Originally Posted by Vlad
I think we can help regardless of his goals.
I reckon one has to use tooltip scanning, meaning the creature must be in the cache, otherwise a internal id to name database is required. It's true, this means the creatures must be in the cache for him to be able to get their localized names. Alternatively internal addon database over id and name is in order, but hopefully not needed. 
Here is my example using a cache system:
Code:
local tooltip = CreateFrame("GameTooltip", "ExampleTooltipScanner", UIParent, "GameTooltipTemplate")
tooltip = setmetatable(tooltip, {__index = function(self, id)
self:SetOwner(UIParent, "ANCHOR_NONE")
self:SetHyperlink(("unit:0xF53%05X00000000"):format(id))
local name
if self:IsShown() then
for i = 1, self:NumLines() do
local text = _G[self:GetName() .. "TextLeft" .. i]
if text and text.GetText then
name = text:GetText()
break
end
end
end
self:Hide()
self[id] = name
return name
end})
Note it doesn't handle errors, i.e. if it says "Retrieving data..." it will literally store that, or any other message on the tooltip. Just a heads up, can be fixed by making sure it only stores the "name" value when it's appropriate. |
Shouldn't that __index metamethod be checking the regular tooltip __index table at some point? That's where all the tooltip methods are stored and your metamethod seems to bypass it completely.
Alternatively, use a separate table as a self-generating cache instead of overloading the tooltip itself.