WhoDat
From Frella's AddOns
This manual is updated for the 1.5.2 version of WhoDat.
Contents |
[edit] Download
WhoDat is hosted at WowInterface.com
[edit] Description
WhoDat is a guild tool which facilitates recognition of alternate characters
After The Burning Crusade went live, our guild ballooned up with additional alts as well as many returning players. Keeping track of who was who quickly became a problem. A lot of folks started to feel like we were no longer the tight guild we once were. Of course, a lot of this was simply perception, so I came up with the idea of putting together a tool which would answer the question "Who's That?"
[edit] What It Does
WhoDat hooks your chat windows and watches for communication and online/offline events. When it finds an event it should process (fully configurable), if the owner of the event is an alternate character, it adds that info. Nothing is changed for the player running WhoDat, nor for a "main" character.
Additionally, there is a GUI (/whodat) which allows you to choose a character from your guild and view all of their alts and their main (levels and classes included). This makes it very easy to identify who someone is as well as check their level progress. By default this list is populated with online members only, but can be switched to show offline as well.
Another nice feature is a tooltip which shows up when you mouse over your Guild panel. This shows the current toon and all their alts/levels/classes.
Below is an example of what chat looks like with WhoDat enabled. Frella is a main, Dawgbelle is an alt of Dawgbite, Fenrys is an alt of Periago, Sangral is a main, Dorktongue is an alt of Corvus, and Mystorie is an alt of Torie.
NOTE: in version 1.5 WhoDat chat formatting was changed due to a lot of complexities with API changes from Blizzard. The name of an alt will now show up as the first part of the chat message rather than next to the player name as it did previously. This small change eliminated a lot of headaches and compatibility issues with other AddOns and provides the same functionality.
[Guild][Frella]: wow did you see that?
[Guild][Dawgbelle]: (Dawgbite) oh yah!
[Guild][Fenrys]: (Periago) Who the hell are you people?
[Guild][Frella]: Torie is dancin nekkid again!
[Guild][Dorktongue]: (Corvus) I'll be over here in the corner. /dnd
[Mystorie] whispers: (Torie) You are so dead!
[Guild][Sangral]: <.<
[Guild][Sangral]: >.>
[Guild][Fenrys]: (Periago) No... really... who are you people?
[edit] Set Up
WhoDat is designed to be adopted by a guild's officers so specific information can be kept up-to-date and default variables set for their guild as a whole. This is not required, but it sure does make it easier for the rest of your guild.
[edit] Notes
WhoDat pulls its info from the Officer (default) note or the Public note. It is suggested that the note you choose to utilize for WhoDat be only editable by officers. This keeps mistakes to a minimum.
Regardless, whichever note is chosen, it will need to be READABLE by your entire guild. (but does not need to be editable if the officers are maintaining it)
[edit] Setting Which Note
As an officer, you can set the guild-wide default for this by adding:
wdn:public OR wdn:officer
on a line by itself in your Guild Info text (Guild Tab, click the Guild Information button (bottom left)).
If you do not have access to setting the Guild Information text and your Officers are not amenable to setting it for you, you can set it on an individual basis. Bring up the WhoDat GUI (/whodat) and click the options button in the upper right corner. There's a checkbox item labeled "WhoDat Note", check it, then fill in either public or officer in the editbox. This will override any setting from your Guild's Info text. Uncheck the box to stop overriding it. This setting takes effect when you close the WhoDat window.
This is not needed if you are going to use the Officer note, as that is the default.
[edit] Setting the Note Format
By default, the Note format is "MAIN_NAME". You can have whatever you like after the name, but the first thing must be the toon name which is the main. There are other AddOns which require similar formatting, most notably would be EPGP, which is why it was chosen.
However, you can define things differently by setting the "Capture RegExp". What the heck is that? Well, the way WhoDat pulls the Main Toon info from the Note is by using a Regular Expression to capture the name. The default RegExp is '([^%s]+)', which means find the first non-whitespace character and capture each character thereafter until you encounter a whitespace character. You have to use whitespace and not alpha (%a) or it will break for names with umlauts in them.
So, are your eyes glossing over yet? I know, RegExp is not quick and easy. As an example, let's say your guild already has their notes formatted like so:
[Frella] LW:375 SK:375
In this case, the main is enclosed in []. So, the RegExp to capture that would be '%[([^%]]+)', which means find a [ and then capture until you hit a ].
The Capture RegExp can be set guild-wide from the Guild Info text by adding the following line:
wdr:REGEXP
Where you replace REGEXP with the new Capture RegExp.
You can also set it on an individual basis via the WhoDat options (/whodat, click options button) by checking the "Capture RegExp" checkbox and adding your RegExp to the editbox. This setting takes effect when you close the WhoDat window.
Setting this is not needed if you will be using the default Note Format.
If you need help with a particular Regular Expression, you can post your question on the WoWInterface "WhoDat" page and I'll lend a hand if I can.
For specific LUA information on regular expressions (they call them patterns), see the Lua 5.1 Reference Manual, specifically you are looking for the String Manipulation > Patterns section. If these links are out-dated, please just start from www.lua.org.
[edit] But My Main Toons Don't Have the Main Listed
Well, this can be complicated. There's a solution, but the method for getting it to work disables one of the nicer "error catching" functionalities of WhoDat. Basically, when WhoDat comes across a note which does not have anything in it, it sets the main to "UNKNOWN". This makes it very easy to spot when someone's note has not been properly set.
However, some guilds don't like setting the note for "Frella" to "Frella" for one reason or another. For these cases, you can tell WhoDat to assume an empty note or a failed capture to mean this *is* a main toon. Again, I'd like to stress that turning this functionality on does disable a nice way to keep things in order.
There are two ways you can turn on the "Main is Unknown" functionality. You can add the following line:
wdu:true
to your Guild Info text. Or on an individual basis, you can open up the WhoDat options (/whodat, click options button) and check the checkbox for "Main Toons are not set in the note".
[edit] Colors
WhoDat offers the ability to change the color of the main toon name when it's displayed in the communication channels. The default color is a darkish grey. It was chosen to be unobtrusive, but some folks like other colors, so set away!
There are two ways to set the color for the main toon name (which is only displayed for other folks on an alt). You can set it guild-wide by adding the following line:
wdac:HEX_COLOR_STRING
to your Guild Info text. You can, on an individual basis, override the guild-wide setting via the WhoDat options (/whodat, click options button). On the options panel check the checkbox for "Main Toon Color" and set the color in the editbox.
You replace HEX_COLOR_STRING (or type this into the editbox in the options) with the hexadecimal representation of the color you want in the format AARRGGBB (alpha, red, green, blue). The alpha is almost always FF. E.g., FFFF0000 would be red.
Some folks want a little more info and have become accustomed to the "class colors" that WoW uses. To that end, you can specify "class" as the color and WhoDat will colorize the Main name in accordance with the following:
Death Knight Druid Hunter Mage Paladin Priest Rogue Shaman Warlock Warrior
[edit] Channels
As an individual, you can set what channels you'd like WhoDat to process. There is no guild-wide option for this as the defaults (Guild, Officer, and Whisper) are typically sufficient. To change the channels WhoDat processes, you open up the WhoDat options (/whodat, click options button). There you'll see checkboxes for Guild, Officer, Party, Raid, Say, Yell, and Whisper. Check or uncheck at your preference.
[edit] Additional Commands
There are a couple extra command-line options you can use to access some more esoteric commands.
-query
Sends out a request over the hidden addon channel asking
for version information from the other WhoDats that are running.
-vl
Once a query has been sent, wait a couple seconds and then
issue this command to see a version list of WhoDats currently running.
-errors
Provides a list of names in notes which do not exist in your guild.
Some will be intentional, others will be missed toons, others
could be alts left over from someone gquitting.
[edit] Compatibilities
The following AddOns were tested in their default states to insure compatibility:
- Prat
- SimpleChatMods
- AuldLangSyne
- Cosmos
If you are having a collision problem, please post on the WoWInterface WhoDat page with the AddOn you believe is the culprit (if you can, please try to isolate the problem) and any error you are getting.
[edit] History
You can find the entire version history and changelog here.
[edit] Credits
Many thanks to the folks who keep WoWWiki up to date, it's a fabulous website and an invaluable tool to AddOn authors. I also snarfed the Recap icons and I didn't ask permission. If there's a problem with that, please let me know. I use their close and options buttons and added my own refresh icon. Replacing this is not an issue, but I didn't think it'd be a big deal.
And a big thanks to those in Already Dead, Dreamers, and No Dwarves Allowed who help me test and keep coming up with ideas and bug reports!
Special thanks to Already Dead who put up with me and constantly test my latest and greatest, thanks much for the patience and help guys!
Also thanks go to Xanatandor (the only name I know him by!) on WoWInterface for the German translation.
Finally, thanks to all the users who not only use the addon, but provide feedback!