Classic CensusPlus

[bringoutyourdead]

Interesting... it does not show up on my client..
but it does show up in the client log files.

It is a non-critical error as far as running the code.. just an annoyance.. it will get cleaned up for Beta 5.

Oh by the way.. Beta 4 is up at curseforge it clears up the Census who internal sub-commands .. something most people never use.

[bringoutyourdead]

Oh and Beta 5 will also fix the prune issue
and remove serverprune, since that makes no sense for Classic

[TheDeamon]

Oh by the way.. Beta 4 is up at curseforge it clears up the Census who internal sub-commands .. something most people never use.

I used them, I guess I won't be bug reporting them for not working. Well, at least the ones you removed.

[FuxieDK]

I'm seeing a weird glitch in the level range of 45-50 (I'm level 50, in case that's related) where I'm not getting results back during a census sweep using the current beta version.

I turned on verbose mode and ran it again and sure enough:

Code: Select all

[11:14:19] Census+ Who query:  51-55, found 45
[11:14:19] Census+ Processing 45 characters.
[11:14:19] Census+ Sending /who  36-45
[11:14:26] Census+ Who query:  36-45, found 49
[11:14:26] Census+ Processing 49 characters.
[11:14:26] Census+ Sending /who  41-45
[11:14:32] Census+ Who query:  41-45, found 49
[11:14:32] Census+ Processing 49 characters.
[11:14:32] Census+ Sending /who  44-45
[11:14:39] Census+ Who query:  44-45, found 49
[11:14:39] Census+ Processing 49 characters.
[11:14:39] Census+ Sending /who  45-45
[11:14:45] Census+ Who query:  45-45, found 26
[11:14:45] Census+ Processing 26 characters.
[11:14:45] Census+ Sending /who  44-44

That's a bug that have been carried over from "retail" version..

I've seen it (very infrequent) since atleast WoD but I can never replicate it.

[Kanegasi]

Oh by the way.. Beta 4 is up at curseforge it clears up the Census who internal sub-commands .. something most people never use.

I actually used that function, very likely for the first time, to see if a character name was used that I was thinking of using but too lazy to logout and actually try creating. I didn't report the error, sorry, but thank you for fixing it.

[bringoutyourdead]

Beta5 is up at curseforge
it fixes all reported issues, and reworks the queue initialization to allow users to modify minimum level tracking...
though they must do their own work to handle the display of that data.

I have tested minimum character level from 1 up to 56.. at random intervals and had no issues with any queue initialization or processing.
But the display is interesting.. ok Odd.. for everything except level 5 as minimum censused.

[killmore]

Beta5 is up at curseforge
it fixes all reported issues, and reworks the queue initialization to allow users to modify minimum level tracking...
though they must do their own work to handle the display of that data.

I have tested minimum character level from 1 up to 56.. at random intervals and had no issues with any queue initialization or processing.
But the display is interesting.. ok Odd.. for everything except level 5 as minimum censused.

so far so good on my side! no error and i've been scanning all day on my server

[killmore]

when do you plan on opening the lua upload for wow classic realms ?

[bringoutyourdead]

Unfortunately I have no control over that.
It is up to the site owner.

And yes I have been letting him know that we the community are chomping at the bit.. so when?

I personally am going to start stocking result files... so that I can upload them when the site goes live.

If you want to do that, just do the following..

In the directory where the data is kept.. when you are not logged into a realm.

rename ClassicCensusPlus.lua to ClassicCensusPlus.lua.monthday
eg. ClassicCensusPlus.lua.0917

on logging back in to a realm, either log out and log back in to reinitialize the data file.. or use the WoW slash command /reload ui
which will do the same thing.

TIP/TRICK of the day!
When you rename your first data file, delete the .BAK version also.
After doing the /reload ui command, right click on the Census button and go into options change them to what you want for default and save
log out of the realm.
You will find that the WoW client has re-created the .BAK version with your modified options setting.
If the .BAK version exists in your data folder the WoW client will copy it to the active data file version, and you won't have to do double login/logout shuffle to reinitialize the file any more.
(If you don't do this then your data file will start at whatever last backed up version that Blizzard created... which will probably include data you don't need to be keeping.)


And then when the site does go live for classic data..
move the renamed files to a new or empty directory on your computer,
start with the earliest data and rename that file back to ClassicCensusPlus.lua,
upload the file, confirm the site shows your upload is pending processing, delete your local file
wait a few minutes and repeat the cycle until all the files are uploaded.

You probably should start slowly.. and only do a file or two so that you can verify that not only is the file uploaded, but the site did actually process the data.
On live data this happens once every 20 minutes. (if I remember correctly)

How big should you have your data file grow to?
Well that is up to you.
As you have probably noticed by now, if you like to have the in game display window open.
The larger the character count, the longer it takes to run the calculations and populate the window.
If it starts to be an issue with your game play style, it is probably time to save out and restart your data collection.

For upload purposes, if you use the direct web post upload, then the maximum file size should be no more then about 8MB in size.

If you use the third party UniUploader (see other forum posts in regards to this.) then the file can easily be allowed to grow to 20MB in site.

[Poisonenvy]

If this is true, will it cause problems for our census?

https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t ... lizz/87650

Today morning 31MB small update for the client bocked CensusPlusClassic addon.
It looks like they protected the /who function if yo use it too much and it requires player input now.
They want us to stay on the unbalanced realm

[bringoutyourdead]

We have never had an issue with this but...
that could be because I do throttle our /who requests..
it is possible the other addon didn't keep the throttling in place.

All we can do is try it.. if it works it works.. if not.. well we will have to see.

[bringoutyourdead]

Sigh.. Yes we are blocked.

[Poisonenvy]

yup .. I got the error when logging in today:

2x [ADDON_ACTION_BLOCKED] AddOn 'ClassicCensusPlus' tried to call the protected function 'SendWho()'.
!BugGrabber\BugGrabber.lua:519: in function <BugGrabber>
[C]: in function `SendWho'
...Ons\ClassicCensusPlus\libs\LibWho-2.0\LibWho-2.0-99999.lua:480: in function `AskWhoNext'
...Ons\ClassicCensusPlus\libs\LibWho-2.0\LibWho-2.0-99999.lua:499: in function `AskWho'
...Ons\ClassicCensusPlus\libs\LibWho-2.0\LibWho-2.0-99999.lua:164: in function `Who'
...rfaceClassicCensusPlus\ClassicCensusPlus-1.0.lua:4665: in function `CensusPlus_SendWho'
...rfaceClassicCensusPlus\ClassicCensusPlus-1.0.lua in function <rfaceClassicCensusPlus>

[Poisonenvy]

If I disable the addon, I can still do a /who ... but I do have to disable the addon. There are a few people who replied to that forum post that use the "other" addon who reported the same problem with that one.

[Balgair]

Well that sucks Agree with the suggestion in the announcement post that it's probably aimed at LFG type addons, as I don't see a reason for Blizz to be aiming to block us, given they've been fine with us for 14+ years on live, but what a pity! I guess that's it then, unless they release that function again.

[bringoutyourdead]

or allow a different work around that the LFG can't won't use.

[Poisonenvy]

Someone put a reply on .. I don't know what this means, but it does appear to work and be census-ey?:

Also I think that they just changed API and addon can adapt. I tried `/run C_FriendList.SendWho("58-58")` and it worked.

[bringoutyourdead]

There are three different ways to interact with the WoW client code.
Manual interaction. i.e. Pressing keys, or click a mouse button, etc.
Script/macro where you manually start the process (typically a key click) and then run a very short code segment which will respond via standard game interface. eg for the snippet give, by popping up the FriendList window for display.
The final way is full program interaction which does not require any user interactions at all. (Other then logging into a realm.)

Blizzard can and does treat the three different starting points as unique points, so they can block the last without impacting the first two interactions

I will be attempting to see if I can combine the last two processes by accessing standard game play actions to trigger who requests.
If this works then we can get census data as long as we are actively playing. but not just sitting idle in game.
However if it does work, I will need to track around any combat events, as that is an explicit block for SendWho at this time.
At least from my scanning the client debug reporting.

The bad news for this is, real life has intervened here for me. Due to some personal situations, I have only been able to get two hours of sleep in the last forty eight hours.
I am exhausted.. but to be able to get though my work shift.. I am somewhat wired.. and will hit the end of the caffeine buzz and crash to sleep, soon I expect.

The other news is that wholib which was added to cooperate with other addons seems to have become valueless as I can no longer (even before the SendWho block) find any other addon that is using wholib anymore.

So if the other testing leads to useful results, I will almost certainly be stripping out wholib from the addon.

[Kanegasi]

WoW Instant Messenger (WIM) was using wholib up to this block point. They had an option that would show information of the player you were going to whisper. They were quick with removing anything to do with wholib.

[bringoutyourdead]

Well this sort of did and didn't work..
to get the SendWho or as it is now known C_FriendList.SendWho() to work you need to evoke it via a hardware event and not from a programming event.
Slash command for addon programs are considered a hardware event.

adding a slash command to the CensusPlus command list /census go
and evoking that will trigger the SendWho (one time only)
creating a macro that types the slash command for you works.
modifying ClassicCensusPlus to work through the queue list one at a time every time the slash command is evoked.. is a lot of work but doable.

What I really want to do is have any key stroke or any mouse button click trigger the slash command... and that is something I haven't quite figured out how to accomplish.

This would at least allow census process to run in the background as you play the game... it would be fairly slow but at least it could work.

I really don't think people want to have to remind themselves to smash the macro button hundreds of time while in the game.
It needs to be just an incidental part of game play.

I also need to add the logic to bypass a SendWho triggering if the player is in combat at the time a triggering was enabled.

I also need to see if the server reply functions have been changed, if we can't get the data to the addon without popping up the friends frame every 10 to 15 seconds.. that is also a no go.