Miscellaneous Functions

addSupportedTelnetOption

addSupportedTelnetOption(option): Adds a telnet option, which when queried by a MUD server, Mudlet will return DO (253) on. Use this to register the telnet option that you will be adding support for with Mudlet - see additional protocols section for more.

Example

<event handlers that add support for MSDP... see http://www.mudbytes.net/forum/comment/63920/#c63920 for an example>

-- register with Mudlet that it should not decline the request of MSDP support
local TN_MSDP = 69
addSupportedTelnetOption(TN_MSDP)

alert

alert([seconds]): alerts the user to something happening - makes Mudlet flash in the Windows window bar, bounce in the macOS dock, or flash on Linux.

Note: Available in Mudlet 3.2+

Parameters

seconds:

(optional) number of seconds to have the alert for. If not provided, Mudlet will flash until the user opens Mudlet again.

Example

-- flash indefinitely until Mudlet is open
alert()

-- flash for just 3 seconds
alert(3)

closeMudlet

closeMudlet()

Closes Mudlet and all profiles immediately.

denyCurrentSend

denyCurrentSend()

Cancels a send() or user-entered command, but only if used within a sysDataSendRequest event.

Example

-- cancels all "eat hambuger" commands
function cancelEatHamburger(event, command)
  if command == "eat hamburger" then
    denyCurrentSend()
    cecho("<red>Denied! Didn't let the command through.\n")
  end
end

registerAnonymousEventHandler("sysDataSendRequest", "cancelEatHamburger")

expandAlias

expandAlias(command)
expandAlias(command, true/false): Runs the command as if it was from the command line - so aliases are checked and if none match, it's sent to the game. If the second argument is supplied and is false, it will hide the command from being echoed back in your buffer. Defaults to true if omitted.

Example

expandAlias("t rat")

-- don't echo the command
expandAlias("t rat", false)

Note: If you want to be using the matches table after calling expandAlias, you should save it first, as, e.g. local oldmatches = matches before calling expandAlias, since expandAlias will overwrite it after using it again.

feedTriggers

feedTriggers(text): This function will have Mudlet parse the given text as if it came from the MUD - one great application is trigger testing. The built-in `echo alias provides this functionality as well.

Parameters

text:

string which is sent to the trigger processing system almost as if it came from the MUD Server. This string must be byte encoded in a manner to match the currently selected Server Encoding.

Example

-- try using this on the command line
`echo This is a sample line from the game

-- You can use \n to represent a new line - you also want to use it before and after the text you’re testing, like so:
feedTriggers("\nYou sit yourself down.\n")
send("\n")

-- The function also accept ANSI color codes that are used in MUDs. A sample table can be found http://codeworld.wikidot.com/ansicolorcodes
feedTriggers("\nThis is \27[1;32mgreen\27[0;37m, \27[1;31mred\27[0;37m, \27[46mcyan background\27[0;37m," ..
"\27[32;47mwhite background and green foreground\27[0;37m.\n")
send("\n")

Note: It is important to note that the bytes that are created within the lua code are parsed unchanged - so they must use the correct encoding to match the current Server Encoding setting, this will be significant if the text component contains any characters that are not plain ASCII.

The trigger processing system also requires that some data is received from the game to process the feedTriggers(), so use a send("\n") to get a new prompt (thus new data) right after.

getModulePath

path = getModulePath(module name)

Returns the location of a module on the disk.

getModulePriority

priority = getModulePriority(module name)

Returns the priority of a module as an integer. This determines the order modules will be loaded in - default is 0. Useful if you have a module that depends on another module being loaded first, for example.

getMudletHomeDir

getMudletHomeDir(): Returns the current home directory of the current profile. This can be used to store data, save statistical information, or load resource files from packages.

Example

-- save a table
table.save(getMudletHomeDir().."/myinfo.dat", myinfo)

-- or access package data. The forward slash works even on Windows fine
local path = getMudletHomeDir().."/mypackagename"

getMudletLuaDefaultPaths

getMudletLuaDefaultPaths(): Returns the compiled in default location that this version of Mudlet tries as the last ditch attempt to find the luaGlobal.lua Lua script. luaGlobal.lua is the "loader" for all the Mudlet (and included Geyser but NOT Vyzor GUI management system packages) - failure to find this when a profile is loaded will be associated with a:

[ ERROR ] - LuaGlobal.lua compile error - please report!

message in the main console, instead of the expected:

[ OK ] - Mudlet-lua API & Geyser Layout manager loaded.

Note: This command is initially for *nix (but NOT MacOs) versions that need to support having shared, read-only copies of non-executable files used by an application in a directory that is not directly associated with that executable; for MacOs and Windows version it will not return a useful result either an empty string "" or a single slash "/". It is currently present only in the development branch of code in the GitHub repository and will not be included in the 3.0.0 release or its previews. This command was renamed from getMudletLuaDefaultPath().

getMudletVersion

getMudletVersion(style): Returns the current Mudlet version. Note that you shouldn't hardcode against a specific Mudlet version if you'd like to see if a function is present - instead, check for the existence of the function itself. Otherwise, checking for the version can come in handy if you'd like to test for a broken function or so on.

Note: Available since Mudlet 3.0.0-alpha.

Parameters

style:

(optional) allows you to choose what you'd like returned. By default, if you don't specify it, a key-value table with all the values will be returned: major version, minor version, revision number and the optional build name.

Values you can choose

"string":

Returns the full Mudlet version as text.

"table":

Returns the full Mudlet version as four values (multi-return)

"major":

Returns the major version number (the first one).

"minor":

Returns the minor version number (the second one).

"revision":

Returns the revision version number (the third one).

"build":

Returns the build of Mudlet (the ending suffix, if any).

Example

-- see the full Mudlet version as text:
getMudletVersion("string")
-- returns for example "3.0.0-alpha"

-- check that the major Mudlet version is at least 3:
if getMudletVersion("major") >= 3 then echo("You're running on Mudlet 3+!") end

-- if you'd like to see if a function is available however, test for it explicitly instead:
if setAppStyleSheet then
  -- example credit to http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/stylesheet-examples.html#customizing-qscrollbar
  setAppStyleSheet[[
  QScrollBar:vertical {
      border: 2px solid grey;
      background: #32CC99;
      width: 15px;
      margin: 22px 0 22px 0;
  }
  QScrollBar::handle:vertical {
      background: white;
      min-height: 20px;
  }
  QScrollBar::add-line:vertical {
      border: 2px solid grey;
      background: #32CC99;
      height: 20px;
      subcontrol-position: bottom;
      subcontrol-origin: margin;
  }
  QScrollBar::sub-line:vertical {
      border: 2px solid grey;
      background: #32CC99;
      height: 20px;
      subcontrol-position: top;
      subcontrol-origin: margin;
  }
  QScrollBar::up-arrow:vertical, QScrollBar::down-arrow:vertical {
      border: 2px solid grey;
      width: 3px;
      height: 3px;
      background: white;
  }
  QScrollBar::add-page:vertical, QScrollBar::sub-page:vertical {
      background: none;
  }
  ]]
end

getProfileName

name = getProfileName()

Returns the name of the profile. Useful when combined with raiseGlobalEvent() to know which profile a global event came from.

Note: Available in Mudlet 3.1+

Example

-- if connected to the Achaea profile, will print Achaea to the main console
echo(getProfileName())

getServerEncoding

getServerEncoding(): Returns the current server data encoding in use.

Example

getServerEncoding()

getServerEncodingsList

getServerEncodingsList(): Returns an indexed list of the server data encodings that Mudlet knows. This is not the list of encodings the servers knows - there's unfortunately no agreed standard for checking that. See encodings in Mudlet for the list of which encodings are available in which Mudlet version.

Example

-- check if UTF-8 is available:
if table.contains(getServerEncodingsList(), "UTF-8") then
  print("UTF-8 is available!")
end

installModule

installModule(location): Installs a Mudlet XML, zip, or mpackage as a module.

Parameters

location:

Exact location of the file install.

installPackage

installPackage(location): Installs a Mudlet XML or package.

Parameters

location:

Exact location of the xml or package to install.

killAnonymousEventHandler

killAnonymousEventHandler(handler id): Disables and removes the given event handler.

Parameters

handler id

ID of the event handler to remove as returned by the registerAnonymousEventHandler function.

loadWindowLayout

loadWindowLayout: Resets the layout of userwindows (floating miniconsoles) to the last saved state.

mudletOlderThan

mudletOlderThan(major, [minor], [patch]): Returns true if Mudlet is older than the given version to check. This is useful if you'd like to use a feature that you can't check for easily, such as coroutines support. However, if you'd like to check if a certain function exists, do not use this and use if mudletfunction then - it'll be much more readable and reliable.

Parameters

major:

Mudlet major version to check. Given a Mudlet version 3.0.1, 3 is the major version, second 0 is the minor version, and third 1 is the patch version.

minor:

(optional) minor version to check.

patch:

(optional) patch version to check.

Example

-- stop doing the script of Mudlet is older than 3.2
if mudletOlderThan(3,2) then return end

-- or older than 2.1.3
if mudletOlderThan(2, 1, 3) then return end

-- however, if you'd like to check that a certain function is available, like getMousePosition(), do this instead:
if not getMousePosition then return end

-- if you'd like to check that coroutines are supported, do this instead:
if not mudlet.supportscoroutines then return end

openWebPage

openWebPage(URL): Opens the browser to the given webpage.

Parameters

URL:

Exact URL to open.

Example

openWebPage("http://google.com")

playSoundFile

playSoundFile(fileName, volume): This function plays a sound file. On 2.0, it can play most sound formats and up to 4 sounds simultaneously and there's no limit on simultaneous sounds since 3.0.

Parameters

fileName:

Exact path of the sound file.

volume:

Set the volume (in percent) of the sound. If no volume is given, 100 (maximum) is used.

Optional, available since 3.0

registerAnonymousEventHandler

id = registerAnonymousEventHandler(event name, function[, one shot]): Registers a function to an event handler, not requiring you to set one up via script. See here for a list of Mudlet-raised events. The function may be either a string containing a global function name or a lua function object.

The optional one shot parameter allows you to automatically kill an event handler after it is done by giving a true value. If the event you waited for did not occur yet, return true from the function to keep it registered.

The function returns an ID that can be used in killAnonymousEventHandler() to unregister the handler again.

Note: The ability to register lua functions, the one shot parameter and the returned ID are features of Mudlet 3.5 and above.

See also: killAnonymousEventHandler()

Example

-- example taken from the God Wars 2 (http://godwars2.org) Mudlet UI - forces the window to keep to a certain size
function keepStaticSize()
  setMainWindowSize(1280,720)
end -- keepStaticSize
 
registerAnonymousEventHandler("sysWindowResizeEvent", "keepStaticSize")

-- simple inventory tracker for GMCP enabled games. This version does not leak any of the methods
-- or tables into the global namespace. If you want to access it, you should export the inventory
-- table via an own namespace.
local inventory = {}

local function inventoryAdd()
  if gmcp.Char.Items.Add.location == "inv" then
    inventory[#inventory + 1] = table.deepcopy(gmcp.Char.Items.Add.item)
  end
end
registerAnonymousEventHandler("gmcp.Char.Items.Add", inventoryAdd)

local function inventoryList()
  if gmcp.Char.Items.List.location == "inv" then
    inventory = table.deepcopy(gmcp.Char.Items.List.items)
  end
end
registerAnonymousEventHandler("gmcp.Char.Items.List", inventoryList)

local function inventoryUpdate()
  if gmcp.Char.Items.Remove.location == "inv" then
    local found
    local updatedItem = gmcp.Char.Items.Update.item
    for index, item in ipairs(inventory) do
      if item.id == updatedItem.id then
        found = index
        break
      end
    end
    if found then
      inventory[found] = table.deepcopy(updatedItem)
    end
  end
end
registerAnonymousEventHandler("gmcp.Char.Items.Update", inventoryUpdate)

local function inventoryRemove()
  if gmcp.Char.Items.Remove.location == "inv" then
    local found
    local removedItem = gmcp.Char.Items.Remove.item
    for index, item in ipairs(inventory) do
      if item.id == removedItem.id then
        found = index
        break
      end
    end
    if found then
      table.remove(inventory, found)
    end
  end
end
registerAnonymousEventHandler("gmcp.Char.Items.Remove", inventoryRemove)

-- downloads a package from the internet and kills itself after it is installed.
local saveto = getMudletHomeDir().."/dark-theme-mudlet.zip"
local url = "http://www.mudlet.org/wp-content/files/dark-theme-mudlet.zip"

registerAnonymousEventHandler(
  "sysDownloadDone",
  function(_, filename)
    if filename ~= saveto then
      return true -- keep the event handler since this was not our file
    end
    installPackage(saveto)
    os.remove(b)
  end,
  true
)

downloadFile(saveto, url)
cecho("<white>Downloading <green>"..url.."<white> to <green>"..saveto.."\n")

reloadModule

reloadModule(module name): Reload a module (by uninstalling and reinstalling).

Example

reloadModule("3k-mapper")

resetProfile

resetProfile()

Reloads your entire Mudlet profile - as if you've just opened it. All UI elements will be cleared, so this useful when you're coding your UI. To use this function, call it and then receive input from the game - that will trigger Mudlet to do the reset.

Example

resetProfile()
send("\r")

Note: It is important to note that this requires that some data is received from the game to process, so be connected and use a send("\n") to get a new prompt (thus new data) right after.

saveProfile

saveProfile()

Saves the current Mudlet profile to disk, which is equivalent to pressing the "Save Profile" button.

Example

saveProfile()

saveWindowLayout

saveWindowLayout: Saves the layout of userwindows (floating miniconsoles), in case you'd like to load them again later.

sendSocket

sendSocket(data)

Sends given binary data as-is to the MUD. You can use this to implement support for a new telnet protocol, simultronics login or etcetera.

Example

TN_IAC = 255
TN_WILL = 251
TN_DO = 253
TN_SB = 250
TN_SE = 240
TN_MSDP = 69

MSDP_VAL = 1
MSDP_VAR = 2

sendSocket( string.char( TN_IAC, TN_DO, TN_MSDP ) ) -- sends IAC DO MSDP

--sends: IAC  SB MSDP MSDP_VAR "LIST" MSDP_VAL "COMMANDS" IAC SE
local msg = string.char( TN_IAC, TN_SB, TN_MSDP, MSDP_VAR ) .. " LIST " ..string.char( MSDP_VAL ) .. " COMMANDS " .. string.char( TN_IAC, TN_SE )
sendSocket( msg )

Note: Remember that should it be necessary to send the byte value of 255 as a data byte and not as the Telnet IAC value it is required to repeat it for Telnet to ignore it and not treat it as the latter.

setMergeTables

setMergeTables(module): Makes Mudlet merge the table of the given GMCP or MSDP module instead of overwriting the data. This is useful if the game sends only partial updates which need combining for the full data. By default "Char.Status" is the only merged module.

Parameters

module:

Name of the GMCP or MSDP module that should be merged as a string.

Example

setMergeTables("Char.Skills", "Char.Vitals")

setModulePriority

setModulePriority(moduleName, priority)

Sets the module priority on a given module as a number - the module priority determines the order modules are loaded in, which can be helpful if you have ones dependent on each other. This can also be set from the module manager window.

setServerEncoding

setServerEncoding(encoding): Makes Mudlet use the specified encoding for communicating with the game.

Parameters

encoding:

Encoding to use.

Example

-- use UTF-8 if Mudlet knows it. Unfortunately there's no way to check if the game's server knows it too.
if table.contains(getServerEncodingsList(), "UTF-8") then
  setServerEncoding("UTF-8")
end

spawn

spawn(readFunction, processToSpawn[, ...arguments])

Spawns a process and opens a communicatable link with it - read function is the function you'd like to use for reading output from the process, and t is a table containing functions specific to this connection - send(data), true/false = isRunning(), and close().

Examples

-- simple example on a program that quits right away, but prints whatever it gets using the 'display' function
local f = spawn(display, "ls")
display(f.isRunning())
f.close()

local f = spawn(display, "ls", "-la")
display(f.isRunning())
f.close()

startLogging

startLogging(state)

Control logging of the main console text as text or HTML (as specified by the "Save log files in HTML format instead of plain text" setting on the "General" tab of the "Profile preferences" or "Settings" dialog). Despite being called startLogging it can also stop the process and correctly close the file being created. The file will have an extension of type ".txt" or ".html" as appropriate and the name will be in the form of a date/time "yyyy-MM-dd#hh-mm-ss" using the time/date of when logging started. Note that this control parallels the corresponding icon in the "bottom buttons" for the profile and that button can also start and stop the same logging process and will reflect the state as well.

Parameters

state:

Required: logging state. Passed as a boolean

Returns (4 values)

successful (bool)

true if the logging state actually changed; if, for instance, logging was already active and true was supplied then no change in logging state actually occurred and nil will be returned (and logging will continue).

fileName (string)

The log will be/is being written to the path/file name returned.

message (string)

A displayable message given one of four messages depending on the current and previous logging states, this will include the file name except for the case when logging was not taking place and the supplied argument was also false.

code (number)

A value indicating the response to the system to this instruction:

 *  0 = logging has just stopped
 *  1 = logging has just started
 * -1 = logging was already in progress so no change in logging state
 * -2 = logging was already not in progress so no change in logging state

stopSounds

stopSounds()

Stops all currently playing sounds.

Note: Available in Mudlet 3.0.

timeframe

timeframe(vname, true_time, nil_time, ...)

A utility function that helps you change and track variable states without using a lot of tempTimers.

Note: Available in Mudlet 3.6+

Parameters

vname:

A string or function to use as the variable placeholder.

true_time:

Time before setting the variable to true. Can be a number or a table in the format: {time, value}

nil_time:

(optional) Number of seconds until vname is set back to nil. Leaving it undefined will leave it at whatever it was set to last. Can be a number of a table in the format: {time, value}

...:

(optional) Further list of times and values to set the variable to, in the following format: {time, value}

Example

-- sets the global 'limiter' variable to true immediately (see the 0) and back to nil in one second (that's the 1).
timeframe("limiter", 0, 1)

-- An angry variable 'giant' immediately set to "fee", followed every second after by "fi", "fo", and "fum" before being reset to nil at four seconds.
timeframe("giant", {0, "fee"}, 4, {1, "fi"}, {2, "fo"}, {3, "fum"})

-- sets the local 'width' variable to true immediately and back to nil in one second.
local width
timeframe(function(value) width = value end, 0, 1)

uninstallModule

uninstallModule(name)

Uninstalls a Mudlet module with the given name.

uninstallPackage

uninstallPackage(name)

Uninstalls a Mudlet package with the given name.

yajl.to_string

yajl.to_string(data)

Encodes a Lua table into JSON data and returns it as a string. This function is very efficient - if you need to encode into JSON, use this.

Example

-- on IRE MUDs, you can send a GMCP request to request the skills in a particular skillset. Here's an example:
sendGMCP("Char.Skills.Get "..yajl.to_string{group = "combat"})

-- you can also use it to convert a Lua table into a string, so you can, for example, store it as room's userdata
local toserialize = yajl.to_string(continents)
setRoomUserData(1, "areaContinents", toserialize)

yajl.to_value

yajl.to_value(data)

Decodes JSON data (as a string) into a Lua table. This function is very efficient - if you need to dencode into JSON, use this.

Example

-- given the serialization example above with yajl.to_string, you can deserialize room userdata back into a table
local tmp = getRoomUserData(1, "areaContinents")
if tmp == "" then return end

local continents = yajl.to_value(tmp)
display(continents)

Manual:Miscellaneous Functions