How to change the alpha of chat tabs?

[Galvin]

In the new patch 3.3.5 the chat tabs don't go totally invisible. Is there a way to make them work like they used to thru some API function?

[Phanx]

I spent some time last night fixing the 3.3.5 chat frame to look and act more like the chat frame we've all been using just fine for the last 5 years. You can see the results in the latest beta for PhanxChat over on WoWI, but here are the relevant code bits:

1. Overwrite some globals:

CHAT_FRAME_FADE_OUT_TIME = 0
-- Seconds to wait before fading out chat frames the mouse moves out of.
-- Default is 2.

CHAT_TAB_HIDE_DELAY = 0
-- Seconds to wait before fading out chat tabs the mouse moves out of.
-- Default is 1.

CHAT_FRAME_TAB_SELECTED_MOUSEOVER_ALPHA = 1
CHAT_FRAME_TAB_SELECTED_NOMOUSE_ALPHA = 0
-- Opacity of the currently selected chat tab.
-- Defaults are 1 and 0.4.

CHAT_FRAME_TAB_ALERTING_MOUSEOVER_ALPHA = 1
CHAT_FRAME_TAB_ALERTING_NOMOUSE_ALPHA = 0
-- Opacity of currently alerting chat tabs.
-- Defaults are 1 and 1.

CHAT_FRAME_TAB_NORMAL_MOUSEOVER_ALPHA = 1
CHAT_FRAME_TAB_NORMAL_NOMOUSE_ALPHA = 0
-- Opacity of non-selected, non-alerting chat tabs.
-- Defaults are 0.6 and 0.2.

2. Hide the new ugly "3D gloss" textures on chat tabs and restore the old highlight texture:

local noop = function() return end

for i = 1, 10 do
	local tab = _G[("ChatFrame%dTab"):format(i)]

	tab.noMouseAlpha = 0
	FCFTab_UpdateAlpha(_G[("ChatFrame%d"):format(i)])

	tab.leftSelectedTexture:SetAlpha(0)
	tab.rightSelectedTexture:SetAlpha(0)
	tab.middleSelectedTexture:SetAlpha(0)

	tab.leftHighlightTexture:SetTexture(nil)
	tab.rightHighlightTexture:SetTexture(nil)
	tab.middleHighlightTexture:SetTexture([[Interface\PaperDollInfoFrame\UI-Character-Tab-Highlight]])
	tab.middleHighlightTexture:SetWidth(76)

	tab.middleHighlightTexture.SetVertexColor = noop
end

3. Hide the new editbox "ghost", and change the actual editbox textures back to the old ones:

for i = 1, 10 do
	local editBox = _G[("ChatFrame%dEditBox"):format(i)]

	_G[("ChatFrame%sEditBoxLeft"):format(i)]:SetAlpha(0)
	_G[("ChatFrame%sEditBoxRight"):format(i)]:SetAlpha(0)
	_G[("ChatFrame%sEditBoxMid"):format(i)]:SetAlpha(0)

	editBox.focusLeft:SetTexture([[Interface\ChatFrame\UI-ChatInputBorder-Left2]])
	editBox.focusRight:SetTexture([[Interface\ChatFrame\UI-ChatInputBorder-Right2]])
	editBox.focusMid:SetTexture([[Interface\ChatFrame\UI-ChatInputBorder-Mid2]])
end

3. Hide the new friends button and "dock manager" button:

FriendsMicroButton:SetScript("OnShow", FriendsMicroButton.Hide)
FriendsMicroButton:Hide()

GeneralDockManagerOverflowButton:SetScript("OnShow", GeneralDockManagerOverflowButton.Hide)
GeneralDockManagerOverflowButton:Hide()

4. Hide the new bottom-right-corner-only resize arrow and reimplement the old all-edges resize controls (disable-on-lock stuff comes from Tekkub's tekChatBorderFix):

local anchorPoints = { "TopLeft", "TopRight", "BottomLeft", "BottomRight", "Top", "Right", "Left", "Bottom" }

local function ChatFrame_StartResizing(self)
	local chatFrame = self:GetParent()
	if chatFrame.isLocked then return end
	if chatFrame.isDocked and chatFrame ~= DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME then return end

	chatFrame.resizing = 1
	chatFrame:StartSizing(self.anchorPoint)
end

local function ChatFrame_StopResizing(self)
	local chatFrame = self:GetParent()
	chatFrame:StopMovingOrSizing()
	if chatFrame == DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME then
		FCF_DockUpdate()
	end
	chatFrame.resizing = nil
end

local oldSetChatWindowLocked = SetChatWindowLocked
function SetChatWindowLocked(index, locked, ...)
	local f = _G["ChatFrame" .. index]
	for _, v in ipairs(anchorPoints) do
		local k = "resize" .. v
		if f[k] then
			f[k]:EnableMouse(not locked)
		end
	end
	return oldSetChatWindowLocked(index, locked, ...)
end

for i = 1, 10 do
	local f = _G[("ChatFrame%d"):format(i)]
	if not f.resizeTopLeft then
		f.background = _G[("ChatFrame%dBackground"):format(i)]

		for _, v in ipairs(anchorPoints) do
			local k = "resize" .. v
			f[k] = CreateFrame("Button", "ChatFrame" .. i .. "Resize" .. v, f)
			f[k].anchorPoint = v:upper()
			f[k]:SetWidth(16)
			f[k]:SetHeight(16)
			f[k]:SetScript("OnMouseDown", ChatFrame_StartResizing)
			f[k]:SetScript("OnMouseUp", ChatFrame_StopResizing)
			LowerFrameLevel(f[k])
		end

		f.resizeTopLeft:SetPoint("TOPLEFT", f.background, -2, 2)

		f.resizeTopRight:SetPoint("TOPRIGHT", f.background, 2, 2)

		f.resizeBottomLeft:SetPoint("BOTTOMLEFT", f.background, -2, -3)

		f.resizeBottomRight:SetPoint("BOTTOMRIGHT", f.background, 2, -3)

		f.resizeTop:SetPoint("LEFT", f.resizeTopLeft, "RIGHT", 0, 0)
		f.resizeTop:SetPoint("RIGHT", f.resizeTopRight, "LEFT", 0, 0)

		f.resizeRight:SetPoint("TOP", f.resizeTopRight, "BOTTOM", 0, 0)
		f.resizeRight:SetPoint("BOTTOM", f.resizeBottomRight, "TOP", 0, 0)

		f.resizeBottom:SetPoint("LEFT", f.resizeBottomLeft, "RIGHT", 0, 0)
		f.resizeBottom:SetPoint("RIGHT", f.resizeBottomRight, "LEFT", 0, 0)

		f.resizeLeft:SetPoint("TOP", f.resizeTopLeft, "BOTTOM", 0, 0)
		f.resizeLeft:SetPoint("BOTTOM", f.resizeBottomLeft, "TOP", 0, 0)
	end

	local b = _G[("ChatFrame%dResizeButton"):format(i)]
	b:SetScript("OnShow", b.Hide)
	b:Hide()
end

[sylvanaar]

If this goes beyond chat tabs, then i'll add a couple

Allow the chatframe to be moved flush with the left and bottom sides of the screen.

for i = 1, 10 do
  local cf = _G[("ChatFrame%d"):format(i)] 
  cf:SetClampRectInsets(0,0,0,0)
end

The position will not save without some extra work though, because the insets are reset in OnLoad which pushes the frames away from the side again.

Hide the new button area of the chatframe while keeping the buttons

for i = 1, 10 do
  local cf = _G[("ChatFrame%d"):format(i)]

  _G[("ChatFrame%dButtonFrameUpButton"):format(i)]:SetParent(cf)
  _G[("ChatFrame%dButtonFrameDownButton"):format(i)]:SetParent(cf)
  _G[("ChatFrame%dButtonFrameBottomButton"):format(i)]:SetParent(cf)

  _G[("ChatFrame%dButtonFrame"):format(i)]:Hide()
end

[Galvin]

Nice info. Thanks

[arnath2]

Really unrelated question, but is the format version of this a lot more efficient or something?

_G[("ChatFrame%d"):format(i)]

versus

_G["ChatFrame" .. i]

[Tekkub]

[Phanx]

Originally Posted by arnath2

Really unrelated question, but is the format version of this a lot more efficient or something?

Theoretically, I think so, but in practice you'd have to do it some really huge number of times before you saw an actual difference.

[kagaro]

Originally Posted by sylvanaar

If this goes beyond chat tabs, then i'll add a couple

Allow the chatframe to be moved flush with the left and bottom sides of the screen.

for i = 1, 10 do
  local cf = _G[("ChatFrame%d"):format(i)] 
  cf:SetClampRectInsets(0,0,0,0)
end

The position will not save without some extra work though, because the insets are reset in OnLoad which pushes the frames away from the side again.

Hide the new button area of the chatframe while keeping the buttons

for i = 1, 10 do
  local cf = _G[("ChatFrame%d"):format(i)]

  _G[("ChatFrame%dButtonFrameUpButton"):format(i)]:SetParent(cf)
  _G[("ChatFrame%dButtonFrameDownButton"):format(i)]:SetParent(cf)
  _G[("ChatFrame%dButtonFrameBottomButton"):format(i)]:SetParent(cf)

  _G[("ChatFrame%dButtonFrame"):format(i)]:Hide()
end

To fix the OnLoad problem, hook the FCF_RestorePositionAndDimensions function and reset the clamp insets

[Farmbuyer]

Originally Posted by arnath2

Really unrelated question, but is the format version of this a lot more efficient or something?

Not for concatenating a single number; multiple ".." operations in a single statement are handled by a single operation. If you had multiple %-directives that needed to be handled, or something more complicated than %d, then yes. For (9 times out of 10) a single digit, the full-court-press string.format is a bit of an overkill. You wouldn't see a noticeable slowdown either though with only 10 loops, so pick your favorite flavor.