World of Warcraft UI - custom frame without addon - user-interface

Question

In World Of Warcraft I have created a little coords script that outputs current coords:
local function ou(self,elapsed)
px,py=GetPlayerMapPosition("player")
DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage(format("( %s ) [%f , %f]",GetZoneText(), px *100, py *100))
end
local f = CreateFrame("frame")
f:SetScript("OnUpdate", ou)
This however spams default chat frame...
How would I create custom frame and how would I access it?
(I can't use custom channel with SendChatMessage)
...I would like to do this WITHOUT making an addon, thanks :)

Answer 1

I found a solution in storing frame in global variable, as I don't intend to create a plugin, the whole program requires a few macros (macro's maximum number of characters is 255).
First macro - prepare function that will set frame attributes later
f = input frame that will be set
x = x coordinate of position
y = y coordinate of position
function setMyFrame(f,x,y)
f:SetSize(288,100)
f:SetPoint("TOPLEFT",UIParent,"TOPLEFT",x,y)
f.text = f.text or f:CreateFontString(nil,"ARTWORK","QuestFont_Shadow_Huge")
f.text:SetAllPoints(true)
end
Second macro - prepare coords function that will set current coords as frame's text
ctotel = time elapsed since last update of the frame
creft = how often should the frame be updated in SECONDS - good one is 0.1 - 10 times a second is performance friendly and fast enaugh to coords update
f = input frame that will be updated
i = "how long it's been since the last update call cycle" (you don't set that - it is inherited from the WoW system)
ctotel = 0
creft = 0.1
function myCoords(f,i)
ctotel = ctotel + i
if ctotel >= creft then
px,py=GetPlayerMapPosition("player")
f.text:SetText(format("( %s ) [%f , %f]",GetZoneText(), px *100, py *100))
ctotel = 0
end
end
Third macro - store frame in global variable and set it and run update script with myCoords as callback
myCoordsFrame = CreateFrame("Frame","MyCoordsFrame",UIParent)
setMyFrame(myCoordsFrame, 500, 0)
myCoordsFrame:SetScript("OnUpdate", myCoords)
Of course in game all macros have to be preceeded with /run and have to be inlined - no line breaks - instead of linebreak just make space...
Also you have to run macros in THIS ^^^ order (first=>second=>third)
Advantage in setting frame and creft as globals:
Frames can't be destroyed while in the world (you have to relog to destroy them) so when it's global you can later move it with
/run setMyFrame(myCoordsFrame, NEW_X_COORDINATE, NEW_Y_COORDINATE)
If you would like the coords to update slower/faster you can do it by resetting the creft - e.g. to almost realtime refresh every 0.05 or even 0.01 seconds:
/run creft = 0.05 ... or even /run creft = 0.01
Make Coords movable - draggable by left mouse (credit to Wanderingfox from WoWhead):
myCoordsFrame:SetMovable(true)
myCoordsFrame:EnableMouse(true)
myCoordsFrame:SetScript("OnMouseDown",function() myCoordsFrame:StartMoving() end)
myCoordsFrame:SetScript("OnMouseUp",function() myCoordsFrame:StopMovingOrSizing() end)
...and as copy-paste ingame macro:
/run myCoordsFrame:SetMovable(true) myCoordsFrame:EnableMouse(true) myCoordsFrame:SetScript("OnMouseDown",function() myCoordsFrame:StartMoving() end) myCoordsFrame:SetScript("OnMouseUp",function() myCoordsFrame:StopMovingOrSizing() end)