[1.8] Item (and maybe Block) name and getName

[jeffryfisher]

One tutorial (Wuppy Upgrading from 1.7 to 1. says that mc 1.8 items and blocks need to contain a static final variable called "name" and a public method called "getName". It doesn't say why, and it doesn't point to the part of Forge that needs these things (and reflection is really tricky to trace), so I'm somewhat unclear on what's really necessary. I've looked in the Forge docs, but I can't find answers to these questions. If someone knows (or could point me to the Forge class that uses name / getName() on items and/or blocks), I'd appreciate it.

 

I'm trying to generalize some abstract classes for a whole series of mods, so I'd like to know what constraints I face. In particular:

 

Is it enough to provide a getName method, or is the data member "name" also referenced via reflection?

 

If so, does the class member need to be called exactly "name", all lowercase?

 

Does "name" absolutely need to be final and/or static? I especially want to remove the "static" qualifier so my constructor can assign a value.

 

How early does name need to get its value? Can I set it during construction?

 

Do both items and blocks need these, or just one not the other?

 

What are the consequences / symptoms of doing this wrong or not at all? I left out name and getName() from some of my ItemBlock classes, but I don't see any error messages. I tried setting a breakpoint on the getName() method and then debugging. I was able to load a world, place my blocks and save the world all without triggering on a call. Maybe reflection doesn't trigger breakpoints.

 

Where does Forge call getName() or use name? If I could walk the source, I might answer my own questions.  Maybe the name member and getName method are merely Wuppy's modding style needed to fit with his own private framework. If so, then I'd like to know so I can discard these apparently unused elements (and constraints).

 

[Choonster]

This is just Wuppy's style, it's not required (or used at all) by Forge. He just uses it to store the name passed to

GameRegistry.registerBlock

.