MessageBoard
It's a guild-wide message-board. That means it is a forum, like you know from web-based discussion-sites. The difference is that this is a 100% in-game WoW addon. It does not need a web-server, or a server-character that is always logged in, or external software, or anything special.
It is no secret that it's often difficult to get guildies to log in to the web-site to check messages. It's usually only the "hardcore" people that
bother on a regular basis. This addon will help you. It requires no technical skills at all, beyond the ability to use a simple forum. Just install and play.
Changelog
Changes from v0.55 RC1
[added] Custom layouts/skinning (see the file "layout.txt")
Requirements
You need to:
- install the addon
- be a member of a guild
(easy, eh?)
Usage
- To open MessageBoard, press the minimap icon.
- Hover the mouse over the minimap icon for positioning-help.
Features
- Custom layouts/skinning (see the file "layout.txt")
- Supports announcements, sticky topics and normal topics.
- Users can set an avatar.
- Administrators can be assigned by officer's note.
- The text-editor supports inserting item-links by dropping an item at the cursor.
- The database size is regulated by automatic pruning, by means of message-count.
Please note
It is easy to forget that you are not using a regular forum, but it's all within the limits of the WoW game. This means that when you log in, you must allow MessageBoard 2 to 3 minutes to update data. The time will vary dependent on several factors. But the more messages, the slower it updates. To not bore you with technicalities, suffice to say that it is because you are not using a real web-server and slow systems must get a chance too. The addons talk to eachother, so the more people in the guild that have the addon, the better.
Administrators
An admin is needed to set MessageBoard options, like message-limit for database pruning (auto-removal of old posts) and to set the main-page Administrator Message. The admin can also edit and delete any post. An admin is assigned by typing "#MB:A" (without quotes) in the officer's note in the WoW guild-roster. He or she will also need access to read the officer's note (in the WoW guild-roster rank settings) for the addon to be able to read it. Write-permission is not needed.
Changes from v0.55
[added] User-created layout/skinning
Changes from v0.53 beta
[fixed] Bug that allowed empty topic-names
[changed] Order of topics to sort by newest post
[added] Message author can edit and delete own messages
[added] some brief help
[added] Localization
[changed] Code clean-up
Changes from v0.51 beta
[added] minimap indication of unread messages
[fixed] Empty topics are now properly removed
[fixed] Better handling of some modified UIs that disrupted data-updates
[fixed] Occational long update-time when logging in
[fixed] (rare) update-bug at sending new message
Installation Guide
- Exit "World of Warcraft" completely
- Download the mod you want to install
- Make a folder on your desktop called "My Mods"
- Save the .zip/.rar files to this folder.
- If, when you try to download the file, it automatically "opens" it... you need to RIGHT click on the link and "save as..." or "Save Target As".
- Extract the file - commonly known as 'unzipping'
Do this ONE FILE AT A TIME!
- Windows
- Windows XP has a built in ZIP extractor. Double click on the file to open it, inside should be the file or folders needed. Copy these outside to the "My Mods" folder.
- WinRAR: Right click the file, select "Extract Here"
- WinZip: You MUST make sure the option to "Use Folder Names" is CHECKED or it will just extract the files and not make the proper folders how the Authors designed
- Mac Users
- StuffitExpander: Double click the archive to extract it to a folder in the current directory.
- Verify your WoW Installation Path
That is where you are running WoW from and THAT is where you need to install your mods.
- Move to the Addon folder
- Open your World of Warcraft folder. (default is C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\)
- Go into the "Interface" folder.
- Go into the "AddOns" folder.
- In a new window, open the "My Mods" folder.
- The "My Mods" folder should have the "Addonname" folder in it.
- Move the "Addonname" folder into the "AddOns" folder
- Start World of Warcraft
- Make sure AddOns are installed
- Log in
- At the Character Select screen, look in lower left corner for the "addons" button.
- If button is there: make sure all the mods you installed are listed and make sure "load out of date addons" is checked.
- If the button is NOT there: means you did not install the addons properly. Look at the above screenshots. Try repeating the steps or getting someone who knows more about computers than you do to help.
Translations
When you download a mod, please be sure that the mod is compatible with your translation of wow. Some mods only work on the US versions, while some only work on some of the various European versions. These variations are called "Localizations".
TOC Numbers (Out of Date Mods)
When Blizzard patches WoW, they change the Interface number. This means that all mods will be "out of date" unless or until the author releases a new version for that interface. Some people go into the .toc files and update the numbers themselves, but this is STRONGLY advised against as it will cause problems locating possible incompatibilities addons. When you log into WoW after a patch, you DO NOT have to delete your interface directory. All you have to do is simply tell WoW to ignore the interface numbers and load all the mods anyway. All you have to do is, while at the "character select" screen, look in the lower left corner and click on the "addons" button. A window will pop up listing all your installed mods.
If you look in the upper left corner of that window there should be a box that says "Load Out of Date AddOns". You want to CHECK this box. Now simply go into WoW normally and all your mods should load. As of the 1.9 patch, you will have to do this after EVERY patch/update that Blizzard posts! If you encounter any problems with a mod after a patch, please be sure to let the author of the mod know so they can fix it.
See also: About "Out Of Date AddOns"
Mac Support
WoW addons are not platformed based. As such, they can be used on either Mac or PC. You can extract both .zip and .rar files on a Mac using StuffitExpander.
Directory Structure
World of Warcraft
|_ Interface
|_AddOns
|_*AddonName*
|_ *AddonName*.toc
|_ *AddonName*.xml
|_ *AddonName*.lua
|_ (possibly others as well)...
