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11-30-05, 02:24 PM   #1
Nulkris
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Question Frequently Asked Questions

This is an expanding first draft of a FAQ for the WoW UI Designer. I will be adding to it as I think of stuff, and if you have questions then reply to this thread and I will try to answer them.

1.0 General

1.1 Where can I get WoW UI Designer?

The primary place to find the designer is http://www.wowinterface.com/download...IDesigner.html, which contains links to all the downloads, release notes, and forums. Coming soon to the site is more documentation, example projects (addons) and other stuff.

1.2 Who wrote this monstrosity/masterpiece?

The sole developer is me, Steven Haworth of Melbourne, Australia. AKA Nulkris, Rogue on Alliance side of Proudmoore since day 1. My email address is [email protected].

1.3 Can I include your program in my compilation/website/CD/Ebay?

No, I prefer to keep exclusive control of the distribution of the WoW UI Designer. If you wish to include it elsewhere then you can email me and we can discuss it.

1.4 What's with all those versions listed on the website?

The Release Version is the version released to the http://www.wowinterface.com website and is the most tested version, for general download. The Beta Version is released solely to the http://wowuides.wowinterface.com website and contains new features that are not extensively tested. The Nightly Build is for quick fixes for issues brought up on the forums when the code is not quite ready for a Beta release, there is generally no release notes with this release, and specific changes can only be found from looking within the forums.

2.0 UI Designer

2.1 Why can't I get access to my component in Lua?

All components in the skin have to be contained within a frame, that means that Label and Texture based components have an outer frame, then the FontString/Texture inside. These are named something like $parentLabel, so to access the object you need to use:

Code:
local label = getglobal("ProjectForm".."VersionText".."Label")
assuming the Form name is ProjectForm and the Label name is $parentVersionText.

2.2 Why doesn't my event handler ever get called?

Certain components have their functional frame contained within the outer frame (such as the Slider components in the Default skin). When you write events normally, you are writing for the containing frame, not the embedded functional frame. In order to write events for that frame, you need to edit using the LuaScriptEditor by selecting the event you want, pressing the small button to the right of the script value, and using the Selector at the top of the form to select the sub-frame you want ($parentSlider for the slider components). Note that changing the selector saves the current script contents, regardless of whether you close the editor with cancel or not.

2.3 Why can't I see any components in the toolbox?

Note: no longer a problem in 1.10 WoW client, but may crop up in the future.

This is probably due to Blizzard's files not validating against their schema. You can turn off validation by going to Tools | Options and unselecting "Verify Blizzard XML files against ui.xsd schema" and restarting.

3.0 General Troubleshooting

3.1 Why does the WoWUIDesigner crash when starting up?

If you have upgraded from a 1.0.200.X release, and installed the 1.0.300.X release into the same directory, then the dockstate.xml file is no longer compatible and should be deleted prior to starting the application for the first time. In a future release I hope to do this automatically, but from 1.0.300.3 and before, this is required.

3.2 Why does the WoWUIDesigner complain that it cannot open a file from framexml when starting up?

As of patch 4.0.1 the WoW Launcher and WoW Client both lock most of the MPQ files in the data directory and do not allow other programs to open them. This means that while WoWUIDesigner is starting and needs to check the contents of some of the framexml files, it cannot so the error appears. You will need to close the launcher or client when starting and it may be possible to restart them once WoWUIDesigner is running if you only need to edit lua or xml files and not look at Blizzard UI files.

3.3 But I really want to run WoWUIDesigner and WoW Client at the same time?

You can download the UI files from the Blizzard site at http://us.blizzard.com/support/artic...rticleId=21466, you will need to grab the Art Work file and one of the language files. You will need to create a directory somewhere that is writeable, this will be your <Work> directory. You can now extract the contents of the Art Work zip file into the <Work> directory, this will take some time as it is a large file with lots of little files in it. I believe that the art work zip file contains the enUS files anyway, but if you need another language, then this should be unzipped into the <Work>\Interface directory that was created when unzipping the art work. You can overwrite all the files that it wants to.

Now start the WoWUIDesigner, go to Tools | Options, click the Browse button to the left of the Work Directory input and find and select the <Work> directory created earlier. Press OK and OK again and then close WoWUIDesigner. Restart it and it should now be loading in the files from the new directory instead of from the WoW MPQ files.
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Nulkris - A80 Rogue - Proudmoore
(Also Drukris, Hamkris on Proudmoore; Hulkris on Jubei'Thos & Khaz Modan)

Last edited by Nulkris : 10-27-10 at 05:24 PM.
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11-30-05, 02:24 PM   #2
Nulkris
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More coming soon.
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(Also Drukris, Hamkris on Proudmoore; Hulkris on Jubei'Thos & Khaz Modan)
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11-30-05, 02:25 PM   #3
Nulkris
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Bit more space.
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WoWInterface » Developer Discussions » General Authoring Discussion » Frequently Asked Questions

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