Map display addons and map data sources

[Graveeater]

(Not sure whether this belongs here or rather too library)

I'm currently writing an addon which should display data on the map.
(Kind of a navigation system).

However, there are different Maps to display data on:
The minimap, the default world map but also custom map addons like Cartographer3 (which has a standalone frame) and more (AlphaMap, GatherHud in a way too) and probably even more I do not know of.
Furthermore I am developing one myself.

On the other hand, there are even more addons which provide map data.

The problem:
I don't want to explicit support each map display addon in my datasource, nor would I want to do it the other way.

I think it would be nice to have a way for a display addon to globally announce: "I know some interesting points which map display addons might want to display" so that display addons can look there and discover what data is available.
In a way, this sounds similiar to the LDB concept.

I'd like to hear your opinions on some aspects, mainly:
Are there enough display addons in use so it makes sense to do it?
Is there already another (better) way to do so?
Have you similiar problems and solved them?

[Graveeater]

Currently i think an LDB like approach would probably be best.
For example one could make a new LDB type with properties like

• type = "map icon"
• continent, zone, x1, y1, x2, y2
• from display: icon, icon[RGBA], iconCoords
• maybe tooltip support (suppose that would not be good for alphamap)

Why four coords?
The idea is, that the size of the icon should depend on the display.
If we zoom out, we might see much more icons which are therefore much closer.
If we define our width to be measured in coords they can easily be scaled down aswell.

Some feedback would be nice, there is no use in defining an api only I will use.

[Adirelle]

I think creating one LDB datasource per map point would create too much LDB datasources. There are a lots of addon out there that iterates over all LDB objects.

[Graveeater]

Yes, overnight I came to the same conclusion.
Also, gathering nodes do not tend to change to often (i.e. we could probably ignore the updates there.

Still, what do you think of using this for dynamic points, like for example waypoints (wich should probably be far less)?

Another question: Why do LDB displays iterate over them? As far as I understand, this makes only sense during init (for those that already exist) and then the display will listen to callbacks?

Another idea: We could probably create on LDB object per type of node (peacebloom, felweed,...) or even one for a group (herb, ore, gas, fishing, ...), which would reduce the total amount of them.
If we use the first one, we would probably define "itemgroup", which shares common attributes like width, height, icon, tooltip, name and only defines a set of coordinate pairs for the actual positions.

[OrionShock]

better to have a lib that you can register your DB of points with that the display addons can then use via a common api.

but don't use LDB proper, take the code and rename it so that the minimap points to traffic on LDB's turf

[Adirelle]

A standalone library would be more useful. It should provides some query methods, e.g. IteratePoints(continent, zone) and the likes.

[yssaril]

don't we already have this lib in form of Astrolabe?

[OrionShock]

Originally Posted by yssaril

don't we already have this lib in form of Astrolabe?

IIRC, astrolabe puts pins on the map and manages position there of. It didn't do DB management or storage.

[Adirelle]

Is Astrolabe supported by the map addons ?

[Arrowmaster]

Map addons don't need to 'support' anything. Everything just works fine if everybody follows basic best practices.