ReAction

AddOn for World of Warcraft

Current Version: 0.34 (alpha)
Released: 09 Mar 2007
WoW Version Compatibility: v2.0.10 / TOC 20003

The Basics

ReAction is a replacement for the default Blizzard action bars. It allows you redefine your action button layout any way you like.

Features

• Move, resize, create, and arrange as many action bars as you want. Each bar can contain any number of buttons arranged in a grid layout of any size and spacing. The full complement of 120 action slots is supported.
• Works with all types of actions, including abilities, items, and macros
• Layout is done with the mouse, by dragging bars and bar edges on screen. Automatically anchor bars to each other or the screen edges by holding shift down as you drag.
• Context menus provide independent configuration options for each bar.
• Point and click keybinding interface. You can bind keys to left-click or right-click independently.
• Supports multiple 'pages' per bar, configured independently. Automatic stance, form, and stealth switching among pages is supported, including Shadowform.
• Pet action bar is fully supported and configurable.
• Settings can be saved per account, realm, character, class, or independent profile.
• Compatible with OmniCC
• Various configurable display options

ReAction is built using the Ace2 development framework.

Using ReAction

Installation

To install ReAction, drag the ReAction folder to your World of Warcraft/Interface/AddOns folder. Exit World of Warcraft if it's running, then restart.

Welcome to ReAction

When you first enter World of Warcraft with ReAction installed, it will look very similar to the default Blizzard UI, depending on what other AddOns are installed. However, only the main menu bar is shown by default. Other bars can be created as desired.

If you have FuBar installed, on the left side you should see the ReAction plugin icon and label. If not, there should be a button on your minimap. In either case, that button (the ReAction Control Button) is the gateway to configuring ReAction.

ReAction has three modes of operation:

• Normal ("locked")
• Configuration ("unlocked")
• Keybinding

(Technically it's 4 modes, because Config and Keybinding modes can both be active at the same time).

You can toggle Configuration mode by shift-clicking the ReAction Control Button and toggle Keybinding mode by alt-clicking the button. Global configuration options are also available by right-clicking the ReAction button. There are also a limited set of console commands that can be accessed with the "/reaction" or "/rxn" slash-commands. Type /rxn in the chat box to print a list of commands.

You can also set key bindings to toggle Configuration and Keybinding modes, in the standard UI keybindings panel.

Configuring ReAction

Start by shift-clicking the ReAction button to enter Configuration mode. All bars, including hidden bars, are shown in this mode and normal button click operation is disabled (though keybindings still work). Mouse over the bars, edges, and corners to see tooltip instructions for moving, resizing, and rearranging them. Right click each bar for a menu of options pertaining to that bar. For example, to change a hidden bar to a visible bar, right-click on a bar and choose Visibility -> Always Visible. Tooltips for each menu option provide details.

When you're done configuring ReAction, shift-click the ReAction button again to go back to Normal mode.

Configuration mode is not available if you are in combat, and is automatically cancelled if you enter combat.

Setting Keybindings

ReAction buttons don't use the regular keybindings of the default UI. In order to get your buttons to use hotkeys, enter ReAction Keybinding Setup mode by alt-clicking the ReAction Control Button (or choosing 'keybinding mode' from the right-click menu). ReAction button keybindings are not available from the standard keybindings menu! You must use the ReAction keybinding interface. They're even greyed out in the keybinding menu with a textual reminder, so there's no excuse!

Like configuration mode, normal button operation is disabled while in keybinding mode (though again, any hotkeys you have assigned will work). With the keybinding interface out, you can mouseover any ReAction button to see what its current keybinding is. You can set the keybinding on a button by clicking the button, then pressing the key. To clear a keybinding from a ReAction button, shift-click the button. Tooltips will remind you of this interface. You can also right-click/shift-right-click to set/clear a right-click hotkey, which will simulate right-clicking the button (useful for complex macro actions, typically to save screen real estate). If you've set up bars with multiple pages, you can also bind a key to the page up/down buttons on a per-bar basis. Just make sure the buttons are showing (they can be hidden later) and assign the keybinding like any other ReAction button.

Keybindings are saved on a per-profile basis. Keybinding mode is not available if you are in combat, and is automatically cancelled if you enter combat. When you first log in with ReAction, it steals the current keybindings from the default main action bar (buttons 1-12) and assigns them to the corresponding buttons on the default ReAction bar. This means that if you install ReAction, run with it, and then disable it, your main bar will no longer have any keybindings and they'll need to be reset. If you later enable ReAction again, it will remember its own keybindings.

If a profile assigns a keybinding to a ReAction button, switching away from that profile will clear the binding but will not restore the binding to its previous state. If the new profile assigns that binding then, of course, it will be in use. What this means is that any 'standard' keybinding action that's bound to a key will become unbound when switching to a profile that uses the key, and will have to be manually rebound later if you switch away from that profile.

Remember to click the 'Save' button to save your keybindings! If you do not, they will automatically revert to the previous bindings when exiting keybinding mode. This can be useful for "trying out" certain layouts briefly, but can also be a serious gotcha — if you just hit 'Escape,' or alt-click the ReAction Control Button, or enter combat while in keybinding mode, your bindings will revert to their previous state.

Playing with ReAction

Once you get your keybindings and configuration set up, you're ready to go. The buttons behave just like regular Blizzard buttons. However, at any time when you're not in combat, you can quickly switch to configuration mode and create a new bar, rearrange bars, hide/show a special-use bar, etc. Perfect for when you get some goofy quest item that has to be used temporarily, or get a new skill that doesn't fit on your current layout.

Limitations

• Due to a lack of certain functionality made available by Blizzard, dragging and dropping actions onto action bars while in combat is a little funky. You have to click the destination button rather than just release drag on it.
• You can't configure the pet bar unless you actually have a pet out.
• No support for shapeshift/stance bar (yet)
• If you have a bar with empty buttons, even though they're invisible they still block mouse input from reaching whatever might be under the button. This is a workaround so that you can drag and drop actions onto hidden slots during combat. This workaround can be disabled via a configuration option, but then you can't drag and drop actions onto slots during combat. Pick your poison, it's a limitation of Blizzard's protection scheme.
• If you hide the default main menu bar, there is no substitute provided (yet) for the XP bar, bag bar, or micro menu bar (although the hotkeys for them still work). Other addons can provide these features until ReAction supports them.

Known Issues

• There may or may not be a particular case in which turning off a pet's attack while using Eyes of the Beast doesn't work. Further investigation (and leveling a hunter to get Eyes of the Beast :-P) is required.
• The initial mapping of action IDs for shapeshift forms doesn't exactly match Blizzard's mapping. When first starting up as a warrior, druid, or rogue, you will probably need to move your actions around, and it will likely screw up your layout if you swap back to the default UI.
• Action IDs may not always be laid out in sequence, meaning that similar layouts on different machines may put the actions in a different order. For best results, copy the WTF/Account/<AccountName>/SavedVariables/ReAction.lua from one computer to the other, when you get a setup you like.
• There seems to be a big performance hit when first dragging a bar after entering configuration mode, and when first enabling keybinding mode, if there are several bars and a lot of buttons out. More investigation is necessary.

Future Plans

• Add support for bag bar, shapeshift bar, and micro menu bar. May also add XP bar to default unit frames for those who don't want to use a unit frame addon to get the XP bar back.
• More dynamic bar support: auto show/hide/fade on stance switch, in combat, key pressed, etc.
• "pop-up" bar support, in which a single button shows/hides a bar when moused over
• Better and more flexible interface for defining page transitions on stance/form shift
• Provide a method for normalizing the action ID layout, permitting better compatibility when used on different computers.
• Provide some additional console commands so that enterprising users can macro certain configuration functionality (notably hiding and showing individual bars)
• Yet more configurable button display options (disable cooldown flash, different borders, etc)
• Button styles (Dreamlayout, CyCircled)
• Localization

Version History

Version 0.34:

• Fixed some bugs in the keybinding code, and further refined the ReBound library.

Version 0.33:

• Rewrote the keybinding interface (again). I think I finally like this version. Keybindings are now saved and loaded with the profile, and honor the "character-specific keybindings" setting in the Blizzard Keybinding pane. The default keybindings for action bars are now greyed out in Blizzard's interface to remind you to use ReAction to set bindings for action bars.
• Moved the Action ID label on the buttons to the center of the button.
• Added support for binding right-clicks to hotkeys on the main action buttons only (no pet buttons). There is also an option (off by default) to display and specify the location for right-click binding labels.
• Tweaked the ordering of the bar menus. Some options will automatically show/hide when they are relevant.
• Converted the core of the keybinding code to an Ace2-style library: ReBound-1.0
• Did a little bit of code cleanup in main.lua
• Converted to MIT license

Version 0.32:

• Fixed a bug with displaying cooldowns generating slews of errors

Version 0.31:

• Fixed a bug where action IDs > 120 were being configured and allocated in certain cases
• Fixed a bug where hidden paging controls were reappearing when switching pages
• Fixed a script error that was popping up in certain conditions when starting keybinding mode, and causing some buttons not to be bindable
• Applied a fix that will (hopefully?) eliminate errors saying ACTIONBAR_UPDATE_STATE was not registered (be on the lookout for recurrences of that one). Hopefully this fix will eliminate several other intermittent errors that I think are part of the same cause.
• Added new options for controlling the opacity of buttons (which should now actually work). Previous opacity settings (if any) will be lost and will need to be re-applied after updating. There is also now a toggle to hide (rather than alpha-zero) empty buttons, at the expense of not being able to drag actions onto them during combat.
• Action IDs now appear/disappear automatically when bars are unlocked. There is no longer a menu item to show/hide them.
• Changed the default startup bar configuration to only be the paged main bar. This allows a default startup to create new bars without having to delete some first. Will probably simplify even further in a future patch. Note this doesn't fix the action-rearrangement setup headaches with warriors, druids, and rogues.
• Cooldowns can now be hidden - either all cooldowns or just global cooldowns.

Version 0.3

• Complete rewrite of the innards for better modularity
• Lots of bug fixes
• Multi-paged bar support
• Pet bar support
• Auto stance/form/stealth switching
• Lots and lots of new configuration options

Version 0.2

• Bug fixes from 0.1
• new keybinding interface

Version 0.1

• Initial concept, button arrangement

Credits

Huge credit to the Ace 2 development team, whose framework provides a level of functionality that I consider critical to the success of this addon. Similarly, enormous credit goes to ckknight, whose Dewdrop menuing system and FuBar plugin system are ridiculously easy to use.

Thanks to the authors of certain action bar mods that came before ReAction: Bartender3, Bongos, FlexBar 2, and Trinity Bars. While I didn't steal any code directly from you guys, your addons provided inspiration for various features and options. Hopefully ReAction differentiates itself sufficiently that it's not seen as simply a clone.

Finally, thanks to my alpha testers and stalwart adventuring companions: Deor, Nogrim, Sorabel, and Yngvi (or, more to the point, their alts :-P).

Copyright & License

ReAction is distributed under the MIT license.

ReAction Copyright © 2007 Ryan Findley.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

World of Warcraft is a registered trademark of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.