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Clickable button documentation?
By LightningHelix 2026-05-04 07:24:13
Incredibly broad question, but I couldn't think of anywhere better to ask. I'm wondering how exactly people create a clickable button via a lua addon, and whether there's any documentation about it.
Here's what I naively expected to work: Code _addon.name = 'testing'
_addon.author = 'me'
_addon.version = '0.0.1'
_addon.commands = {'testing'}
texts = require('texts') --to create the box
require('luau') --to make T{} work, I have no idea how to do box settings without this lol
--on addon load, create box
windower.register_event('load', function (...)
generate_text()
end)
--this SHOULD only fire on left click, but...
function left_click_function()
windower.add_to_chat(216, 'Success!')
end
--generate the box on addon load
function generate_text()
--define some text
BOX_CONTENTS = '\\cs(0, 0, 0)' .. 'HELLO! I AM A BOX. ' .. '\\cr\n' .. '\\cr\n'
--create the box
ACTUAL_BOX = texts.new(windowSettings)
--put the text in the box
ACTUAL_BOX:text(BOX_CONTENTS)
--and make it all visible
ACTUAL_BOX:visible(true)
--now, I naively expect this to "associate" the event with the box...
ACTUAL_BOX:register_event('left_click', left_click_function())
end
--settings for the box, you can ignore this
windowSettings = T{}
windowSettings.pos = T{}
windowSettings.pos.x = 400
windowSettings.pos.y = 400
windowSettings.bg = T{}
windowSettings.bg.red = 150
windowSettings.bg.green = 150
windowSettings.bg.blue = 150
Copypaste that, name it testing.lua, run it...
and you'll see that the register_event on line 38 is running immediately on addon load. Straight into the chat log. No clicking required, which is not what I wanted.
1) How do I register an event to trigger on a left click?
2) How do I make sure that the left click is located within a specific box? I'm aware that the left click event has (X, Y) parameters, so I could keep a table tracking the position of each object I create, but again, clearly not the easiest way to do it.
I did do some research, I promise: I dug around in vanilla launcher addons - BLUGuide, Rhombus, and Nostrum all do it - but they don't use anything I understand because I am dumb.
BLUGuide's buttons.lua uses the event I'd naively expect from the events documentation page:
windower.register_event("mouse")It then checks whether "eventtype" = 1 for left click, 2 for left release, and so on.
Surely there's a better way, because there's no sane reason to check both of those events for any given button.
(Differentiating the two is good for supporting dragging-to-move, but since the general use purpose of a button is "to be clicked on", you're having to define a second event you actively don't want to do anything!)
Nostrum's prims.lua checks for "left click" and "right click" events, which is great! Exactly what I'm hoping for, if I was smart enough to understand anything about it.
Any help would be much appreciated, because I am very stupid. If there's just like, a "here's how you do this for dummies" somewhere I'm missing?
 Fenrir.Jinxs
Server: Fenrir
Game: FFXI
Posts: 1200
By Fenrir.Jinxs 2026-05-04 08:41:09
Ask in the windower discord
By Thaylia 2026-05-04 08:55:36
Your bug is on line 38. Code ACTUAL_BOX:register_event('left_click', left_click_function())
You wrote left_click_function() with parentheses, which calls the function immediately and passes its return value (nil) to register_event. You want to pass the function itself as a reference: Code ACTUAL_BOX:register_event('left_click', left_click_function)
[+]
By Felgarr 2026-05-04 09:17:20
Your bug is on line 38. Code ACTUAL_BOX:register_event('left_click', left_click_function())
You wrote left_click_function() with parentheses, which calls the function immediately and passes its return value (nil) to register_event. You want to pass the function itself as a reference: Code ACTUAL_BOX:register_event('left_click', left_click_function)
Wow, a competent BRD *and* a coder. Is there anything you can't do? :)
By LightningHelix 2026-05-04 09:36:05
Ask in the windower discord I'm gonna be the person Googling this in five years and I sure hope that whatever answer we arrive at is somewhere Google can find rather than on a chat server with non-indexed search!
If this isn't the appropriate place to post, by all means point me to somewhere better.
Your bug is on line 38. Code ACTUAL_BOX:register_event('left_click', left_click_function())
You wrote left_click_function() with parentheses, which calls the function immediately and passes its return value (nil) to register_event. You want to pass the function itself as a reference: Code ACTUAL_BOX:register_event('left_click', left_click_function)...okay! (I learned several things in the process of reading this short post. Thank you!)
I did that, it no longer runs on load, but when I click on the box it does nothing.
Didn't get an error (like "event left click not available for text objects", which I can create at will by messing up parts of my code"), just a silent failure.
My current code: Code _addon.name = 'testing'
_addon.author = 'me'
_addon.version = '0.0.1'
_addon.commands = {'testing'}
texts = require('texts') --to create the box
require('luau') --to make T{} work, I have no idea how to do box settings without this lol
--on addon load, create box
windower.register_event('load', function (...)
generate_text()
end)
--this SHOULD only fire on left click, but...
function left_click_function()
windower.add_to_chat(216, 'Success!')
end
--generate the box on addon load
function generate_text()
--define some text
BOX_CONTENTS = '\\cs(0, 0, 0)' .. 'HELLO! I AM A BOX. ' .. '\\cr\n' .. '\\cr\n'
--create the box
ACTUAL_BOX = texts.new(windowSettings)
--put the text in the box
ACTUAL_BOX:text(BOX_CONTENTS)
--and make it all visible
ACTUAL_BOX:visible(true)
--modified: removed () from left_click_function to call it as a reference
ACTUAL_BOX:register_event('left_click', left_click_function)
end
--settings for the box, you can ignore this
windowSettings = T{}[s][/s]
windowSettings.pos = T{}
windowSettings.pos.x = 400
windowSettings.pos.y = 400
windowSettings.bg = T{}
windowSettings.bg.red = 150
windowSettings.bg.green = 150
windowSettings.bg.blue = 150
[+]
Incredibly broad question, but I couldn't think of anywhere better to ask. I'm wondering how exactly people create a clickable button via a lua addon, and whether there's any documentation about it.
Here's what I naively expected to work: Code _addon.name = 'testing'
_addon.author = 'me'
_addon.version = '0.0.1'
_addon.commands = {'testing'}
texts = require('texts') --to create the box
require('luau') --to make T{} work, I have no idea how to do box settings without this lol
--on addon load, create box
windower.register_event('load', function (...)
generate_text()
end)
--this SHOULD only fire on left click, but...
function left_click_function()
windower.add_to_chat(216, 'Success!')
end
--generate the box on addon load
function generate_text()
--define some text
BOX_CONTENTS = '\\cs(0, 0, 0)' .. 'HELLO! I AM A BOX. ' .. '\\cr\n' .. '\\cr\n'
--create the box
ACTUAL_BOX = texts.new(windowSettings)
--put the text in the box
ACTUAL_BOX:text(BOX_CONTENTS)
--and make it all visible
ACTUAL_BOX:visible(true)
--now, I naively expect this to "associate" the event with the box...
ACTUAL_BOX:register_event('left_click', left_click_function())
end
--settings for the box, you can ignore this
windowSettings = T{}
windowSettings.pos = T{}
windowSettings.pos.x = 400
windowSettings.pos.y = 400
windowSettings.bg = T{}
windowSettings.bg.red = 150
windowSettings.bg.green = 150
windowSettings.bg.blue = 150
Copypaste that, name it testing.lua, run it...
and you'll see that the register_event on line 38 is running immediately on addon load. Straight into the chat log. No clicking required, which is not what I wanted.
1) How do I register an event to trigger on a left click?
2) How do I make sure that the left click is located within a specific box? I'm aware that the left click event has (X, Y) parameters, so I could keep a table tracking the position of each object I create, but again, clearly not the easiest way to do it.
I did do some research, I promise: I dug around in vanilla launcher addons - BLUGuide, Rhombus, and Nostrum all do it - but they don't use anything I understand because I am dumb.
BLUGuide's buttons.lua uses the event I'd naively expect from the events documentation page:
windower.register_event("mouse")It then checks whether "eventtype" = 1 for left click, 2 for left release, and so on.
Surely there's a better way, because there's no sane reason to check both of those events for any given button.
(Differentiating the two is good for supporting dragging-to-move, but since the general use purpose of a button is "to be clicked on", you're having to define a second event you actively don't want to do anything!)
Nostrum's prims.lua checks for "left click" and "right click" events, which is great! Exactly what I'm hoping for, if I was smart enough to understand anything about it.
Any help would be much appreciated, because I am very stupid. If there's just like, a "here's how you do this for dummies" somewhere I'm missing?
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