Inter-Addon Communication

Mods talking to an addon or more than one addon in Nitrocid

Inter-Addon Communication allows your mods to execute the publicly-available functions of a kernel addon. It allows your mods to talk to the kernel addons in a mechanism that doesn't interfere with the other end's operations.

When getting the name of an addon, you can consult the GetAddonName() function, indicating what addon you want to use, such as KnownAddons.ExtrasAmusements for Extras - Amusements.

How to call a publicly accessible addon function?

To execute custom addon functions in your mod, you must specify the full addon name, such as Extras - RSS Shell, and the function to execute in the ExecuteCustomAddonFunction() method:

public static object ExecuteCustomAddonFunction(KnownAddons addonName, string functionName)
public static object ExecuteCustomAddonFunction(KnownAddons addonName, string functionName, params object[] parameters)
public static object ExecuteCustomAddonFunction(string addonName, string functionName)
public static object ExecuteCustomAddonFunction(string addonName, string functionName, params object[] parameters)

You must specify the main addon name in the above function, since it uses that name to query an addon for available functions. Remember, you can use the KnownAddons enumeration to simplify things!

ExecuteCustomAddonFunction() returns null under the following conditions:

• There are no functions in all the mod parts from your mod.

• There is a function, but the delegate is unspecified.

It throws an exception if these conditions are true:

• There is no function that goes by the name of the specified function name that you plan to execute.

How can I get/set a value from/to a property or a field?

To get a property value or a field value from an addon, you can call the following functions:

public static object GetCustomAddonPropertyValue(KnownAddons addonName, string propertyName)
public static object GetCustomAddonFieldValue(KnownAddons addonName, string fieldName)
public static object GetCustomAddonPropertyValue(string addonName, string propertyName)
public static object GetCustomAddonFieldValue(string addonName, string fieldName)

Similarly, to set a property value or a field value declared publicly by an addon, you can call the following functions:

public static void SetCustomAddonPropertyValue(KnownAddons addonName, string propertyName, object value)
public static void SetCustomAddonFieldValue(KnownAddons addonName, string fieldName, object value)
public static void SetCustomAddonPropertyValue(string addonName, string propertyName, object value)
public static void SetCustomAddonFieldValue(string addonName, string fieldName, object value)

You must specify the main addon name in the above function, since it uses that name to query an addon for available properties or fields. Remember, you can use the KnownAddons enumeration to simplify things!

GetCustomModPropertyValue() and GetCustomModFieldValue() return null under the following conditions:

• There are no properties or fields in all the mod parts from your mod.

• There is a property or field, but the delegate is unspecified.

It throws an exception if these conditions are true:

• There is no property or field that goes by the name of the specified name that you plan to execute.

Listing functions, properties, and fields

You can now list all the available functions, properties, and fields from a specific mod using one of the following functions:

InterAddonTools.cs

public static string[] ListAvailableFunctions(string addonName)
public static string[] ListAvailableProperties(string addonName)
public static string[] ListAvailableFields(string addonName)

You must specify the main mod name in the above functions, since they use that name to fetch all mod parts and query them for available functions, fields, or properties.

The three functions return an empty array under the following conditions:

• There are no properties or fields in all the mod parts from your mod.

Supported addons

The following addons support inter-addon communication:

• Nitrocid.Extras.Diagnostics

  • GetThreadBacktraces

• Nitrocid.Extras.SqlShell

  • IsSql

Currently, a very small amount of addon functions are available, but we'll work on it to extend support for inter-addon communication in the future.