
* Redid some of the multi-document find functionality.
* Updated structure view so that it provides some help whilst editing XML files.
+ Added file modified detection to allow easy reloading/deleting of files modified outside the editor.
* Updated context menu of editor to add more functions.
* Options dialog now working, editor customization available again!

1.0.300.5/6: Beta Release 11
* Made it so changing the background color of the "Text" font style will change the background of the entire text area.
+ Added clampedToScreen property to Frame class and Frame skin object.
+ Added ButtonText, NormalFont/Color, HighlightFont/Color, and DisabledFont/Color properties to Button class. Depreciated NormalText, HighlightText, and DisabledText, and added conversion from old style to new style Button properties.
+ Added fade and displayDuration properties to MessageFrame class.
* Updated lua syntax highlighting for 1.11 keywords.
* Improved MPQ file searching for PTR and live.

1.0.300.7: Beta Release 12 (13Jul06)
+ Added lots of options for the text editor, check them out!
+ Reintroduced autocomplete list for the XML editor, there are typing triggers for bringing up select lists, and you can use CTRL-SPACE to bring up the list when inside elements.
+ Reintroduced smart indenting for lua and xml.
* Fixed bug when opening a file that does not exist, it will now use the correct language syntax based on file extension.

1.0.300.8: Beta Release 13 (18Jul06)
* Altered skin format slightly to support templates. Existing skins should just remove any comments around <FrameSkin> elements to work again.
+ Added missing Frame types to Basic skin (Model & derivatives, MessageFrame, ScrollingMessageFrame, SimpleHTML, ColorSelect).
* Redid Font rendering to support color changing escape sequences (i.e. |cffff0000Red|r), spacing and sizing still not exactly like WoWs.
+ Added ability to enter meta data fields in the project form.
* Fixed bug with loadWith dependencies not loading in before addon, and addons dependant on Blizzard addons not loading.

1.0.300.9: Beta Release 14 (31Aug06)
+ Added Color and BorderColor elements to Backdrop objects, also has a visual display.
* Updated lua syntax highlighting for 1.12 keywords.
+ Added code snippets to the editor, some basic lua and xml snippets provided.
* Fixed a bug where key shortcuts would go to the wrong editor instance.

1.0.300.85: Beta Release 15 (9Feb07)
+ Updated to version 4 of the editor control. Should be working as before, but some functionality may be missing.
* Updated lua syntax highlighting for 2.0.6 keywords.
* Fixed issue with Save All command.

1.0.300.102: Beta Release 16 (3Oct07)>
* Fixed bugs related to closing projects.
* Updated to latest version of the docking manager.
+ Can handle multiple inheritance without errors, although the result isn't correct.
+ Improved UI for closing of unsaved files.
* Updated lua syntax highlighting for 2.2.2 keywords.

1.1.106: Beta Release 17 (11Oct07)>
* Should now work on 64-bit versions of Windows XP.
* Templates loaded from addons now go into the Addons list.
+ Changed start up behaviour, the environment is now not created at start up by default, reducing load time significantly.
> New command line argument /lf loads the framexml on start up.
> New command line argument /la loads the framexml and addons on start up.
> New menu command Tools | Load FrameXML loads the framexml as required.
> New menu command Project | Load Environment loads the framexml, the addon and its dependencies.
> Loading a UI designer form will load the framexml first if it is not already loaded

1.1.107: Beta Release 18 (Jul08)
* Lua parser now handles % operator and hexadecimal numbers properly.
+ Added startup options for loading XML files.
* Added messages when files cannot be saved.
+ Added new functions to lua highlighting.
+ Handles DXT4/5 BLP2 files.

1.1.109: Beta Release 19 (Oct08)
* Updated Button rendering for WoW client v3.

Other Stuff

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE INITIAL DEVELOPER OR ANY OTHER CONTRIBUTOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER OR NOT ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGE, AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.

Permission to use this software and its documentation for testing purposes is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notices and this permission notice appear in all copies of the software and related documentation. You are not authorised to distribute any copies of this software although you can distribute anything you make with it.