DAMN Development Thread (formerly known as "Custom Submenus")

[Diggis]

Daeley has released a development kit to create the LUA script.  It's a couple of pages back in this thread.

[JoeST]

Infact... you dont realy need the DDTK... hehehe

and yeah, the system is brilliant, thankyou very much Daeley

Joe

[klaascornelis]

Clearly i'm to much of a noob on this front. Creating an Ltext file 

[Diggis]

Clearly i'm to much of a noob on this front. Creating an Ltext file 

Lol, I don't actually remember how to do that either.  I would suggest that you copy and paste one from another file and reIID it.  It's what I do.   

[JoeST]

open another lot... and copy (right click on the ltext, copy files(s)) into your file (rightclick on the main window and select paste file(s) )

then you can remove all the content of that file (remember to click apply to make sure it is and then to save the file by ctrl+s or using the save button

EDIT: and yes (thanks diggis) you must reIID it.. right click on the ltext file and generate new instance

Joe

[klaascornelis]

Lol, I don't actually remember how to do that either.  I would suggest that you copy and paste one from another file and reIID it.  It's what I do.   

Even that is chinees to me. This is what i do know. You doubleklik on the reader icon to open it 

[klaascornelis]

open another lot... and copy (right click on the ltext, copy files(s)) into your file (rightclick on the main window and select paste file(s) )

then you can remove all the content of that file (remember to click apply to make sure it is and then to save the file by ctrl+s or using the save button

EDIT: and yes (thanks diggis) you must reIID it.. right click on the ltext file and generate new instance

Joe

This is something where i can get started with. Thanks

But I'm afraid I'm stuck again.
Wat are those Idd's and Gid's

[Diggis]

Please edit your previous post, rather than post a second one. 

[Andreas]

Lol, I don't actually remember how to do that either.  I would suggest that you copy and paste one from another file and reIID it.  It's what I do.   

Actually, you will have to copy an existing one, since there is no way to create a new one, at least not in the Reader. Other modding tools, such as LEProp or SC4Tool, do create one if you add a name or description, but that's limited to lots.

[Jonathan]

Hmm... that does get annoying having to open another window just to get make a new file..

Joe: Generate new instance? Cool I never new that, I had to TGI generator, copy and then paste it into TGI editor. Thanks 

[cogeo]

OK, removed all my posts from the DAMN Sets thread.

As for the installer, some thoughts:
- As this plugin is going to be a "central" one, I think a better installer than those "light" ones we are using for lot's etc is needed.
- The installer in MS Visual studio is quite OK I think, it keeps track of versions etc, and automatically removes old stuff before installing the new one.

[JoeST]

Jonathan, touche my friend... I never knew about the TGI editor LOL

and there is a "create from template" option... but it doesnt have LTEXT template... (maybe templates can be created...)

cogeo: i dont know why the standard one wont suffice... as long as the basic packages included are carefully selected (and maybe selectable like some options in NAM installer)

Joe

[Andreas]

The installer in MS Visual studio is quite OK I think, it keeps track of versions etc, and automatically removes old stuff before installing the new one.

You are volunteering? I assume the MS Visual Studio installer only works in Windows, like NSIS, so it might be feasible to use the latter one - just because most users know the look and feel from the NAM and similar installers.

[Jonathan]

and there is a "create from template" option... but it doesnt have LTEXT template... (maybe templates can be created...)

Done.
In the folder where your reader.exe is there is a folder called templates, extract the zip there overwriting the templates.xml


Oh and what's this installer? I would've thought the "light" ones would work fine?

[JoeST]

LOL... too fast mr Jonathan... too fast :p

thankyou very much

btw, the icon chopping tool only crops the lot icon and takes one of the squares? or does it do something else?

Joe

[HandsOn]

OK, removed all my posts from the DAMN Sets thread.

As for the installer, some thoughts:
- As this plugin is going to be a "central" one, I think a better installer than those "light" ones we are using for lot's etc is needed.
- The installer in MS Visual studio is quite OK I think, it keeps track of versions etc, and automatically removes old stuff before installing the new one.

Cogeo - a note of warning there. I've been working with VS for some time now and as far as installers go the vanilla projects VS throws up are pretty dicy and can give you tons of headaches. If anyone has a Wise scripted installer system, that would be the ticket. Besides, I believe (am not sure because I never tried) the VS installers can only track versions of DLL's and similar object files that conform to Microsoft's versioning pattern.

I will look into it, though, if someone lets me know what all has to be installed where (files involved, path pattern, etc) and a relatively easy to understand set of instructions - I am an old man. In fact, I've got the VS 2005 open right now.. 

Andreas: the VS installer will work with nigh anything as long as the target OS is indeed Windows, and older than ME - but I doubt anyone still has that mistake..

Best to email me this stuff (see profile)..

[Jonathan]

The icon cutter takes the second square along and makes it 44x44 px.

[daeley]

I don't see the problem with the normal installers at all  

I've got the basic system done to make the DAMN scripts place the items depending on the directory structure. In the program files folder of SC4, there will be a folder DAMN, which holds the root of the menu. The folder names are categories of the menu. Each folder which has at least one lua script ending with extension *.damn.lua will be included in the DAMN structure. The scripts placed there are unpacked (simple ASCII "notepad" format) text files containing the code generated by the code generator application.

There's only a small modification needed to the addon scripts (just run the new code generator, once I get it done) so none of the work done so far is lost

[JoeST]

Can I just ask.... the images linked to in the LTEXT files (the lot picture, i guess) can they be the PNG that is in the LOT file? or should it just be the same as the icon PNG?

my set is nearly finished

[Jonathan]

I've got the basic system done to make the DAMN scripts place the items depending on the directory structure.

Great, you simply awesome Daeley, First the save alarm, then the path tool(and the all the stuff before that), then the custom submenus, then the custom submenus has a search function, and now the submenu have this!!!!

Each folder which has at least one lua script ending with extension *.damn.lua will be included in the DAMN structure. The scripts placed there are unpacked (simple ASCII "notepad" format) text files containing the code generated by the code generator application.

Although I lost the plot here.

EDIT: Joe They can be any png as far as I know, I just used the lot picture.