Understanding transferStackInSlot method

[TheEpicTekkit]

Hello.

 

I would like help understanding the unnecessarily complicated and undocumented method:

transferStackInSlot(EntityPlayer player, int slotIndex)

I have looked around for tutorials on how to use this method, and only found things like a custom furnace, which has pretty much the exact same code as the vanilla furnace, and a badly explained transferStackInSlot method. I have also looked at the code of some mods such as EnderIO on Github and just found more confusion.

 

I think that the best documentation on transferStackInSlot that I have found is this.

 

What I would like is for someone to explain this method and how to implement it. I want to actually understand the code, and not have a tutorial that tells me what to write with no explanation, like a lot of tutorials do. I understand that the EntityPlayer parameter is the player using the inventory (obviously), the slotIndex is the slot that was shift-clicked, and the methods goal is to handle shift-clicking of slots, but I don't understand things like the mergeItemStack method, what the ItemStack that transferStackInSlot returns represents, or how to implement this method.

 

Furthermore, if I can understand this method properly, I would like to be able to implement a generic version of this method that automatically works for all containers. EnderIO seems to have it setup this way. But currently, I am trying to implement this for a machine with one input slot, 3 output slots, and a battery slot.

 

Thanks.

[TheEpicTekkit]

bump

[TheEpicTekkit]

Thanks for this. I haven't had much time to read through this method, but it looks pretty nice. Though I am looking for an explanation of how the transferStackInSlot method works and how it is used. I don't want to just have code to copy and paste, because I wont learn anything from that.

[Ernio]

Not to sound rude (seriously) but there is nothing that's gonna explain (this particular) method better than reading it and its callbacks. You'd be better off just analysing it. My guess is that anyone who'd attempt to "explain" it, when diesieben alredy gave you self-explainatory code would end up with something like this (which won't really help):

/** Moves Element e to Collection C. */
public void moveElementToCollection(Element e, Collection C)
{ ... }

 

Unless you are asking about Containers, Inventories and Slots themselves, then that would be a totally different answer or should I say - essay (there is a lot to talk about).

 

But, since it's support, where lies the problem?