Trying to mod the aircraft pulldown

I'm trying to add a stack which contains two buttons instead of one button in the aircraft pulldown.

In UnitFlagManager.xml under the

<Instance Name="AirButton" > -line is this:


...

<InstanceData Name="UnitInstance" >
<Button Size="175,26" Anchor="C,C" ID="Button" >
<ShowOnMouseOver>
<AlphaAnim ID="SelectAnim" Anchor="C,C" Offset="0,0" Size="150,24" Pause="0" Cycle="Bounce" Speed="1" AlphaStart="2" AlphaEnd="1">
<Grid ID="SelectHL" Size="150,24" Offset="0,0" Padding="0,0" Style="Grid9FrameTurnsHL" />
</AlphaAnim>
</ShowOnMouseOver>
</Button>
</InstanceData>

...



I assume this is the place where the Button instance (for the aircraft) is defined. Is that correct? I tried to replace the aboce mentioned code with this one:



<InstanceData Name="UnitInstance" >
<Stack Anchor="L,C" StackGrowth="Right" Offset="0,0" Padding="0" >

<Button Offset="0,0" Anchor="R,C" Size="200,24" ID="Button" >
<AlphaAnim ID="SelectAnim" Anchor="C,C" Offset="0,0" Size="150,24" Pause="0" Cycle="Bounce" Speed="1" AlphaStart="2" AlphaEnd="1">
<Grid ID="SelectHL" Size="150,24" Offset="0,0" Padding="0,0" Style="Grid9FrameTurnsHL" />
</AlphaAnim>
</Button>
<Button Offset="0,0" Anchor="C,C" Size="180,24" ID="Button2" >
<AlphaAnim ID="SelectAnim" Anchor="C,C" Offset="0,0" Size="150,24" Pause="0" Cycle="Bounce" Speed="1" AlphaStart="2" AlphaEnd="1">
<Grid ID="SelectHL" Size="150,24" Offset="0,0" Padding="0,0" Style="Grid9FrameTurnsHL" />
</AlphaAnim>
</Button>

</Stack>
</InstanceData>



The whole AirButton disappeared. What am I doing something wrong? Is it even possible to modify this pulldown?



In UnitFlagManager.lua there is this line: (on line 1091)

cityFlagInstance.PullDown:BuildEntry( "UnitInstance", controlTable );


What is this controlTable parameter? I guess this is the place where the lua file refers to the UnitInstance in the Xml file.

This, for example, is strange:

In the UnitFlagManager.xml file within the <Instance Name="AirButton" > and <InstanceData Name="UnitInstance" > tags is this line:
<Button Size="175,26" Anchor="C,C" ID="Button" >


I tried to mod the Button Size (x,y I presume) but it didn't seem to affect anything. Why?

Then I tried to modify the following code ( UnitFlagManager.lua, function UpdateCityCargo( pPlot ) ) and replace the parameters in the line: local newWidth = math.max(150, tw+50);.

...

controlTable = {};
cityFlagInstance.PullDown:BuildEntry( "UnitInstance", controlTable );

--
local unitName = pPlotUnit:GetName();

local bw, bh = controlTable.Button:GetSizeVal();
controlTable.Button:SetText(unitName);
local tw, th = controlTable.Button:GetTextControl():GetSizeVal();

local newWidth = math.max(150, tw+50);

controlTable.Button:SetSizeVal(newWidth,bh);

...


and yes, the pulldown size changed immediately.

I would like know where the functions SetText(string), SetSizeVal(int1, int2) are defined? Any ideas?

Kuupora said:

I would like know where the functions SetText(string), SetSizeVal(int1, int2) are defined? Any ideas?

Click to expand...

They are Lua API interfaces to the C++ code within the graphical user interface - a DLL for which we do NOT have the source code

whoward69, thanks for your answer.

I intend to mod the aircraft pulldown to look more like this:




I want each row to contain the name of the unit, health, and promotions respectively. So each row has to be a stack that grows to right.


A further question: Is it possible to add a stack into the pulldown element instead of a button?

That is possible.

But you are into advanced UI techniques to achieve it. Stacks within stacks fall into the "non-trivial" category, as you will have to have multiple instance managers for the stacks of promotions, all being created dynamically for each aircraft row (which will have their own instance manager), and stored/accessed/reset within the aircraft row instances.

Lots of reading of the UI Tutorials and similar mods (eg "UI - City Religions", specifically the usage of PurchaseInstance and ItemInstance) ahead of you

Yes, I'd like to read some UI tutorials. Just found your tutorial in 2k forum
So what do you think about the idea of this mod? I also thought about adding a "Rebase all" -button.

Okay, I read the UI tutorials 1, 2 and 3.

First I'm trying to make a horizontal stack, and put stuff there. I added this line in UnitFlagManager.xml (after the <InstanceData Name="UnitInstance" > ...)

<Stack ID="UnitStack" Anchor="L,C" StackGrowth="Right" Offset="0,0" Padding="10" />





and then added this to the UnitFlagManager.lua

unitStackInstance = {};

cityFlagInstance.PullDown:BuildEntry( "UnitStack", unitStackInstance );

** correct so far I assume? **

Then I'm trying to add the UnitInstance (the existing code) to be controlled by the new UnitStackInstance. Not working.

ContextPtr:BuildInstanceForControl( "UnitInstance", controlTable, Controls.UnitStack );




error:

UnitFlagManager.lua:1102: attempt to index field 'Button' (a nil value)

this is the line where the error takes place:

local bw, bh = controlTable.Button:GetSizeVal();



So, should I read the rest of the tutorials or continue to knock my head against the wall? I think there was nothing about creating the instance manager in first three tutorials... What's the role of the instance manager in this?