How do I remove frames

[Crowfeather]

I´m new to coding (just started writing my first AddOn in the past few weeks). In my AddOn I want the user to be able to disable some frames if he/she doesn´t need them anymore. Now I´m wondering how do I remove frames efficiently (eg. not just hiding them) once they´ve been created.

example:

-- frame creation
FS.ttlMover = CreateFrame("Frame","ttlMover", UIParent)
(...) 
FS.ttlFrame = CreateFrame("Frame", "ttlFrame", FS.ttlMover)
(...)
FS.ttlFrame.text = FS.ttlFrame:CreateFontString("ttlFrameText", "ARTWORK", "GameFontNormal")

-- supposed frame removal (doesn´t work this way)
FS.ttlFrame = nil
FS.ttlMover = nil

The first frame created contains the actual frame and is used to move the second frame even when there´s no text in it at that moment. There´re more lines between the CreateFrame commands ofc, if they´re relevant for my question I´ll gladly post them too.

Just setting them to nil doesn´t remove them from my UI and if I create another frame with the same name I´m getting a second frame.

Another thing I wanted to ask for a while - is there an easy way to make frames "dock" (as in sticking togather if you drag them close to each other) with each other or would I have to hardcode that behavior myself?

[xConStruct]

Frames can't be deleted as they are not garbage-collected. You could only hide it and remove all references to it - but they won't remove the frame, rather making it inaccessible.

If you want to create and destroy lots of frames at different times, you should write some kind of frame-recycling method, so that older ones will be used once more instead of just lying around somewhere.

Concerning the sticky frames, I think there are 2-3 different libraries which can handle that, but I never tested anything around it. If I remember right, one is called LibStickyFrames and there's also FlyPaper from Tuller which he uses in Dominos, for example.

[Crowfeather]

Well I guess it ain´t so many frames and if I can´t really remove them it´s propably better to just hide them so I can reuse them if needed. Thanks for the quick answer anyway.

[Gimbli]

I'd imagine after whatever process that renders the reference to your frame(s) as 'nil', that when you want to use that frame again, you're redefining the frame as, for example:

FS.ttlMover = CreateFrame("Frame","ttlMover", UIParent)

As was stated, there is no way to remove a frame once it is created without a reload of the user interface to rebuild based on "new" conditions, but with use of :Hide() and :Show() for deactivation/activation methods instead of using or defining the frame as 'nil', you avoid problematic recreation of frames.

If you have functions you want to recognize the frame as non-active to avoid referencing them for unnecessary changes/actions/etc., simply do something like this:

local ttlMoverActive
if ( not FS.ttlMover ) then FS.ttlMover = CreateFrame("Frame","ttlMover", UIParent) end

local function ttlMoverFunction()
     if ( ttlMoverActive ) then -- Check true/false, true being active
          -- Do active stuff here
     else
          -- Action taken if inactive
     end
end

The "if ( not FS.ttlMover ) then" segment ensures that if it's "not" created, it continues making the frame. However, if it "is" already designated as a frame (which would mean it's not 'nil'), it will not recreate the frame.

You use the local ttMoverActive outside of the functions as a Red/Green light using true/false statements to indicate it's active state. You only need a way to govern this, for instance, set it to 'true' on an OnLoad function/event, and then when it is disabled, have that function change the local to 'false'. If you want the frame to retain it's state through logout/logins, you need to save that true/false local to a saved variable instead (ie. yoursavedvar.db.ttlMoverActive).

Using t/f handlers for active/inactive elements is an easy way to get around having to build hefty frame recycling methods. And if done in locals instead of globals, it's fairly light on usage.

[Sythalin]

Technically you can get rid of a frame, but from my experiences it's touchy and should only be used with your own frames.

frame = nil

I used this while building my GUIs in-game and wanted to reset the frame without having to keep doing a /reload. It's crude, but it works.

EDIT: Here's a quick snippet that I use for CFM's config frame to determine if it should be built or show based on whether it's already been made:

function CFM_GUI()
	if CFM_Config then  -- check to see if the frame exists already
		CFM_Config:Show()  -- show it
	else
        -- start creating the frame from scratch
        end
end

EDIT2: I see someone already talked about niling a frame. Should really fully read stuff instead of just skimming.

[Crowfeather]

Thanks for all the replies. After Cargors answer I figured as much and changed my code accordingly. It looks almost like the code Gimbli posted now... well I guess I should make much more use of local variables but that´s another story.

One thing I´m wondering about now is how to "red out" buttons (the way they look when you can´t use the specific action). When I couldn´t find a "native" way to display a texture in red I resorted to slaping a translucent, red frame right on top of it. Is there any way to do this in a more beutiful way?

I guess I should start a new thread because the problrem really isn´t related to removing frames, but I don´t want to keep spawning new threads for each and every question I have.

edit: I changed the topic name to something more appropriate.
edit2: Looks like changing the topic isn´t the same thing as changing the thread title

[xConStruct]

myTexture:SetVertexColor(1, 0, 0) should do the trick.

WoWWIKI: API_LayeredRegion_SetVertexColor

[Crowfeather]

Thanks again, will try it as soon as I´m back home.