oUF Custom (working name)
 

During the first quarter of 2009 I will release a layout for oUF.
This wont be just another layout, it will be a GUI based layout.

That means that it will have ingame options for about every aspect of oUF, aswell support alot of stuff outside of it.

Now, I need suggestions about it.

What to support? (libraries etc)
How to make is end-user friendly? (config looks and usability)

Any comments are welcome, preferably constructive ones.

Hmm let's see ... I think SharedMedia already works with oUF right, but I'm not sure about dogtags. Well if there isn't a dogtag (or alternative) system to handle text output, then I suggest including that.

About the config looks, anything but waterfall menus are good to me :]

It's not much, but this is just my 2cts.

Could use the base of dogtags and make a module based on it that supports oUF's tags.
(this would not include making new ones)

At a moment I tried doing this but I wasn't able to.

I suggest you to create a tree like that (in Blizz Addons Panels I think

oUF
-Player
--Main options (like the position, background, height, width, etc)
--Health bar (with text/tags options)
--Power bar (with text/tags options)
--Name
--Cast Bar
--Little options (Leader, Raid Icon position)

-Target
--Main options (like the position, background, height, width, etc)
--Health bar (with text/tags options)
--Power bar (with text/tags options)
--Name
--Cast Bar
--Little options (Leader, Raid Icon position)

And doing this for Player, Target, Focus, ToT, Pet, and few optional unit: Party, Party Pets, Party Target, Raid


If I can help you in any way just PM me I'll try to see what I can do

as far as i know you can't have sub-sub pages in the interface options screen

imo the best way to implement options would be in a similar manner to Sage or Bongos.

I would also suggest embedding ouf in your addon as it makes things a hell of a lot simpler.

That is correct


I will embed it, if oUF has breaking changes and I wont have time to update it swiftly, it could be a mess having it unembedded

Ill take a look at Sage/Bongos

Ill start working on an alpha/beta release during the holidays.

Also, a name suggestion would be great :)

My ideas for the config though:

Not use the default interface window, as it doesnt allow sub-sub pages
Rather a single window with it all (a library to handle it would be great)

Alike DUF perhaps? Tabs ontop, then modules to the left in a tree


|player|target|focus|tot|pet|group|

- Main options (positions, background, sizes, range settings, vehicle settings, enable/disable, copy from other frame ++)
- Main elements
-- Health bar (tags, texture, size ++)
-- Power bar (tags, texture, size ++)
-- Casting bar (positions, tags, texture, size ++)
- Other elements (all disabled by default)
-- Aura (texture, size, positions, filter (not the (de)buff by (de)buff filter, the oUF filters (blizzard's))
-- CP (text/dots, size, placement ++)
-- Happiness (text/icon, size, placement ++)
-- Leader (text/icon, size, placement ++)
-- Portrait (2d/3d, size, placement ++)
-- PvP (text/icon, size, placement ++)
-- RaidIcon (text/icon, size, placement ++)
-- RestingIcon (text/icon, size, placement ++)
-- CombatIcon (text/icon, size, placement ++)
-- Threat (text/icon, size, placement ++)

On the bottom id like some profile handler of some sort (library to handle it would be great)

Please comments

edit: id like the amount of option subs to have same layout, just different savedvariables and frames to fixate on.
This makes it easier to read/find and is easier for me to create/maintain

Very nice idea. The concept of having a separate config frame from the interface options is a must for all the options you plan on implementing. Either something like x-perl or DUF does would both work.

I would also like to see a debuff highlighting option in there as well as I use it alot since I do alot of decurse/poison removal/disease removals.

The other is combat text on the frames.

Also a MT / MTT window would be nice to have in there as well. That is definately another great addition that has been added over the past few changes.

It'll support every plugin thats made for oUF by default (just need to have the plugin enabled and installed), with their custom options as a third main page on the config menu

Name? Hmm.

oUF_Architect
oUF_Framer
oUF_Toolbox


I would prefix whatever name you choose with oUF (as in my examples) so there is no doubts on what the gui is for.

It would be pretty much stand-alone, with oUF embedded

Name?

Pr3liminary_oUF

:D

oUF_Titan or oUF_Architect.

As for config looks, I think your layout is good, for some reason the AzCastBar GUI frame comes to mind, something similar to that perhaps.
I'm looking forward to seeing how the addon community will react; either pretty much dropping layouts for this or using a handful of both.

+1

I absolutely love how Aezay handles his config frames, they're by far the easiest I've ever worked with.

P3liminary_oUF :)

This is a very nice idea, but i wont use it myself as that'll drop the whole extreme lightweight thing with oUF. The question is, will you maintain this and oUF_p3lim at the same time?

To be completely honest, the only thing that's popping up in my head at the moment is: This will be a new PitBull mixed with DUF.

As we all know PitBull had a lot of stuff, but one thing it didn't have was the ability to set y and x offsets on tags and portraits, include this and i might use it the day i dont care about memory usage anymore :)

That's the only thing I hate about Pitbull, but I can't switch to oUF because of my lack of Lua skills. And I can't find any good premade ones :P

I think the important thing to shoot for in a project like this is striking a balance between having an overwhelming number of options and having too few options to allow adequate customization. Most of us can probably agree that PitBull configuration window is out of control. There are just too many options; it becomes very "fiddly" to work on anything because you are clicking through various parts of the tree, changing tabs, trying to remember where that option you just changed two minutes ago is hiding... it's a mess. ag_UF, on the other hand, doesn't quite offer enough options.

It's definitely possible to offer a large number of options (thought perhaps not quite so many as PitBull) while still allowing the user to manage them without going crazy. You'll need to devote some time toward carefully considering how to arrange the options interface, how to group choices, etc.

Good luck, I'm curious to see how this project goes! :D

I think that notion is misplaced. I don't pretend to speak for or assume what the various people who develop layouts for oUF, but if there's one thing about oUF it's that there are very few ways to adjust or customize it as an end user. Those comfortable with code can and do edit luas to our desire, but the vast majority of people wouldn't know how to do any customizing outside of an in-game menu.

While I am anticipating this project's release, I don't think customization options should be left out just because of some notion that it would be too confusing or too much for the end user, as that is already how oUF is. Unless the author is trying to target a completely new audience for oUF, simply having an in-game menu will make it incredibly more user-friendly than oUF has been previously.