Cross-post from curse-gaming (Scrap tabs, implementation change).

[Snarky]

Eh, I've decided to scrap tabs right now. I've got just a few config things I need to keep track of (two, to be exact) and its not worth the pain that tabs were giving me. So I'm moving on to auto-response... since I've had many people ask me about it.

In addition I'm making a HUGE change in implementation. Huge. It'll increase some overhead (initially), but will make this addon even more dynamic, and allow you to do materials breakdown between tradeskills. Such as skinning needing Minor Elixirs of Agility for some items.

So, ETA (hopefully if I sleep as little as planned) is within a week. AKA, my Christmas gift to you. If this works, it'll make auto-response also a lot more dynamic, and real darn easy to implement. SHould be great. Might actually lead to another UI change, now that I think about it. Or at least incorporating some of your suggestions.

[DeTard]

Wow, that'd be great....  not sure how you are going to go about doing it of course, but it sounds like a great idea.  I think the one thing you will run into problems with is that you'll need to hook into an item database mod such as LootLink (check out Saeris's LootLink at WoWinterface.com for a very feature rich re-author of Telo's that gets updated at least weekly) so that you can link from other professions.  And if a link isn't found, just send text for that specific item.

The auto-response thing, is that sort of like how LootLink Bot works where you can type "!item dreadnaught" and get all dreadnaught links, except for getting profession info instead?  Maybe "!ph breakdown greater shadow protection potion" instead?  I think one thing that would be valuable for this is to accept the actual links in the bot because people hate to type.  So like "!ph breakdown [Greater Shadow Protection Potion]" would actually work as wel, but maybe that's a bit farther down the road.

Either way, I'm excited 

P.S.  How's the gnome spam going?   

[Snarky]

Hey, good to see this forum being used!

Basically I'm scanning the professions when you open a trade or craft window (i.e. Engineering... which is my favorite, hence why it's always mentioned). SAving all this into a ginormous table... Right now I've run into some interesting problems that have stalled my developement for a few days, I think I need to reinstall WoW at the least. Kinda bummed about that as I wasted 5 days chasing a bug in my code that, it turns out, may have just been WoW acting up. So, a lot of lost time, unfortunately.

So, because of the above I don't actually need to hook into any database, I'm making my own *grin*. You'll soon find that I don't trust code generated by anyone but myself, which is why I made this addon instead of using something like ATSW (whose UI I can't STAND!) or the like.

As for the autoresponse.... I'll copy and paste some of my revised README right in here, to give you an idea of how I envision it working.

Code:

Auto-Response
-------------
Autoresponse of materials means players can send you certain phrases to get information about what you can make and what it takes without your intervention. This can be turned on and off with the following easy commands:
/ph respond on - Turns auto-response on
/ph respond off - Turns Autoresponse off
/ph respond - Gives information regarding auto-response

The auto-response triggers off set phrases, currently based off English, as that's my native language. Hopefully these'll get localized as well.

Phrases:
!skills                - Returns a list of all tradecrafts the player can do.
!types [tradecraft]    - Returns the types of items you can make for a given trade.
!items [type]          - Returns all the items that can be made of a given type.
!materials [item_link] - Returns the materials needed for a certain item, given by item link.

A typical transaction would start with an interested party asking what skills you know.
From there they'd indicate what type interested then, and finally pick the items that interest them the most.
This doesn't require any work on your part.

NOTE: I DIDN'T REALIZE !ITEM WAS ALREADY BEING USED, I'LL PREFIX THE ABOVE COMMANDS WITH PH_ TO BE SAFE.

I currently only plan on accepting item links, as I don't want to figure out how many ways a player can misspell drednought, I mean dreadnought, I mean drednot... you get the idea. I may make it also accept the exact name (as if you shift click an item into general chat) in case... well... someone uses general chat for this.

So, there you can see how it'll work. Now, some features aren't mentioned yet. For instance: Span Alts. With this feature turned on it'll not only look at what professions you can make, but that of your alts. For me, this'll be on all the time, as I cover all the professions with my alts (only up to 225 so far) and I want people to know EVERYTHING I can make. The materials breakdown feature will also be able to span alts for things such as Engineering needing Inlaid Mithril Cynlinder from Blacksmithing.

As for Gnome spam, you made me laugh hard enough with that idea that there's a good chance I may make a spam function this summer (my code output jacks WAAAY up in the summer.... sitting on my porch... ahhhh). It reminds me of a WoW virus I was thinking of writing as a research project (don't worry, it'd never be released) that would send 1c to someone nearby everytime you opened the mailbox window. So, I've already got an idea of how to write it.

Thanks for the response, hopefully I'll get back on my feet in terms of development soon enough to not keep you (and I assume others) in suspense!