HOWTOs are detailed documents describing "how to" accomplish something specific. Most of them will assume a basic understanding of the WoW scripting language and framework. For more information on the framework please refer to Portal:Interface customization, AddOns, and World of Warcraft API.
This list may be incomplete; all HOWTOs are listed on Category:HOWTOs.
Getting Started[]
- Getting started with writing addons
- An overview of the tools, code and file types involved in creating addons.
- AddOn programming tutorial/Introduction (Overview Page)
- Creating a Hello World! AddOn.
- Setting up Visual Studio for WoW XML
- On a Windows platform, you can use Visual Studio to create XML descriptions of interfaces.
General Lua tutorials[]
- Common Lua shortcuts
- Commonly occurring uses of Lua logic evaluation short-cuts, method syntax and the global environment.
- Function arguments
- Declaring and passing arguments to functions.
- Using the argument '...' efficiently
- Tips involving the vararg operator.
- Hooking functions
- Functions are first-class values in Lua, which allows you to override or extend the behavior of already declared functions.
- Pattern matching
- An overview of the regular expression features of Lua.
General Addon tutorials[]
- Getting the current interface number
- For use in .toc files.
- Handling events
- Creating, and managing event handler code.
- Saving variables between game sessions
- Description and examples of saving variables to disk.
- Creating defaults
- creating default values in your addon's saved variables.
- Localizing an addon
- General techniques enabling localization.
- Using OnUpdate correctly
- Throttling OnUpdate code execution.
Using FrameXML[]
- Creating GUI configuration options
- A custom configuration frame tutorial.
- Creating tabbed windows
- Using UIPanelTemplates to create tabs.
- Creating a slash command
- Creating and using slash command handlers.
- Creating your own chat types
- Adding new chat types allows users to redirect your addon's chat output to one or more desired chat frames.
- Making a scrollable list using FauxScrollFrameTemplate
- FauxScrollFrameTemplate tutorial.
- Creating standard left-sliding frames
- using the UIPanelLayout attributes to manage your frame's position.
- Make Frames Closable With the "Esc" Key
- using UISpecialFrames to enable this behavior.
- Removing Blizzard default frames
- Maps default UI elements to frame names and suggests use of the :Hide() widget function.
- Hooking outgoing chat messages
- Describes a mechanism to alter outgoing chat messages.
- Creating simple pop-up dialog boxes
- Using StaticPopup to display simple prompts.
- Using the ColorPickerFrame
- Invoking the default color picker.
- Using UIDropDownMenu
- Drop down boxes and menus using the FrameXML API.
- Using the Interface Options Addons panel
- Describes how to create an option panel that works with the default UI's Interface Options frame.
- Using bindings.xml to create key bindings for your addon
- Enabling default UI bindings.
Widgets[]
- HOWTO: Scroll EditBoxes to the left programatically
- Making Draggable Frames
- Describes several methods to allow the user to move a frame.
Miscellaneous[]
- Detecting an instant cast spell
- Using the UNIT_SPELLCAST_SUCCEEDED event.
- Identifying buffs using textures
- HOWTO: Speed up string match lookups
- Describes how to potentially speed up multiple similar pattern string matching.
- HOWTO: Use Tables Without Generating Extra Garbage
- An overview of techniques enabling table reuse and avoiding excessive garbage generation.
See also[]
- Making a macro : An overview of the various macro slash commands.