Leaderless setup with HotKeyNet

[Freddie]

I looks like I might have to get around to putting it on the wiki, I've exceeded the 10k character limit

Sounds like a good idea.

A lot of my code may be a bit bloated but hopefully it is enough of an example for people with more experience to improve on (not hard since I have no coding knowledge at all)

It's my fault it's bloated because you asked me in the HotkeyNet forum if you could use If-statements with MovementHotkey and I said I couldn't remember. But I just tested, and yes you can. (My bad memory is due to the fact that I've changed the syntax of movement hotkeys twice during the beta and I forgot how I finalized it.) You can also use labels. So your movement hotkey could be condensed as shown below.

Btw I think you'd be an excellent programmer. Imho you have the knack.

// DEFINE MAILING LABELS, ONE FOR EACH WOW

<Label w1 192.168.1.11 SendWinM wow1>
<Label w2 192.168.1.12 SendWinM wow2>
<Label w3 192.168.1.2  SendWinM wow3>
<Label w4 192.168.1.2  SendWinM wow4>
<Label w5 192.168.1.2  SendWinM wow5>

// DEFINE A MOVEMENT HOTKEY FOR FORMATION

<MovementHotkey R>

    <If ActiveWinIs wow1>
        <SendLabel w2> <Key Left>
        <SendLabel w3> <Key Right>
        <SendLabel w4> <Key Up>
        <SendLabel w5> <Key Down>

    <Else If ActiveWinIs wow2>
        <SendLabel w1> <Key Left>
        <SendLabel w3> <Key Right>
        <SendLabel w4> <Key Up>
        <SendLabel w5> <Key Down>

    <Else If ActiveWinIs wow3>
        <SendLabel w1> <Key Left>
        <SendLabel w2> <Key Right>
        <SendLabel w4> <Key Up>
        <SendLabel w5> <Key Down>

    <Else If ActiveWinIs wow4>
        <SendLabel w1> <Key Left>
        <SendLabel w2> <Key Right>
        <SendLabel w3> <Key Up>
        <SendLabel w5> <Key Down>

    <Else If ActiveWinIs wow5>
        <SendLabel w1> <Key Left>
        <SendLabel w2> <Key Right>
        <SendLabel w3> <Key Up>
        <SendLabel w4> <Key Down>

[Anemo]

Thats one thing I really should have tried. Just wondering with labels if I use IP's for all the labels will it cause any problem? ie wow1 is on 192.168.1.1 can I use that even on 192.168.1.1 and it will send as if it were <SendPC local> ?

I think i tried using labels within commands without any success but that would make things a lot neater too.

Looks like another unproductive day at work

[olipcs]

Hi, thanks for all the help!

I could squeeze a little time yesterday and did my daily-routine, while using HotKeyNet with the FTL-Setup, and still no problems at all

..i also implementet my line formation (like described in the ftl-wiki) with hotkeynet, it worked perfectly and was much more intuitive to setup (because keyclone can not differentiate between ingoing and outgoing hotkeys, and HotKeyNet does it more naturly).

As far as the region-switching, one thing i like to add: I did say, keyclone seemed faster, but only a little (so its not that big of a deal). It feels with keyclone like a second and with HotKeyNet more like 2-3 seconds.
But honestly I think, its more because of the way i'm doing it, and not your fault Freddy! I will try your suggestion about stopping the redraw, resizing, positioning, activating the redraw, this afternoon.

Some other things I like to test, when I'm back at home (cause I'm not using them in my variatioon of the ftl), are:
- using ftl for my casts (@ the moment i only use it for follow and promote target changes of my leader with a seperate keypress, mainly because i want my leader (which is normaly my tank) to be able to target other targets than my dpser are focusing down)
- using it together with the /click - Method
- using modifiers (like shift+2) for the master-keys
- perhaps use the power of mouse-broadcasting for clique healing (alhough this has nothing to do with the ftl)

Did I miss something to test? -Any suggestions?

I think i tried using labels within commands without any success but that would make things a lot neater too.

Funny you mentioned that, because as I set it up yesterday, I tryed exactly the same thing (to shorten the procedure), with the same result, that I could use a phrase like:

<Hotkey 1>
	<If ActiveWinIs WoW1>
    	<SendLabel w1>
    	<Key %trigger%>
    	<SendLabel w2,w3,w4,w5>
    	<Key ctrl shift u>

where the <SendLabel> is embedded in the Hotkey itself, but not a phrase where the <SendLabel> is defined in the <command>, which is called in a hotkey, like the following:

<command assist1>
    	<SendLabel w1>
    	<Key %1%>
    	<SendLabel w2,w3,w4,w5>
    	<Key ctrl shift %2%>

Or is there a possibility to embed a <SendLabel> in an <command>, and i'm doing it wrong?

Another question for the general HotKeyNet-usage (sorry if i'm derailing the thread):
Is there a possibility to save custom variables?
-This would be neat, because for region-swapping it would mean, that i actually only have to resize/position up to 3 region, which are affected by the region-switch and not all 5
-But perhaps this is too much hassle, as i'm not hinking it is implemented at the moment...

[Anemo]

Would you happen to be using windows Vista olipcs? I'm trying to work out if that is causing one of my problems or if it is some other factor.

Clique for healing is fun but does require some UI changes to get party list in same order and placement on all clients or something similar with Grid etc. With my tank setup I ended up recreating a heal tank button as clicking got a bit old but its perfect for emergency healing of other party members (or raid with grid)

Sounds like you have pretty much everything covered. The only thing I've been meaning to play with a bit more is a roundrobin setup using toggles. It should be a lot easier now I realise I can use IP's instead of <local> making it work from any of my PCs (why oh why didnt I try that at first)

A simple roundrobin is pretty straightforward but a FTL one for skills that require /assist might be a bit more of a challenge.

[olipcs]

Would you happen to be using windows Vista olipcs? I'm trying to work out if that is causing one of my problems or if it is some other factor.

Yep, I'm using Vista 64 (I think Business Edition), so if I should test some things for you, name it!

Well, right, about round-robin I haven't thought, mainly because i'm not realy using it (or when i do, i mostly do it with /castsequneces).
But I will put some thoughts in it

[Freddie]

[quote='Anemo',index.php?page=Thread&postID=138467# post138467] Just wondering with labels if I use IP's for all the labels will it cause any problem? ie wow1 is on 192.168.1.1 can I use that even on 192.168.1.1 and it will send as if it were <SendPC local> ?[/quote]
Up until today this was impossible but since you're asking (and other people have asked before) I just added it in build 149 which can be [url='http://hotkeynet.com/p/download.html']downloaded now[/url].

This change may cause a problem with IP addresses in commands. If so, please let me know and I'll fix it. If that happens, you can disable the change immediately by unchecking "Translate local IP address" on the settings panel.

It may also cause a problem on PCs that have more than one IP address (there are such things, and that's why I didn't implement it originally) but if that happens, that same checkbox will fix things.

[olipcs]

All from scratch, and simple hacked together, and untested (cause i should be working ), but can't round-robin be done like this:

What this hopefully should do:
Do a roundrobin with master key '2' and slave-key 'u', on all five wow-instances.

<command SendAssistToSpecificWindow>
	<SendPC Local>
     	<If ActiveWinIs %3%>
           	 <SendWin %3%>
           	<Key %1%>
     	<Else If ActiveWinIs WoW1>
           	<SendWinM %3%>
           	<Key ctrl shift %2%> 
     	<Else If ActiveWinIs WoW2>
          	<SendWinM %3%>
          	<Key ctrl alt %2%> 
     	<Else If ActiveWinIs WoW3>
          	<SendWinM %3%> 
          	<Key alt shift %2%>
    	<Else If ActiveWinIs WoW4>
          	<SendWinM %3%> 
          	<Key ctrl alt shift %2%>
    	<Else If ActiveWinIs WoW5>
         	<SendWinM %3%> 
         	<Key ctrl %2%>

<Hotkey 2>
   <Toggle>
    	 <SendAssistToSpecificWindow %trigger% u WoW1>
   <Toggle>
    	 <SendAssistToSpecificWindow %trigger% u WoW2>
	<Toggle>
   	 <SendAssistToSpecificWindow %trigger% u WoW3>
	<Toggle>
   	 <SendAssistToSpecificWindow %trigger% u WoW4>
	<Toggle>
   	 <SendAssistToSpecificWindow %trigger% u WoW5>

What i think this should do is the following:

The definition of the <Hotkey 2 ..> does the toggeling, and calls in each toggle the command <SendAssistToSpecificWindow> with the following parameters:

1st parameter: The original pressed hotkey ('master-key')
2nd parameter: The key, which should be pished to the windows which are not active ('slave-key')
3rd paramter: The window, which should the Key be send

..in the Toggle, the last parameter is changed, to simulate round-robin.

<SendAssistToSpecificWindow> does the following:

1. checks if the Window which should the keystroke be send, is the Active window, when this is the case, it sends the unmodified key to it.

When condition 1. is not met, it checks the following for all other windows:
- checks which is the active Window (to know, which modifier combination to send)
- After the active Window is found, send the 'slave-key' with the corresponding modifier to identify the active window, to the Window which is specified by the 3rd paramter

...from pure logic this should work, but as nearly in all software projects, the devil is in the details, so if you chave any thoughts on this, your welcome
Some Flaw might be, that I don't know if this is possible: <If ActiveWinIs %3%> ?!

[Anemo]

I've been messing around with this so much over the last 3 days I keep forgetting what did and didn't work. I do seem to recall If and Else statements having issues within a command though.

My issue is that i cant seem to get the mods to broadcast to my vista PC but my two XP computers work fine. I thought it might just be vista issues but since yours is OK i'm lost. The only thing that came to mind while I was at work was that I use ctrl + alt as my mouse4 and 5 buttons using the logitech software, this shouldn't be the cause but who knows.

I've tried running wow and hotkey as admin and turning off UAC.


Thank you so much Freddie for that change, it is going to make my life a lot easier with switching between PC's.

[Freddie]

[quote='olipcs',index.php?page=Thread&postID=138570 #post138570]Hi, thanks for all the help![/quote]
Not a problem! Thanks for the feedback and testing.

[quote='olipcs',index.php?page=Thread&postID=138570 #post138570]I could squeeze a little time yesterday and did my daily-routine, while using HotKeyNet with the FTL-Setup, and still no problems at all [/quote]
I'm truly delighted to hear that.

[quote='olipcs',index.php?page=Thread&postID=138570 #post138570]..i also implementet my line formation (like described in the ftl-wiki) with hotkeynet, it worked perfectly and was much more intuitive to setup (because keyclone can not differentiate between ingoing and outgoing hotkeys, and HotKeyNet does it more naturly). [/quote]
It's interesting that it seems intuitive to you. It seems intuitive to me too (not a surprise, since I designed it). But many people (many!) come to HotkeyNet thinking ingoing and outgoing are the same, and they have trouble understanding the difference. They are thinking, "this program will broadcast (mirror, copy) my actions from one window to another." They are bewildered by the idea of trigger and result, even thought it's exactly the same as the difference between a trigger (on a gun) and a bullet. In the beginning I was astonished by this. Now I'm used to it.

[quote='olipcs',index.php?page=Thread&postID=138570 #post138570]..As far as the region-switching, one thing i like to add: I did say, keyclone seemed faster, but only a little (so its not that big of a deal). It feels with keyclone like a second and with HotKeyNet more like 2-3 seconds. [/quote]
I looked at my sample script again, and I think maybe I wrote it in a silly way. It calls SetForegroundWin twice, which is a very slow thing to do -- it's the same as Alt-Tabbing. I don't know why I did that. I wrote that script quickly as a sample and never looked at it again. If SetForegroundWin is removed it will probably be much faster.

[quote='olipcs',index.php?page=Thread&postID=138570 #post138570]Did I miss something to test? -Any suggestions?[/quote]
That's a really nice offer. Thanks. Since we're almost at the end of a nine-month beta test, I think the existing code is pretty well tested at this point. I'm going to add four more features before the end of the beta, and those will need to be tested.

To save yourself work, here's the list of known bugs and incomplete features. There's no need to test these things since they are already known.

[url='http://www.hotkeynet.com/p/bugs.html']Known Bugs and Incomplete Features[/url]

Or is there a possibility to embed a <SendLabel> in an <command>, and i'm doing it wrong?

Sorry, it's not possible to put SendLabel in a command. Maybe if I get time I'll change this before the end of the beta. By the way this is more complicated than it seems because SendLabel is more than a fast way to write the IP and window in one statement, because you can write multiple arguments like this:

<SendLabel w1, w2, w3, w4>

When HotkeyNet loads that statement, it expands the SendPC block into two unrolled loops like this. (You can see the expansion by pressing "Show loaded hotkeys."):

for each PC in the list of labels
{
    for ( each window in that PC in the label )
   {
        do whatever instructions follow that label, adjusting for the IP and window name
   }
}

I was concerned that the expansion might be more complicated for commands than for hotkeys (because hotkeys always load on the machine where they get triggered, but commands don't), so I postponed trying to implement labels for commands until they were fully debugged in hotkeys.

Is there a possibility to save custom variables? -This would be neat, because for region-swapping it would mean, that i actually only have to resize/position up to 3 region, which are affected by the region-switch and not all 5

No, sorry. I agree that it would be a very nice feature, but at the beginning I made a decision that the program would not have user-defined variables because I wanted to make the program as easy and non-technical as possible for non-programmers. (At that time I hoped that the program would be much simpler than it turned out to be.)

[Freddie]

<command SendAssistToSpecificWindow>
	<SendPC Local>
     	<If ActiveWinIs %3%>...

Unfortunately you can't use If-Else-EndIf in commands. Here's why. Commands can be loaded on a remote PC. In other words, you might press the hotkey on one PC and that PC sends a message to a second PC saying, "execute this command." The first PC knows only the name of the command. The instructions for the command exist only on the remote PC.

"IfActiveWinIs" applies to the active window on the local PC -- the one where you pressed the trigger. When the command executes on the remote PC, it sees the statement "<If ActiveWinIs ...>." In order to evalute that statement, the remote command has to know which window is active on a different PC. How can it know? Either --

(a) It sends a query to the local PC asking for the name of the active window, or

(b) Every single time the local PC sends instructions to a remote PC, it has to include the name of the local window.

The second option gets ruled out because it doesn't work for "IfWinExists". So I would have to implement (a). There were two drawbacks to this:

1. It would be slightly slow (round trip ping times are about 1.5 milliseconds on my network, which I'm guessing is typical).

2. It would take me probably a day's work to implement it and maybe more to debug, and by the time I implemented If-Else-EndIf I had decided to limit my time on the program because I want to get it finished and move on to the next one.

Another option -- this is occuring to me now for the first time -- is make If-Else-Endif apply to whichever PC the definition was loaded on instead of the PC where you press the trigger. This would make the implementation easier for me, but it might be confusing for users.