NPC Profiles

[Brian]

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[Brian]

• NPC selection dropdown in post controls in thread and posting page
• NPC auto-select button in the PBN bar
• Replaces display names on board and thread list with NPC names wherever applicable
• NPC tagging (replaces display name in a regular tag with NPC name)
• Member list for NPCs
• Customizable base mini-profile for NPCs
• Customizable view profile page for NPCs

[Brian]

First, go to the plugin's settings page and view the Permissions tab. Choose which groups on your forum will have permission to use the plugin. You can change the settings in the rest of the sections in this tab and in the Appearance and Profile HTML tabs, but they're completely optional.

Next, go to the NPC List tab. Add an NPC by providing it a Display Name, a unique Username, and specifying which groups have access to it. All other fields are optional and filling them out is entirely up to you.

The most highly recommended way to set up your NPC permissions is to create hidden groups in Members > Member Groups for each of your NPCs, then to add those groups to the plugin. The Plugin Keys section should have its dropdown set to Custom and all of your NPC groups should be added to the And members in the groups section. Then in the NPC List tab you'd add each NPC's group to the Who can use this NPC? column for each respective NPC.

[Brian]

To use your newly created NPCs click on the sword icon on the top right of an existing post or next to the subject line when creating a new post. Select the NPC you just created in the dropdown menu. It will now be applied to that post.

If you click on the sword icon in the PBN bar on the bottom right of the forum a window containing a list of all of your available NPCs will appear. Selecting an NPC from this window will display its micro-profile in the corner of your screen indicating that it's active. While the micro-profile is present all future posts you create on the forum will automatically use the NPC you selected. When you no longer wish to have the NPC automatically applied to your future posts you can click on its avatar to stop using it.

[Brian]

The following is a list of variables for use in the mini-profile and full profile sections of the plugin and each variable's definition. Use these in your mini-profile and full profile HTML to output specific information pertaining to your NPC.

$[user]
Outputs a colored display name link to the NPC's profile. Outputs a colored display name in their full profile with no link.

$[user.name]
Outputs the NPC's display name in plain text with no formatting.

$[user.username]
Outputs the NPC's unique username in plain text with no formatting.

$[user.avatar]
Outputs the NPC's avatar in a fully formatted div at the forum's default avatar size.

$[user.avatar.src]
Outputs the URL to the NPC's avatar if one was specified in the NPC list.

$[user.color]
Outputs the hex color of the NPC's display name if specified.

$[user.group]
Outputs the NPC's group name if one was specified in the NPC list.

$[user.stars]
Outputs the NPC's star images if both a URL and count were specified in the NPC list.

$[user.birthday]
Outputs the NPC's birthday if one was specified in the NPC list.

$[user.gender]
Outputs the NPC's gender if one was specified in the NPC list.

$[user.location]
Outputs the NPC's location if one was specified in the NPC list.

[Brian]

Since the plugin has no way to use {if} statements in its HTML sections an alternative has been built in to check for the absence of a variable. You can add a data-item attribute to an element and use a variable name as its value to check for the existence of that variable. If the variable doesn't exist the HTML element using that variable as its data-item attribute will not render in your profile HTML.

As an example, if you only want to render an avatar for NPCs that use one you'd first check against the variable $[user.avatar]. The word after user in the variable is avatar, so we'd use that in our data-item attribute.

<div data-item="avatar">
    $[user.avatar]
</div>

In the example above, the NPC has no avatar which means the entirety of the HTML in the above quote will not show up in its profile HTML. This same concept applies to any of the NPC variables on the list, giving an easy method of building a profile or mini-profile that supports NPCs both with and without every field filled out in the NPC list. Note that unlike if statements you can't use these in the middle of an HTML tag. The plugin is merely checking for the existence of an HTML tag that contains a specific data-item attribute.

As of 1.2.0 you can also do the opposite of this: add an element that shows up in an NPC's mini-profile when they do not have a specific field filled out. Using data-default as the element's attribute will tell the plugin to render this element's HTML if the field you specify has no value.

<div data-default="avatar">
    <div class="avatar-wrapper avatar_size_default">
        <img src="DEFAULT AVATAR URL">
    </div>
</div>

To summarize, if a field is filled out the data-item element will render in their profile but the data-default element won't render at all.

If a field isn't filled out the data-default element will render in their profile and the data-item element won't render at all.

[Brian]

Many themes available in the Theme Library will inevitably have completely redone board and thread lists. In an attempt to combat the conflict this will cause in the plugin I've added functionality to the plugin that looks for special elements on the page containing specific information pertaining to the thread displaying. You can add these in place of the standard variables on the page to ensure the theme uses the NPC names wherever applicable in most cases.

Give these a try if NPC names don't show in place of the poster's name in the sections below!


Board List/Thread List

Themes > Layout Templates > Board > Board List
- Find and replace $[board.last_thread.last_post.created_by], or add as an entirely new line wherever applicable.

<span data-item="latest" data-value="$[board.last_thread.last_post.id]">$[board.last_thread.last_post.created_by]</span>

Themes > Layout Templates > Board > Thread List
- Find and replace $[thread.created_by], or add as an entirely new line wherever applicable.

<span data-item="created-by">$[thread.created_by]</span>

Themes > Layout Templates > Board > Thread List
- Find and replace $[thread.last_post.created_by], or add as an entirely new line wherever applicable.

<span data-item="latest">$[thread.last_post.created_by]</span>

Forum Information & Statistics

Themes > Layout Templates > Home
- Find and replace $[last_updated_thread.last_post.created_by], or add as an entirely new line wherever applicable.

<span data-item="last-updated" data-value="$[last_updated_thread.last_post.id]">$[last_updated_thread.last_post.created_by]</span>

Avatars

If you use avatars in any of the above templates and need them replaced with NPC avatars whenever applicable change created_by to created_by.avatar_small in any of the above examples. Using one of the changes in the Thread List template as an example:

<div data-item="created-by">$[thread.created_by.avatar_small]</div>