WoW:Creating a slash command

This HOWTO teaches the basics of creating a slash command for your AddOn.

Simple Example

Suppose you have:

function MyScript_Command(cmd)
  DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("Command: " .. cmd);
end

In the OnLoad function of your script, or in the .lua any place after the function is defined, put in the following:

SLASH_MYSCRIPT1 = "/myscript";
SLASH_MYSCRIPT2 = "/mys"; -- A shortcut or alias
SlashCmdList["MYSCRIPT"] = MyScript_Command;

Note: The slash command(s) must be defined in an OnLoad Function or after the function has been defined. If the slash command is defined when the function it "points to" (which is MyScript_Command in the above script) has not been defined yet, the slash command will not work.

Further Examples

OnLoad Function:

function AddonName_OnLoad()
 SlashCmdList["ADDONNAME"] = AddonName_SlashCmdHandler;
 SLASH_ADDONNAME1 = "/slash1";
 SLASH_ADDONNAME2 = "/slash2";
end

function AddonName_SlashCmdHandler()
 -- do stuff
end

And in your XML file:

<OnLoad>
 AddonName_OnLoad();
</OnLoad>

The above example will work as long as AddonName_OnLoad is called.

After the function has been defined:

function MySlashCmdFunction()
-- Some stuff here
end
 SlashCmdList["ADDONNAME"] = MySlashCmdFunction;
 SLASH_ADDONNAME1 = "/slash1";
 SLASH_ADDONNAME2 = "/slash2";

The Details

SLASH_<CommandId><num> 
SlashCmdList["<CommandId>"] = <CodeToExecute>

Slash command parsing is done by the chat frame, and it works as follows.

• The key of each entry is the <CommandId>. It should be the unique name of your Addon.
• The parser then examines SLASH_<CommandId>1, SLASH_<CommandId>2, ... and so on, until it either finds a match, or gets a nil value (undefined) on the next SLASH_<CommandId>'<Number>.
• If there was a hit, then the function value of SlashCmdList["<CommandId>"] is invoked, with the rest of the command line as its single parameter

• Special 'built in' slash commands for chat are handled first.
• The chat handler then iterates over the contents of the global table SlashCmdList
• Otherwise, the next command is searched until a match is found or the list is exhausted.

Conventions

• Command ID's are generally all caps, with underscores if necessary. These can also contain lowercase characters.
• Pick a command ID that's going to be unique to your addon, a common convention is ADDONNAME_COMMANDNAME, or if you just have one, then ADDONNAME (Where ADDONNAME is the name of your addon).
• The actual SLASH_<CommandId>'<Number> values should be localizable if you plan on your addon being translated, but the command ID will remain the same.
• Be prudent about how many aliases you make for your command, and try and pick something that's unlikely to collide with someone else's (including Blizzard's!)

Notes

Command ID's in SlashCmdList are not protected from being overwritten, including Blizzard added Command ID's. Alias' are not lost if the function that is triggered is changed, but individual alias' can be overwrote as well.

There's a second parameter to the SlashCmdList["<CommandId>"] function that is rarely used. It is the chat frame edit box frame that the slash command originated from.

SLASH_BLAH1 = "/blah"
SlashCmdList["BLAH"] = function(msg, editBox)
    -- change the text on the editBox.
    editBox:Show()
    editBox:SetText("Blah blah blah!")
end

See Also

• Extracting info from a slash command - parsing arguments given to your slash command.