Stormfront XML

[Celephais]

Anybody here done any work generating stormfront XML? I'm looking for a tag that would allow me to do dynamic, specific color formatting of outpu.

I don't want to do a sendsettings and make a custom highlight string (because I can't do what I want with that anyway and it's ridiculous how verbose that tag is)

Specifically I'm looking for something like the <a> tag except be able to pass a color parameter. That way I would do something like:
<a exist='3236675' noun='wand' color='#444466'>silver wand</a> and then I would consistently display item 3236675 as that color (allowing me to mark mundane items visually and distinctly)

[Celephais]

Oh, yes I do know about making two highlight strings, and then tagging on something like ~Highlight Red to the end of the output. With a "Highlight entire paragraph red" and then a "Highlight just that word as black", but that won't let me do what I want and I'm looking for an elegant solution if possible.

[Shaelun]

The more I ponder this, the more confused I get... I&#039;m aware (or rather believe) that StormFront receives XML formatted output from the game, but don&#039;t use it, and -- to be blunt... what the Hell are you talking about? The only situation I can conceive of where you&#039;d need to know this or even be able to make use of it is if you were generating the XML from the game yourself.

Just trying to learn, not make a personal attack, and what you&#039;ve asked has me thoroughly boggled.

... I don&#039;t suppose something like standard &lt;color = &quot;red&quot;&gt;wand&lt;/color&gt; would do it?

[Celephais]

Well first off &lt;Color = &quot;Red&quot;&gt;wand&lt;/color isn&#039;t proper XML, you need a tag, and then a property... so maybe &lt;color value=&quot;red&quot;&gt;wand&lt;/color&gt; would work... I&#039;ll test it after I post and tell you..

I am parsing the xml from the game and altering it before sending it to the stormfront client, and vise versa. You know how in stormfront you have links for each item in your inventory so you can do that click menu stuff, well in order for that to work each object has a unique ID that the server maintains. So when I click on that wand it doesn&#039;t have to figure out if it&#039;s the fifth or sixth wand, it just sends a command with the identifier &quot;3236675&quot;.

So what I can do is interrupt the tag that builds that click menu, and add my own menu item (Mark &lt;color&gt;), then I intercept the client trying to send that command to the server and save that &quot;3236675&quot; is now red. Then the next time the server tells the client something about that item, I incercept it and highlight it red. This way, at a glance, I can tell if wands are fresh, if they&#039;re dulplicated, what spells I imbed.

I can also use this unique identifier to track other details, once I weigh a box, I save the identifier with the weight, and then every time I display the box I have the client display &quot;engraved iron trunk (28lb)&quot;

Edit-disable smileys

[Edited on 8-14-2005 by Celephais]

[Celephais]

&lt;Color Value=&quot;Red&quot;&gt;
&lt;Font Color=&quot;Red&quot;&gt;
&lt;A Color=&quot;Red&quot;&gt;
Don&#039;t work.

Also Tested with color, fgcolor, bgcolor properties. Web name, hexidecimal, palette number (@6 is red) colors. &lt;b&gt; and &lt;pushBold/&gt;Stuff&lt;popBold/&gt; only accomplishes default MonsterBold colors (tried the color properties there as well).

I&#039;m not sure it&#039;s 100% possible, has anyone ever seen text appear a different color (other than MonsterBold yellow or Link blue) that wasn&#039;t set to a highlight string? (Like a GM doing something in colors)

Might still be possible even if the GMs can&#039;t do it, i&#039;m not giving up.

[Artha]

Yeah, it happens. [SEND]s for one.

[Celephais]

Hmmm... now what can I do in game while i&#039;ve got my xml logging on to get me colorful sends...

What FE were you using? Wizard or Stormfront? And was it a whole line a single color or multiple colors or single word? (Sorry for the 20 questions)