Plugins using variables

Posted by Korishan on Mon 20 Jan 2003 01:58 AM — 14 posts, 46,752 views.

Korishan USA Mon 20 Jan 2003 01:58 AM #0

I've tried to do a world.setvariable on a plugin I'm writing. It's for setting up prompts in the infobar. I'm making it configurable by the user on how they have thier prompt set up so that anyone can use it w/o having to reset thier prompt to a pre-specified one. So, upon installation of the plugin, it asks a series of questions. This first on, of course, would be what is the layout of your prompt.
I get the input using an inputbox. Store it into a variable called Temp. Then I do a world.setvariable "InfoPrompt", Temp
I go into variables and check to see if it's changed it, and it hasn't. I also did on the next line, world.note world.getvariable ("InfoPrompt"), and it displays the input that I put in.
Now, what do I believe. did the variable of the world get updated, or did the internal variable of the plugin get updated and as soon as I close the client down, the variable is trashed?

Korishan, aka Rheede

Magnum Canada Mon 20 Jan 2003 04:50 AM #1

Believe the note.

The variable list GUI does NOT display Plugin data.

You can also use: /world.debug "plugins"

That will output to your screen all the data MUSHclient holds pertaining to your plugins.

(Remember, a variable set in a plugin belongs ONLY to that plugin. You need to use a special function to access the variable from outside the plugin: World.GetPluginVariable).

Korishan USA Mon 20 Jan 2003 04:54 AM #2

Ahhh, ok, gotcha. Ok, then how do u save data from session to session with a plugin? Like with my InfoPrompt plugin, it stores how many trains you've gained and keeps a tally of them. How do I store that over a close of the program? Or, another feature I have, is that it keeps track of a particular skill and monitors it's increase in percentage. How can I keep track of that skill percent without having to re-execute the command to turn on skill monitoring everytime I reload my program?
With your example of World.GetPluginVariable, is there a way to store plugin variables inside the world variables???

Korishan

Magnum Canada Mon 20 Jan 2003 03:38 PM #3

Any MUSHclient variables you use within your plugin will be stored in a state file. (Within a "state" directory which is a subdirectory of your "plugins" directory.)

So, for example, if you World.SetVariable "Target", "Green Orc", Then that value will still exist the next time you load the plugin.

There is one special rule about this:


<plugin
	name=""
	date_written = "2003-01-20"
	date_modified = "2003-01-20"
	version="1.0"
	requires="3.25"
	author="Magnum"
	id=""									<!-- /world.note world.getuniqueid -->
	purpose=""
	language="VBscript"
	save_state="y"
	>

<description trim="y">
<![CDATA[
This is a Magnum's Default plugin. This line should be changed.
]]>
</description>
</plugin>

That last directive, save_state="y" must be present, or your plugin will NOT save values in between sessions.

Ked Russia Fri 18 Jun 2004 02:15 PM #4

Sorry, for reviving a thread more than a year old, but it came up on a search and looks relevant. Seems like one of my plugins (AutoHealer to be specific) doesn't read the saved state. I checked the corresponding file in the State folder, it exists and contains what it should, but closing and opening the world where the plugin is installed results in the default value being loaded instead of a saved one. I checked with 3.49 and 3.50. Any idea why that is?

Nick Gammon Australia Forum Administrator Fri 18 Jun 2004 10:30 PM #5

Does closing and opening the plugin (not the world) keep the state?

Does the plugin change that variable itself?

Maybe it reloads the state and then initialises the variable to be empty.

Perhaps put some debugging in OnPluginInstall to see if the variable was in fact loaded OK.

Ked Russia Sat 19 Jun 2004 03:35 AM #6

1. Not sure what you mean by opening and closing the plugin. Adding/Removing it from the list overwrites the variable, but that's how it always worked.

2. To test I use an alias that notes the current value and then changes it with world.SetVariable. Then I close the world, open it up again, and use the alias to check whether the value was retained.

3. Nope, the variable has a default value.

4. OnPluginInstall isn't called when the plugin is being loaded, only when the plugin is installed/reinstalled, so it doesn't seem to help much.

The state file contains the value that I set using the alias in point 2, it just looks like the state file is never used when opening the plugin for some reason.

Nick Gammon Australia Forum Administrator Sat 19 Jun 2004 05:33 AM #7

I mean to add/remove it from the plugin list. That opens/closes the plugin.
Is this alias in the plugin or the main world?
Er, well the plugin must change the variable at some point, otherwise there is no point to having it.
The "OnPluginInstall" routine is called when the plugin is installed, that is, loaded. So it will be called every time you add it to the plugin list, or open the world file.

Ked Russia Sat 19 Jun 2004 07:21 AM #8

1. Yes, I tried adding/removing but it gives the "overwritting existing variable" message and promptly overwrites it with the default value.

2. The alias is in the same plugin with with the variable.

3. It does change the value, the alias above for instance calls this script:


sub Test(a,b,c)
  world.Note world.GetVariable("MaxHealth")
  world.Execute "AutoHealer:maxHealth 80"
end sub

4. Yep, seems like it does. I thought it doesn't since every time I tried testing OnPluginInstall, I used a world.Note and those don't seem to be displayed until the world is opened, which in turn seems to happen only after all plugins are loaded. But Adding/Removing the plugin shows the world.Note. However, it also overwrites the variable, as I already said.

Shadowfyr USA Sat 19 Jun 2004 09:05 PM #9

When the client initially starts up the output buffer isn't immediately available, so a note in the OnPluginInstall will only apear if a) delayed or b) the client is already open. Generally, in my plugins I always test some variable to see if its value is set, then 'only' set the default if it doesn't already exist.

Nick Gammon Australia Forum Administrator Sat 19 Jun 2004 11:11 PM #10

Quote:

Yes, I tried adding/removing but it gives the "overwritting existing variable" message and promptly overwrites it with the default value.

What message is that? You shouldn't get that message when you remove and re-add a plugin. That message pertains to closing the world file, and is for variables in the main file.

Ked Russia Sun 20 Jun 2004 09:15 PM #11

Here's step by step what I do:

1. Open world with the plugin and type "test"
2. Alias "test" does a world.Note with the current value of the MaxHealth variable and then sets that value to 80, noting the new value. That displays:


56
AutoHealer plugin: you've set your max health to 80

with 56 being the default value for the variable:

3. File->Plugins. Select AutoHealer from the list, click on Remove. Click on Add and install the plugin again. The "XML import warnings" window comes up with:

Line  161: overwriting existing variable contents (maxhealth)

4. OnPluginInstalled handler does a world.Note with "installed " & world.GetVariable("MaxHealth"), the result being again:

installed 56

The same thing (with the plugin overwriting the saved value with the default one) happens when opening/closing the world also. Here's the contents of the plugin's state file for that world:


<!-- Saved on Monday, June 21, 2004, 8:07 AM -->
<!-- MuClient version 3.49 -->
<!-- Written by Nick Gammon <nick@gammon.com.au> -->
<!-- Home Page: http://www.muclient.com/ -->
-
	<!--
 Plugin state saved. Plugin: "AutoHealer". World: "imperian". 
-->
-
	<muclient>
<!-- variables -->
-
	<variables muclient_version="3.49" world_file_version="15" date_saved="2004-06-21 08:07:18">
<variable name="Gauge">1</variable>
<variable name="HealthFloor">85</variable>
<variable name="ManaFloor">85</variable>
<variable name="MaxHealth">80</variable>
<variable name="MaxMana">52</variable>
<variable name="MossFloor">65</variable>
</variables>
</muclient>

As you can see, the "MaxHealth" here has a value of 80, which is what I set it to with the "test" alias. So my guess is that the state file is somehow skipped or the values loaded from it are overwritten at some point in loading the plugin?

Nick Gammon Australia Forum Administrator Sun 20 Jun 2004 10:23 PM #12

Quote:

Line 161: overwriting existing variable contents (maxhealth)

I am guessing that in line 161 of your plugin (not your state file) you have that variable defined.

What is happening here is that:

The plugin is loaded. The first thing it does is get the:
- Name
- Author
- Language
- ID
- Purpose
- Date written
- Date modified
- Save_state flag
- Requires "version of MUSHclient" field
- Version number
Then it checks various things (name not blank, version OK, purpose not too long etc.)
Then it loads the state file.
Then it loads the rest of the things, triggers, aliases, timers, variables, etc.

Note the sequence here. The variable in the plugin overwrites the variable in the state file.

Hence the warning message. What you need to do is remove the variable line from the plugin. Then your problem will go away.

Ked Russia Sun 20 Jun 2004 10:33 PM #13

Aha, worked! Though I would've never guessed that myself.