Variable Maintenance

 

Variables allow you to access a whole slew of extended functionality within Portal©.  Variables are used in many aspects in the program and act similar to nicknames.  They must be declared in this screen, and once created, are open for use to the entire program.

 

A common use of variables is to use them in commands, like typed text, alias commands etc.  To do so, you would take the name of the variable (such as “potions”) and put the @ symbol before it.  When you do so, the current value of “potions” whatever it is, will replace the usage.  So, if I was using potions to track the number of potions I had (let’s say it’s 8 right now), if I then typed “say I have @potions potions” it would replace “@potions” with 8.  This is similar to nicknames except that the variables do not need spaces before or after.  You could do “say @potions@potions@potions” and it would come out like “say 888”

 

Variables can be manipulated to almost any extent using the variable processing functionality of Portal©.  For more details on this functionality, please refer to the Using Variables help file.

 

Note: Especially when used with events, variables are extremely versatile and very easy to use.  Part of this comes with the fact that you do not have to declare one as either a string or a number (integer).  The program is smart enough to figure out what you’re trying to do with the variable and it knows whether to process it as a string or an integer.  The price to pay for this level of convenience is that variable names cannot be extended or shortened versions of existing variable names.  For example, you can have the variable “potions” but you could not add another variable named “potions2”  Basically, if you really need to have 2 variables like this, name the first one “potions1”

 

Variable Maintenance Screen Elements

 

 

Variables Grid

This grid displays all variables you have declared, as well as their initialization status.  The Initialization status of a variable is what the variable will be set to on each connection to the MUD.  There are two other special instructions to the program to tell it how to initialize a variable.

 

Initialization Status

<do not initialize>       Save the variable’s value between program usages

<clear on login>          Clears the variable to nil upon login

 

Delete Variable Button

Deletes the variable currently selected in the Variables Grid.

 

Note: You cannot delete any variable that is currently being populated by any event.  Also, if you open the Variable Maintenance screen from the Select Variables screen, you will not be able to delete any variables.

 

New Variable Field

Enter a new variable you wish to declare here.  Pressing enter while in this field will automatically press the Variable Color button.  Variables must adhere to the following  guidelines.

 

·         Variables must contain only alphanumeric characters (a, b, c, 1, 2, 3, etc.)

·         Variables must be in lower case

·         Variables cannot be longer than 25 characters

·         Variable names cannot be extended or shortened version of existing variables.

 

Initialization

Sets the initialization status of the variable.  This follows the variable initialization as described above. 

 

Initialization Status

Clear on Login           Clears the variable to nil every login (not re-execution of Portal©)

Do not Initialize          Saves the value of the variable across every login

Value                        Initializes the variable to the value you specify every login

 

Add Variable Button

Attempts to add the new variable.  If you enter an invalid variable name, you will be notified.

 

Value Field

Enter a value here that you can then assign to the variable currently selected in the Variables Grid.

 

Set Variable Button

Sets the currently selected variable (in the Variables Grid) with the value in the Value Field.

 

Variable Button

Brings up the Variable Grabber screen.  While you wouldn't "grab" anything at this time, it is useful to preuse the current values of the various variables.

 

Close Button

Closes the Variable Maintenance Screen.