Question: Plugin Communication (via Chat?) - Is it possible?

[Eruadarion]

Hey guys!

I am completely new to this whole LUA/Plugin-thing and tried to make a plugin that analyses your own DPS/HPS/TPS and the DPS/HPS/TPS of your fellowship members.
The idea is to visualise and compare the DPS of your whole fellowship/raid. See this WoW video for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFm2R42hb5o
In the video you can see the DPS of the whole raid visualised on the right side of the screen. That's exactely what I want to create for LotRO.

Some thoughts:
- I could not find a possibility to get DPS-data from your fellowship members.
- My own DPS-data can be calculated analysing the combat-chatlog (like CombatAnalysis does it).
- If I want to show my fellowship members my DPS I have to send the data via chat.

Now, this is my approach:
- Everyone in the fellowship must have the plugin installed.
- Calculate my DPS from the combat-chatlog and let my plugin send the data to a specified chat channel (e.g. a special user-channel created for the plugin)
- My fellowship members' DPS is sent to this channel as well (e.g. in a frequency of 1 time/second).
- The plugin analyses the messages in the chat channel and visualises the DPS from your whole fellowship.

PROBLEM:
- AFAIK the only possibility to send data via a plugin to chat is via a "hidden" shortcut-button.
- AFAIK the only possibility to activate this button is via a mouse click.

Is this correct so far?

Well, of course I don't want to click every second on a button to send my data but I want it to happen automatically.



Any ideas how this can be realised?

Thank you in advance!

[Garan]

You are correct, there is no way to automate Lua communication between clients.

[Eruadarion]

You are correct, there is no way to automate Lua communication between clients.

This very sad...

Well, if there is no way to automate Lua communication between clients, maybe there is another possibility:
Can we maybe activate this hidden shortcut-button via something else than a mouse-click? e.g via keyboard?

If yes:
Buttons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0 should activate the shortcut while still doing the other things they should do (e.g. activate skills).
In this case, everytime a skill is activated via a keyboard button 1, 2, 3,...0, your DPS is sent to the chat and can be updated for your team mebers' plugin.

Could this be a first approach?

[Garan]

Well, if there is no way to automate Lua communication between clients, maybe there is another possibility:
Can we maybe activate this hidden shortcut-button via something else than a mouse-click? e.g via keyboard?

If yes:
Buttons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0 should activate the shortcut while still doing the other things they should do (e.g. activate skills).
In this case, everytime a skill is activated via a keyboard button 1, 2, 3,...0, your DPS is sent to the chat and can be updated for your team mebers' plugin.

Could this be a first approach?

Sorry, nope. Since there is no way to programmatically send text to chat, the only way is via a Lua quickslot. Unlike the built-in quickslots which can be bound to keys, Lua quickslots can only be activated via mouse.

FWIW, the Cards ver 2.0 plugin (never published) was designed with a fairly sophisticated chat mechanism to allow multiple players - up to 6 - to play card games with the client synchronization all controlled by chat messages. Unfortunately, it would have been far too easy for dealers to cheat so I abandoned the project.