InteractiveMessenger/Specifications & Guidelines.md

Specifications

Colors & Formatting:

• Colors and formatting normally go on until changed/removed, but they reset on new lines
• Color tags:
  • [white], [black], [yellow], [gold], [aqua], [dark_aqua], [blue], [dark_blue], [light_purple], [dark_purple], [red], [dark_red], [green], [dark_green], [gray], [dark_gray]
  • When you use a color it will override the last one
• Formatting tags:
  • [bold], [italic], [underlined], [strikethrough], [obfuscated]
  • When you use a formatting tag it will enable this formatting
  • When you use a close tag of a format it will disable that formatting
• The color and formatting inside a hover is seperate (start with nothing, resets each line)
• Tags are not case sensitive
• The following tags are equivalents:
  • [strikethrough] = [s]
  • [bold] = [b]
  • [italic] = [i]
  • [underline] = [u]

Breaks (newlines):

• The break symbol is: [break]
• Using it will cause the text to wrap to the next line in chat, so if [break][break] is used it will leave an empty line
• The end of a list element (string) does NOT automatically result in a break in the chat
• After using [break] there may not be more text in this line, from there only more [break] tags are allowed (more text can go in a new list entry)

Special effect tags:

• Tags are for adding special effects to a part of the text, used as the following: link: http://google.com
• Supported tags:
  • Link: If clicked it will cause a “Do you want to visit this website?” popup
  • Hover: If hovered over with the mouse it will give information in a little box
    • You can use multiple lines with this tag to get multi-line hover popups
  • Suggest: If clicked it will put a string into the chat box
  • Command: If clicked it will execute a command as the player
• The hover tag supports all colors and formatting like with normal text
• Tags do not need to be indented, but normally are for readability
• Tags are not case sensitive

Escaping:

• [esc] can be used to escape 1 character, so if you want to have link: example.com as text you need a [esc] in front of this. Then the first character will be escaped and since ink: is not a valid tag anymore it will be shown as text instead of being used as link on the previous text part.
• Placing [esc][esc] in the text will result in the text [esc] being printed, the first escape will be handled as such, this will escape [ and therefore the text behind this will be esc] and this is just text
• Also works for variables

Guidelines

• Use lowercase characters for tags
• When using a special effect tag indent the line by 4 spaces (up for debate)

Examples

The below examples assume writing the format in YAML format.

Simple messages

A simple message without any formatting.

message: "You do not have permission to use that command!"

A message that is bold and red to make it look more serious.

message: "[red][bold]You really do not have permission!"

A message with more color and format changes.

message: "[red][bold]You[/bold] really do not have [green][underline]permission[reset]!"

A multi-line message.

message:
  - "First line"
  - "[red], still on the first line[break]"
  - "Second line because of the break above"
  - ", but no color."

Using hover/click parts

A message with some hover tooltips, each hover will start on a new line.

message:
  - "Hello there!"
  - "    hover: Have a good day!"
  - "    hover: Second tooltip line :)"

A message with a tooltip and command.

message:
  - "Hello there!"
  - "    hover: Click me to use /help!"
  - "    command: /help"