For years addon authors have abused the debug methods d(), df() and CHAT_SYSTEM:AddMessage() to show messages in chat or even added text directly to the chat buffer, preventing other addons from interacting with the output. LibChatMessage offers an easy alternative that uses the same method as the vanilla UI to print system messages.
Features
Chat Messages
The main purpose of the library is to provide an easy API that can be used to print messages in chat. This is done via so called chat proxy objects. Each addon can create their own proxy and call the Print and Printf method (similar to d() and df()).
Addon Tag
The library will automatically prefix each message with a tag provided to each chat proxy instance by their addon. Users can choose if they want the tag to be the full addon name or a shortened string.
Time Prefix
The library can also print the current time in front of each chat message. This is disabled by default to avoid compatibility issues with other chat addons, but can be enabled via the settings explained below.
Chat History
Another feature of the library is to store all incoming chat messages and restore them again at UI load. This is also disabled by default to avoid compatibility problems (especially with pChat). Unlike with pChat the history is saved in raw form, meaning that any modifications to the message made by addons are not stored and instead applied when the messages are restored. This also means that information like the guild name is lost when the player leaves a guild and can lead to restored messages showing no or even a different guild name.
Custom Chat Links
Starting with version 1.2.0, the library offers a way for addons to send arbitrary data links in chat.
Known Issue/Drawback- If you register a chat link, but do not handle it, an error will occur, if the user clicks it.
- Chat bubbles will show raw data. We can not modify them.
- In order to display custom links in the chat input box, the lib sets all types of markup as allowed. this means that the text shown in the box may look different from what is actually being sent or visible to users without the library. For example a single | (pipe) character won't show until the message is sent and using color markup will change the text color in the input field, but show up as raw text in the chat once sent.
Quick Start
Add LibChatMessage as a dependency to your addon manifest:
Code:
## DependsOn: LibChatMessage
Afterwards you can create a chat proxy and print messages like so:
Lua Code:
local chat = LibChatMessage("MyAddon", "MA") -- long and short tag to identify who is printing the message
chat:Print("Simple message") -- instead of d()
chat:Printf("Formatted %s", "message") -- instead of df()
chat:SetTagColor("ff0000"):Print("Message with a different tag color") -- To change the tag color for e.g. warnings. The message itself can be colored with a color tag, although I can't really recommend doing that
chat:SetEnabled(false) -- in case the output of this ChatProxy should be enabled. Could be used when a settings is supposed to disable chat messages for an addon
chat:Print("Ignored message") -- won't show up
Settings
LibChatMessage offers several settings to allow players to control the look of the output. The settings can be changed via the "/chatmessage" slash command, or via the libraries API. Using the slash command with an invalid command will print the following message to chat:
Code:
/chatmessage <command> [argument]
<time> [on/off] Enables or disables the time prefix
<chat> [on/off] Controls the time prefix on regular chat
<format> [auto/12h/24h] Changes the used time format
<tag> [off/short/long] Changes the length of the used tag
<history> [on/off] Restore old chat after login
<age> [seconds] The maximum age of restored chat
Example: /chatmessage tag short
Using a command without an argument will print the current state of the setting to chat.
API Reference
Create
Returns a new instance of ChatProxy with the given tags.
Code:
local chat = LibChatMessage.Create(longTag, shortTag)
or
Code:
local chat = LibChatMessage(longTag, shortTag)
ChatProxy:SetTagColor
Sets the color of the message tag for the next printed message (resets afterwards). Can be either a hex string ("ff0000") or a ZO_ColorDef object. Returns the ChatProxy instance so the call can be chained as shown in the quick start example.
Code:
local chat = chat:SetTagColor(color)
ChatProxy:Print
Method to a print regular messages to chat. The message will automatically be prefixed with the time and tag based on user preferences.
Code:
chat:Print(message)
ChatProxy:Printf
Method to print a message formatted via string.format to chat. The message will automatically be prefixed with the time and tag based on user preferences.
Code:
chat:Printf(formatString, ...)
ChatProxy:SetEnabled
Setter to turn this proxy off, so it no longer prints anything to chat when one of its methods is called. Can be used to easily enable or disable chat messages for an addon based on user preferences.
Code:
chat:SetEnabled(enabled)
ClearChat
Removes all messages from all chat windows.
Code:
LibChatMessage:ClearChat()
ClearHistory
Removes all stored messages from the chat history.
Code:
LibChatMessage:ClearHistory()
GetHistory
Returns the current chat history table.
Code:
LibChatMessage:GetHistory()
SetTimePrefixEnabled
Sets the time prefix feature enabled or disabled. Disabled by default as it may cause problems with other chat addons that have similar features.
Code:
LibChatMessage:SetTimePrefixEnabled(enabled)
IsTimePrefixEnabled
Returns true if the time prefix feature is enabled.
Code:
local enabled = LibChatMessage:IsTimePrefixEnabled()
SetRegularChatMessageTimePrefixEnabled
Sets the time prefix feature for player chat channels enabled or disabled. Enabled by default, but only counts if the time prefix feature itself is turned on.
Code:
LibChatMessage:SetTimePrefixEnabled(enabled)
IsRegularChatMessageTimePrefixEnabled
Returns true if the time prefix feature is enabled for player chat channels.
Code:
local enabled = LibChatMessage:IsTimePrefixEnabled()
TIME_FORMATS
An array containing the time formats passed to os.date for the time prefix.
- TIME_FORMAT_AUTO = "[%X]" - uses locale dependent formatting
- TIME_FORMAT_12 = "[%I:%M:%S %p]" - 12h time format
- TIME_FORMAT_24 = "[%T]" - 24h time format (ISO 8601)
SetTimePrefixFormat
Sets the format for the time prefix feature. Can be either one contained in TIME_FORMATS, or a
custom format string. Custom strings should be wrapped in brackets.
Code:
LibChatMessage:SetTimePrefixFormat(format)
GetTimePrefixFormat
Returns the time prefix formatting string.
Code:
local format = LibChatMessage:GetTimePrefixFormat()
SetTagPrefixMode
Sets the mode used for the proxy tag for addon messages.
Available modes are:
- TAG_PREFIX_OFF - Disables showing a tag. The long tag will still be stored in the history in case it is enabled.
- TAG_PREFIX_LONG - Prints the long tag provided by an addon in front of the message
- TAG_PREFIX_SHORT - Prints the short tag provided by an addon in front of the message
Code:
LibChatMessage:SetTagPrefixMode(mode)
GetTagPrefixMode
Returns the current message tag mode.
Code:
local mode = LibChatMessage:GetTagPrefixMode()
SetChatHistoryEnabled
Sets the chat history feature enabled or disabled on the next UI load. This feature is not compatible with pChat and disabled by default.
Code:
LibChatMessage:SetChatHistoryEnabled(enabled)
IsChatHistoryEnabled
Returns true if the message history will be enabled on the next UI load.
Code:
local enabled = LibChatMessage:IsChatHistoryEnabled()
IsChatHistoryActive
Returns true if the message history is active right now.
Code:
local enabled = LibChatMessage:IsChatHistoryActive()
SetChatHistoryMaxAge
Sets the maximum age for chat messages to be restored on UI load in seconds. Default is 3600s (= 1h).
Code:
LibChatMessage:SetChatHistoryMaxAge(maxAge)
GetChatHistoryMaxAge
Returns the maximum age for chat messages in the history.
Code:
local maxAge = LibChatMessage:GetChatHistoryMaxAge()
RegisterCustomChatLink
Register a link type to be valid. Optional with a reformatter function.
All unregistered chat links will be change to an "unknown" link with all data stripped off upon receiving them from chat channel.
If someone is posting a chat link to someone, not having the addon it belongs to, a message is shown in the upper right corner instead of causing an error.
Code:
LibChatMessage:RegisterCustomChatLink(YOUR_LINK_TYPE)
LibChatMessage:RegisterCustomChatLink(YOUR_LINK_TYPE, reformatLinkFunc)
The reformatter has the following signature:
Code:
local function reformatLink(linkStyle, linkType, data, displayText)
return ZO_LinkHandler_CreateLinkWithFormat(displayText, nil, linkType, linkStyle, data)
end
LibChatMessage:RegisterCustomChatLink(YOUR_LINK_TYPE, reformatLink)
displayText - Text shown to the user
linkTyype - Your link type (YOUR_LINK_TYPE)
linkStyle - Built-in values: LINK_STYLE_BRACKETS, LINK_STYLE_DEFAULT (number)
data - remaining part of the chat link containing the data your provided. (string)
The reformatter function can be used to localize the displayText.
Your chat link must provide at least one data column.
After registering a link type, you MUST add a link click handler.
See
https://wiki.esoui.com/How_to_create_custom_links.
Example
Code:
function addon:OnLinkClicked(link, button, text, color, linkType, ...)
if linkType ~= YOUR_LINK_TYPE then
return
end
if button == MOUSE_BUTTON_INDEX_LEFT then
-- Do your stuff
elseif button == MOUSE_BUTTON_INDEX_MIDDLE then
-- Do your stuff
end
return true -- link has been handled
end
function addon:InitLinkHandler()
LINK_HANDLER:RegisterCallback(LINK_HANDLER.LINK_CLICKED_EVENT, self.OnLinkClicked, self)
LINK_HANDLER:RegisterCallback(LINK_HANDLER.LINK_MOUSE_UP_EVENT, self.OnLinkClicked, self)
end
The value of the "unknown" link type can be found here:
LibChatMessage.UNKNOWN_LINK_TYPE
10/29/22, 12:51 PM
