[1.7.2]creating an api

[dark2222]

hi everyone

this may be a newbie question

i'm working on a vampire mod where you can be different kind of vampires (3 for now) and my friends keep saying other kind of vampires that they would see so i though that if i could make an API.

but i have no clue on how to do that. I have searched for maybe 4 weeks now and cannot find any tut's or srcs

[Kwibble]

API's are actually quite confusing. But only in the misconception people seem to have about them. What I would do, is make an interface that is called say, IVampire. This interface contains all the methods needed for a vampire in your mod. Then, for every vampire that gets added in, make it implement your IVampire interface. After this, create a method for registering a vampire. Then you just keep track of all the registered vampires etc..                                                                                                                                             

[dark2222]

API's are actually quite confusing. But only in the misconception people seem to have about them. What I would do, is make an interface that is called say, IVampire. This interface contains all the methods needed for a vampire in your mod. Then, for every vampire that gets added in, make it implement your IVampire interface. After this, create a method for registering a vampire. Then you just keep track of all the registered vampires etc..                                                                                                                                           

i tried that and i got 2 problems that i run into

1. i have no clue how the register function should work

2. i can't seem to find a way to get the information from the implementing class

ex class a is my interface, b is my other file

if i make b implement a and i got method string in my interface and make that string return "test"; in file b i can't get what the string is without breaking something

[Kwibble]

For the registery, you would have a public static method, maybe something like:

public static void registerVampire(IVampire vamipre)
{
    vampiresList.add(vampire);
}

 

That list would then contain every single vampire registered. (list has to be created elsewhere)

 

For retrieving the text from that method, you could go:

IVampire vampire = new SomeClassThatImplementsIVampire();
String string = vampire.string(); // gets the string from the class.

[dark2222]

For retrieving the text from that method, you could go:

IVampire vampire = new SomeClassThatImplementsIVampire();
String string = vampire.string(); // gets the string from the class.

 

is it possible to get the class from the list the the registry made?

i will not now all the classes that implements the interface.

[Kwibble]

That's why the are in the list. I would suggest googling tutorials on lists in Java - very helpful in this situation. Lists have add(Object object) and get(index) methods. So if after all the vampires have been registered, to access all of them you would go:

for (int i = 0; i < vampiresList.size(); i++)
{
    IVampire vampire = vampiresList.get(i);
    // do stuff here
}

[dark2222]

That's why the are in the list. I would suggest googling tutorials on lists in Java - very helpful in this situation. Lists have add(Object object) and get(index) methods. So if after all the vampires have been registered, to access all of them you would go:

for (int i = 0; i < vampiresList.size(); i++)
{
    IVampire vampire = vampiresList.get(i);
    // do stuff here
}

nice thanks for help

[Kwibble]

Don't forget the thank you and applauds

 

And your welcome. The whole API concept threw me on a bum steer when I first started too.

[dark2222]

Don't forget the thank you and applauds

 

And your welcome. The whole API concept threw me on a bum steer when I first started too.

i'm trying to do this outside minecraft right now so i can get a understanding of that but how do you register the class?

it keep saying [class] cannot be resolved to a variable

[jabelar]

Another thing with API is you need to make sure it works in the deployed situation and not just in the development environment (like Eclipse).

 

There are pretty much 3 parts to API development:

1) Decide on what methods you want to expose as an API.  If you expose an interface then you have to make sure you have a way of letting your mod know that it has been used, either by a registry, or by checking all instances in the game for instanceof your interface.  You can also expose actual public methods so that people can directly control the code in your mod.  In other words, the API can be used to extend and/or control your mod.

2) Set up your Eclipse development environment so the two projects work together.  I always get a bit confused about whether it should be a reference project or a linked source, but in any case the build path has to be set up correctly.

3) Set up your build (i.e. build.gradle) so that the interface methods aren't obfuscated -- assuming you want people to be able to access the API without having to build with it.

 

Anyway, it is kinda obvious but I find each of the steps can be a bit confusing and I have to usually work through them.

 

Not sure if that helps...

[dark2222]

Another thing with API is you need to make sure it works in the deployed situation and not just in the development environment (like Eclipse).

 

There are pretty much 3 parts to API development:

1) Decide on what methods you want to expose as an API.  If you expose an interface then you have to make sure you have a way of letting your mod know that it has been used, either by a registry, or by checking all instances in the game for instanceof your interface.  You can also expose actual public methods so that people can directly control the code in your mod.  In other words, the API can be used to extend and/or control your mod.

2) Set up your Eclipse development environment so the two projects work together.  I always get a bit confused about whether it should be a reference project or a linked source, but in any case the build path has to be set up correctly.

3) Set up your build (i.e. build.gradle) so that the interface methods aren't obfuscated -- assuming you want people to be able to access the API without having to build with it.

 

Anyway, it is kinda obvious but I find each of the steps can be a bit confusing and I have to usually work through them.

 

Not sure if that helps...

1) i'm trying to make a interface where you need to register it because i can't make methods in a IExtendedEntityProperties  public

2) i use IDEA

[jabelar]

i'm trying to make a interface where you need to register it because i can't make methods in a IExtendedEntityProperties  public

 

Not sure what you mean by this.  I think all Java interfaces are public by definition.  The extended properties loadNBTData() and saveNBTData() classes are public.

 

The vampire class is your own custom entity class, right?  In that case, even if you had private information in that class you can create public "getter" and "setter" methods for any information that is available in the class.

[dark2222]

i'm trying to make a interface where you need to register it because i can't make methods in a IExtendedEntityProperties  public

 

Not sure what you mean by this.  I think all Java interfaces are public by definition.  The extended properties loadNBTData() and saveNBTData() classes are public.

 

The vampire class is your own custom entity class, right?  In that case, even if you had private information in that class you can create public "getter" and "setter" methods for any information that is available in the class.

yea sorry where tired when wrote that but what i mean where a person would need to register the vampire with a public static void method

 

yes the vampire class is my own class that extends IExtendedEntityProperties and all my methods i use the the vampire is in there and before any other class can use it i need to define what player it is with

BloodMain props = BloodMain.get(player);

when i do that all methods in my vampire class become available for that class

if you now a way around this feel free to tell me and i got a github so that you can look at the code (it will change al ot when i get the interface implemented)

https://github.com/henrikse55/Vampiric-Craft