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How to use custom scripts in the Galaxy Editor
Introduction
We all know by now that Blizzard has screwed up in their implementation of custom script in theGalaxy Editor (GE). The “Convert to custom script” function in the World Editor (WE) that we all
grew to know and love appears to have vanished. So how the **** are we meant to use this new
awesome Galaxy script!?? This tutorial will show you how.
Prerequisites
What do you need to know to start this tutorial?- How to navigate around the GE.
- How to create triggers with the Galaxy GUI.
- How to insert actions into the Galaxy GUI.
- And also, not strictly required, but recommended: basic knowledge of Galaxy scripting, or a
similar language (such as C, C++, Java, etc).
The “Script Hack”
Some clever fellow at sc2mapster (if anyone knows who this is so I can give him credit, please tellme) discovered a trick which allows us to use scripts other than the custom script actions, which are
contained inside function and hence disallow declaration of new functions, global variables or
structs. I’ll coin a name for it: the Script Hack. Here is how it works:
Step 1
Make a new trigger in GUI. Call it something like "Galaxy Main".
Step 2
Insert a Custom Script action with the following code:
This ends the function so that any following code is outside of any function.
Step 3
Insert a new Custom Script action. At the top you should probably put a comment like
// Galaxy code, so that anyone looking at the map knows that this is where your code is.
Step 4
One final Custom Action opens a new function, to avoid syntax errors caused by the compiler
automatically ending the function that you already ended. Make sure it returns a boolean, or you
will get a syntax error.
Step 5
You need to initialise your script. It can't do anything if nothing makes it run! This is as simple as
making another GUI trigger underneath the main one with a custom script action to call your script's "init" function, for
example, this could be your "init" function, placed inside the second custom script action of the
"Galaxy Main" trigger:
JASS:
void init_Galaxy_Main ()
{
TriggerDebugOutput(1, StringToText("Initialising Galaxy Main"), true);
}
If you run the map, you should now see the text "Initialising Galaxy Main" to the left of the screen.
Including Scripts
I could have ended the tutorial there, and you would all be happy in the knowledge that you cando anything with your Galaxy Scripts, but you'd also be quite unoriganised, and including scripts
from outside sources might be pain. There is a simple way to solve both of these problems:
inclusion.
So how to inclusion work? First, you import a script from an oustide file into your map (or mod)
and include it into your own scripts. You can build up a file structure to enhance organisation,
and split your systems into multiple parts, which makes them easier to manage.
How do you do it? Well, first, write a script. We'll call it HelloWorld. It will contain one function,
HelloWorld, which will print, you guessed it: "Hello World!" to the screen. Here is the code for
that script, which you should save into a file called "helloworld.galaxy".
JASS:
void HelloWorld ()
{
TriggerDebugOutput(1, StringToText("Hello World!"), true);
}The next stage is to import it into your map. Go into the import manager and import
"helloworld.galaxy" to "Scripts/helloworld.galaxy" by right-clicking on the "Document Files" area
and choosing Import Files. Click "browse", navigate to the containing directory, and click ok.
Your script should appear there. Make sure nothing else is ticked before selecting ok, or you may
end up importing much more than you intended to. If the file is not already in a "Scripts" folder, you
can make one by right-clicking on it and selecting "Move Files". In the "New Folder" box, type
"Scripts". After pressing ok, your script should be in the correct folder.
Congratulations on importing the script. Now you need to include this script into your
"Custom Script Trigger" by going into the "Galaxy Script" action and typing the line
include "scripts/helloworld.galaxy". Notice how it is all in lower case. For some bizarrereason, all names are converted to lower case for the purpose of including, and any capitals cause a
"File cannot be found" syntax error.
Finally, you must call the function from your script:
Tips 'n' Tricks
This is a short list of things to do when using custom galaxy scripts to make your life, and the lives ofothers, much easier:
- Always prefix every function, struct and variable that your script uses with a standard prefix, such
as "EoWSys_" (Element of Water's system) to avoid collisions. - Organise your files in the import manager, and always make sure all scripts are in some subdirectory
of the "Scripts" directory.
Credits
- that guy from sc2mapster.com who discovered the "Script Hack" (please let me know who he is)
- Mooglefrooglian and several other people who didn't know how to do this, and inspired me to create
this tutorial.
I hope you found this tutorial helpful. You will find a map containing all of the material used attached to
this post.
.
