WoW:Ace (AddOn): Difference between revisions

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Ace is a lightweight and powerful system for building [[World of Warcraft]] addons. It is a new approach to addon development, a rethinking from the ground up. Ace provides developers with the tools needed by most addons, freeing them from repeating common tasks and allowing them to jump right into the creative part of building their addons. New and experienced addon coders alike can benefit from Ace's features.
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'''Ace''' is a lightweight and powerful system for building [[World of Warcraft]] [[AddOns]]. It is a new approach to addon development, a rethinking from the ground up.  
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Here is a brief list of its features:


* Initializes the addon after variables and character data load.
Ace provides developers with the tools needed by most addons, freeing them from repeating common tasks and allowing them to jump right into the creative part of building their addons. New and experienced addon coders alike can benefit from Ace's features.
* Simple, flexible, and powerful data management.
 
* Customizable chat command handling.
 
* Improved function and method hooking.
== Brief feature list and component overview==
* Enhanced event handling with the ability to create custom events.
 
* In-game addon disabling and enabling.
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* Easy saving of settings per character and per class.
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* Debug features with optional module.
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* Built-in myAddons support.
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;AceLibrary: <small>[http://wiki.wowace.com/index.php/AceLibrary AceLibrary] handles version compatibility of libraries - Ace ones as well as your own. It also helps with error handling.</small>
 
;AceOO: <small>[http://wiki.wowace.com/index.php/AceOO-2.0 AceOO] provides an object-orientation framework.</small>
 
;AceAddon: <small>[http://wiki.wowace.com/index.php/AceAddon-2.0 AceAddon] is Ace's main interface to AddOns. Ace components present their functionality through it. It also handles simple initialization events.</small>
 
;AceConsole: <small>[http://wiki.wowace.com/index.php/AceConsole-2.0 AceConsole] provides console I/O functionality - slash commands, easy printing, etc.</small>
 
;AceDB: <small>[http://wiki.wowace.com/index.php/AceDB-2.0 AceDB] allows for fast, clean, and featureful saved variable access, including per-class settings and more.</small>
 
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;AceEvent: <small>[http://wiki.wowace.com/index.php/AceEvent-2.0 AceEvent] allows for simple event handling, scheduling, and inter-addon communication.</small>
 
;AceDebug: <small>[http://wiki.wowace.com/index.php/AceDebug-2.0 AceDebug] simplifies AddOn debugging.</small>
 
;AceHook: <small>[http://wiki.wowace.com/index.php/AceHook-2.0 AceHook] provides safe hooking of functions, methods, and scripts.</small>
 
;AceLocale: <small>[http://wiki.wowace.com/index.php/AceLocale-2.0 AceLocale] makes localization (translation) of your AddOns ridiculously simple.</small>
 
;AceModuleCore: <small>[http://wiki.wowace.com/index.php/AceModuleCore-2.0 AceModuleCore] helps you split your AddOn into separate "modules" that can easily be turned on and off. Handles enabling/disabling of events, hooks, tooltip scanners, etc for you.</small>
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Ace also has built-in myAddons support.
 
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At the writing of this article, '''Ace2''' is in the works, which is a major step up in documentation, and also allows the library (whichever parts you need) to be fully embedded into your AddOn if you do not want to depend on Ace being installed separately.
 
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== Ace's design philosophy ==  <div style="margin-left: 3%;">


The primary design philosophy of Ace is simple: less is more. This means less code, fewer resources used, less effort designing an addon, less stress on the UI. Every aspect of Ace is scrutinized for efficiency, not only in code design but in ensuring that only the necessary amount of memory and processing is used to perform a given task. This means that addons built with Ace are more efficient and can very likely free up memory and reduce game lag compared to an addon not using Ace.
The primary design philosophy of Ace is simple: less is more. This means less code, fewer resources used, less effort designing an addon, less stress on the UI. Every aspect of Ace is scrutinized for efficiency, not only in code design but in ensuring that only the necessary amount of memory and processing is used to perform a given task. This means that addons built with Ace are more efficient and can very likely free up memory and reduce game lag compared to an addon not using Ace.
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Ace seeks to consolidate this knowledge into a central resource, providing developers with a full addon framework that is easy to use, very flexible, and very powerful. This framework provides the most common components addons need, like data management and chat command handling, and it also provides a glue that links addons together and allows them to share system resources smoothly and efficiently.
Ace seeks to consolidate this knowledge into a central resource, providing developers with a full addon framework that is easy to use, very flexible, and very powerful. This framework provides the most common components addons need, like data management and chat command handling, and it also provides a glue that links addons together and allows them to share system resources smoothly and efficiently.


To get started using Ace, visit http://www.wowace.com to download, or stop by the forums to discuss development and use of Ace AddOns.
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== Ace Resources ==  <div style="margin-left: 3%;">
 
* [http://www.wowace.com www.wowace.com] - main page, including download
 
* [http://wiki.wowace.com/ wiki.wowace.com] - Ace wiki, main documentation source
 
* [http://svn.wowace.com/root/trunk/ svn.wowace.com] - Ace SubVersion source code repository


* [http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/cat47.html wowinterface.com] - Long list of Aced AddOns, by categories!


;See also:
* [http://svn.wowace.com/root/trunk/ SVN.WoWAce.com root trunk] - Look here for developer's latest AddOn and related AddOns.


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[[Category:Function Libraries]]
[[Category:Function Libraries]]
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