TOAD, or Task Oriented Addon Director, is an addon manager that builds on top of ACP (Addon Control Panel) to provide easy, prompted, switching between task based addon sets by detecting where you are and what you are doing. This allows you to reduce the number of addons you have loaded at any one time, which decreases memory consumption and improves performance. TOAD also provides a capability to disable all but a minimal set of addons when you log out or disconnect to significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to get back in to the game world.
After you log in and as you move between zones and instances, the TOAD will try and detect what you are doing and suggest an addon set to be loaded based on the task you are performing. Currently supported tasks include PvE tasks such as questing, instancing (ie. 5-man dungeons) and raiding, profession related tasks such as crafting and gathering, PvP tasks such as fighting in battlegrounds and arenas (as well as the game world), and standalone tasks for dealing with banking alts and auction house mules.
At logout (or disconnect) time, TOAD can disable all but your configured set of minimal addons so that when you login to the game world, load times are drastically reduced. Ever DC in the middle of a boss encounter and have trouble getting back in? TOAD will give you the best chance to return to the battle ASAP! Additionally, define an Emergency Combat set and should TOAD detect that you have reentered the game world in combat, TOAD will make it quick and easy to get back on your feet and get back to the battle! Click the accept button and the addon set will be loaded - and then you can sort out all those somewhat less essential addons straight after you've looted. ^^
TOAD requires you to set up addon sets in ACP, but uses the addon sets in an additive fashion. For example, you could set up an ACP addon set containing all the addons you always use for PvE and further sets containing additional addons that you only use during questing (QuestHelper for example? :)) or raiding (hello BigWigs and oRA2). Then, when you find a brand new addon you want to use everywhere, just add it to one of the base sets and it will be available for all the related tasks (eg. Raiding -> PvE -> PvX -> Base -> Minimum -> System, while Battleground -> PvP -> PvX -> Base -> Minimum -> System).
TOAD is integrated with LDB in order to display the currently selected task and allow quick access to the task switching panel and has full command line support making it simple to write macros to perform task changes yourself.
1.0.0-beta-3 changes
- While performing a reload UI on task switch set the DND message rather than AFK message everywhere - not just in battlegrounds. It's more reliable to clear the DND status - AFAICT, AFK has some kind of protection on it to prevent addons removing the flag without a UI interaction (makes sense!). Also, make sure we don't trample over any existing DND status - just leave it intact.
1.0.0-beta-2 changes
Meneh improvements!
- corpse runs no longer cause a task switch prompt
- renamed "static task" to "sticky task"
- added "manual task switching" option
- added duplicate and unused addon list command (/toad list dups, /toad list unused) so you can see what's, well,
duplicated or unused across your ACP addon sets
- added "Minimum" as an activity, to make it easy to switch to the minimum addons setting
- added "combat failsafe" option which activates the Emergency Combat set if you disconnect while in combat (not fully
tested)
- removed panic worldframe clicker - can't do that in combat.
- renamed "idling" to "idle" for consistency with other verb tenses
- Emergency Combat set now depends on Minimum UI base set, not Base UI set - put whatever bits of the Base UI you need for
emergency combat into the Emergency Combat set
- added a "Detect now" button to the GUI options and "/toad detect" to the command line options
- LDB data object toggles options screen with LeftButton and causes a task detect with RightButton
- Added tooltip to LDB data object to explain the different clicks
- Default the guild announcement spam to off - raid and party spam remains on by default
- Deal better with current task vs. detected task and sticky task
- Correctly deal with disabling/re-enabling current addons when zoning (ie. leaves, enters when not reloading)
- various code tidying
- trigger detect task when leaving a raid group (not fully tested) and not before (aka the Naxx corpse run fix)
- trigger detect task when unghosting
- nicer default chat frame feedback as to what Toad is detecting
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r8 | zaqzon | 2009-07-10 21:51:12 +0000 (Fri, 10 Jul 2009) | 1 line
Changed paths:
M /trunk/core.lua
Always set and clear the DND message either side of a reload unless DND is already set (don't use AFK, it has protection to prevent it from being automatically cleared without a UI action)
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r6 | zaqzon | 2009-07-10 17:32:02 +0000 (Fri, 10 Jul 2009) | 25 lines
Changed paths:
M /trunk/core.lua
Meneh improvements!
* corpse runs no longer cause a task switch prompt
* renamed "static task" to "sticky task"
* added "manual task switching" option
* added duplicate and unused addon list command (/toad list dups, /toad list unused) so you can see what's, well,
duplicated or unused across your ACP addon sets
* added "Minimum" as an activity, to make it easy to switch to the minimum addons setting
* added "combat failsafe" option which activates the Emergency Combat set if you disconnect while in combat (not fully
tested)
* removed panic worldframe clicker - can't do that in combat.
* renamed "idling" to "idle" for consistency with other verb tenses
* Emergency Combat set now depends on Minimum UI base set, not Base UI set - put whatever bits of the Base UI you need for
emergency combat into the Emergency Combat set
* added a "Detect now" button to the GUI options and "/toad detect" to the command line options
* LDB data object toggles options screen with LeftButton and causes a task detect with RightButton
* Added tooltip to LDB data object to explain the different clicks
* Default the guild announcement spam to off - raid and party spam remains on by default
* Deal better with current task vs. detected task and sticky task
* Correctly deal with disabling/re-enabling current addons when zoning (ie. leaves, enters when not reloading)
* various code tidying
* trigger detect task when leaving a raid group (not fully tested) and not before (aka the Naxx corpse run fix)
* trigger detect task when unghosting
* nicer default chat frame feedback as to what Toad is detecting
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r4 | zaqzon | 2009-07-07 22:35:28 +0000 (Tue, 07 Jul 2009) | 2 lines
Changed paths:
M /trunk/core.lua
* Fix some unintended spam whenever PLAYER_ENTERED_WORLD fires
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r2 | zaqzon | 2009-07-07 21:00:51 +0000 (Tue, 07 Jul 2009) | 2 lines
Changed paths:
A /trunk/.pkgmeta
A /trunk/Toad.toc
A /trunk/core.lua
A /trunk/embeds.xml
* Initial commit of the TOAD
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r1 | root | 2009-07-07 20:39:40 +0000 (Tue, 07 Jul 2009) | 1 line
Changed paths:
A /branches
A /tags
A /trunk
"toad/mainline: Initial Import"
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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)...
