Communicator

Communicator is a re-written version of the original RPCore that was used with the PDA Addon in WildStar. The new version has been tuned for Drop 5, and keeps the Queue's that were in place for properly handling the messages.

Changes to the ICommLib, require us to change the way the library is initialized and how information is being parsed. This requires proper serialization and de-serialization of the messages being sent over the channel.

Outside that, the way Communicator works is almost the same as the way RPCore worked, and used the same interface and types. Only the serialization of the messages is different, rending any compatibility between them useless.

Usage

Including the Library

The first step for Addons to work with Communicator is to properly load the package in their source code. This can be done using the following lines:

local Communicator = {}

function MyAddon:OnDocLoaded()
    if self.xmlDoc ~= nil and self.xmlDoc:IsLoaded() then
    self.wndMain = Apollo.LoadForm(self.xmlDoc, "wnd_form", nil, self)

    if self.wndMain == nil then
        Apollo.AddAddonErrorText(self, "Could not load the main window for some reason.")
        return
    end

    self.wndMain:Show(false, true)

    -- if the xmlDoc is no longer needed, you should set it to nil
    -- self.xmlDoc = nil

    -- Register handlers for events, slash commands and timer, etc.
    -- e.g. Apollo.RegisterEventHandler("KeyDown", "OnKeyDown", self)
    Apollo.RegisterSlashCommand("commtest", "OnCommunicatorTestOn", self)

    -- Do additional Addon initialization here
    Communicator = Apollo.GetPackage("Communicator-1.0").tPackage     
end

Setting traits

Setting traits is the key usage to Communicator. Assuming you have included the library as in the previous example, you can set the values for all your desires traits as follows:

The example will set three traits called "fullname", "race" and "gender". By setting the traits, others will automatically be able to get these values by requesting them.

local karRaceToString = {
    [GameLib.CodeEnumRace.Human]    = Apollo.GetString("RaceHuman"),
    [GameLib.CodeEnumRace.Granok]   = Apollo.GetString("RaceGranok"),
    [GameLib.CodeEnumRace.Aurin]    = Apollo.GetString("RaceAurin"),
    [GameLib.CodeEnumRace.Draken]   = Apollo.GetString("RaceDraken"),
    [GameLib.CodeEnumRace.Mechari]  = Apollo.GetString("RaceMechari"),
    [GameLib.CodeEnumRace.Chua]     = Apollo.GetString("RaceChua"),
    [GameLib.CodeEnumRace.Mordesh]  = Apollo.GetString("CRB_Mordesh"),
}

local karGenderToString = { 
    [0] = Apollo.GetString("CRB_Male"),
    [1] = Apollo.GetString("CRB_Female"), 
    [2] = Apollo.GetString("CRB_UnknownType"),
}

-- Set our traits
Comm:SetLocalTrait("fullname", GameLib.GetPlayerUnit():GetName())
Comm:SetLocalTrait("race", karRaceToString[GameLib.GetPlayerUnit():GetRaceId()])
Comm:SetLocalTrait("gender",karGenderToString[GameLib.GetPlayerUnit():GetGender()])

Requesting Traits

Traits can be requested by simply reading out the responses that Communicator does in the back-end. The Library will cache all information for a specific amount of time. To request information, the cache is checked; if the cache is empty a request is send to the player in question:

local rpFullname, rpRace, rpGender

rpFullname = Comm:GetTrait(strPlayer,"fullname")
rpRace = Comm:GetTrait(strPlayer, "race")
rpGender = Comm:GetTrait(strPlayer, "gender")

The above example loads the three traits we defined by sending the requests to whatever player is defined in strPlayer This causes the messages to be send and filled in by Communicator

It's also possible to be notifed when new data is being received. This can be done by using Apollo to listen to the Communicator_TraitChanged event:

function MyAddon:OnTraitChanged(tData)
    -- Process tData here.
    -- The table contains the following information:
    -- player = the name of the player who the trait belongs to.
    -- trait = Name of the trait being set
    -- data = The actual data of the trait
    -- revision = The revision of the trait, used for caching mechanics
end

function MyAddon:OnDocLoaded()
    -- Init code
    Apollo.RegisterEventHandler("Communicator_TraitChanged", "onTraitChanged", self)
end