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Referencee



WoW AddOn

This is describes the WoW TOC file format.

A typical .toc file[]

Suppose you were writing addon called "Bob". In order to get the client to recognize your addon, you'd have to create the World of Warcraft\Interface\AddOns\Bob folder, and a Bob.toc file within it. The contents of the .toc file could be:

## Interface: 50300
## Title: Waiting for Bob
## Notes: Nothing to be done.
## Version: 1.0
Bob.xml
Bob.lua

There are two main line types: lines beginning with "## " designate a .toc tag, which contains information that may be used by the client; for instance, "## Title : Waiting for Bob" communicates to the client that the addon should be called "Waiting for Bob" in the addons list, rather than simply "Bob" as its folder name would imply. The lines without this prefix specify the files that should be loaded by the client when this addon is run: in this case, the Bob.xml file in the addon's folder should be loaded before Bob.lua in the same folder.

Official Tags[]

There are a number of "official" (either used by the client or explicitly allowed access to via GetAddOnMetadata) .toc tags. The tags can be added to a .toc file in any order in the following format:

## TagName : tagValue

Both the TagName and tagValue are trimmed: excess whitespace does not prevent the tags from being recognized. Below is a list of tag names and descriptions of how their values are used:

Interface[]

Specifies which client interface version the addon was made for. If the value of this tag does not match the client interface version, the addon is loaded only if the "Load out of date addons" option is enabled. There are a number of ways to determine the current interface version.
 ## Interface: 50300
Title
The value of this tag is displayed in the AddOns list. Localized versions can be included by appending a hyphen followed by the client locale name; the client automatically chooses a localized version if one is available. The value may also contain UI escape sequences, such as for example colors.
## Title: Waiting for Godot
## Title-frFR: En attendant Godot
Notes
Addon description that appears when the user hovers over the addon entry in the addons list. Like Title, this tag can be localized by appending a hyphen followed by locale name, and contain UI escape sequences.
## Notes: "Nothing to be done"
RequiredDeps, Dependencies, or any word beginning with "Dep"
A comma-separated list of addon (directory) names that must be loaded before this addon can be loaded.
 ## Dependencies: someAddOn, someOtherAddOn
OptionalDeps
A comma-separated list of addon (directory) names that should be loaded before this addon if they can be loaded.
## OptionalDeps: someAddOn, someOtherAddOn
LoadOnDemand
If the value of this tag is "1", the addon is not loaded when the user first logs in, but can be loaded by another addon at a later point. This can be used to avoid loading situational addons.
## LoadOnDemand: 1
LoadWith
A comma-separated list of addon (directory) names that, when loaded, will cause the client to load this LoadOnDemand addon as well. Added in Patch 1.9
## LoadWith: someAddOn, someOtherAddOn
LoadManagers
A comma-separated list of addon (directory) names; if no addons on this list are loaded, the client will load your addon when the user logs in; if at least one addon on this list is loaded, your addon is treated as LoadOnDemand. Introduced in patch 2.1; an example of a LoadManager is AddonLoader.
SavedVariables
A comma-separated list of variable names in the global environment that will be saved to disk when the client exits, and placed back into the global environment when your addon is loaded; the variables are not available before the ADDON_LOADED event fires for your addon. See Saving variables between game sessions.
## SavedVariables: foo, bar
SavedVariablesPerCharacter
A comma-separated list of variable names in the global environment that will be saved to disk when the client exits, and placed back into the global environment when your addon is loaded for a particular character. Note that PerCharacter saved variables are only loaded for the character for which they were saved.
## SavedVariablesPerCharacter: somePercharVariable
DefaultState
Determines whether the addon is enabled by default when first installed. If the value of this tag is "disabled", the user must explicitly enable the addon in the addons list before it is loaded.
## DefaultState: enabled
Secure
If the value of this tag is 1, and the addon is digitally signed by Blizzard, its code is considered secure (as opposed to tainted, which is what all 3rd-party addons are). Introduced in Patch 1.11.
Author
The AddOn author's name
Version
The AddOn version. Some automatic updating tools may prefer that this string begins with a numeric version number.

Metadata tags[]

It is possible for addons to query values of any tags with a "X-" prefix. Some possibilities include:

  • X-Date
  • X-Website
  • X-Feedback

Notes[]

  • WoW reads up to the first 1024 characters of each line only. Additional characters are ignored and do not cause an error.
  • The .toc files are read only when the client initially starts up. Any changes made to the .toc file will be ignored by a running client until the client is restarted (more specifically, content read from .toc files is not refreshed when you reload the user interface or log out / log in).
  • Prefixing a line with a # will mark it as a comment, meaning that it will not be read. For example:
# This is a comment

See also[]

  • GetAddOnInfo returns basic information about an addon.
  • GetAddOnMetadata returns information listed in a specified .toc tag.
  • GetBuildInfo returns the client's interface version.
  • GetLocale returns the client's locale.
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