Developers Guide To Making CC Tools

[chipv]

Welcome to the Developers Section!

If you are already an experienced developer or even want to learn to contribute a new utility for Conquer Club users
then you've come to the right place.

There is a small but potentially bigger API that you can use for your code:

• Maplist XML: http://www.conquerclub.com/api.php?mode=maplist
• Map XML for each map can be found by using the <xml> tag contents and replacing maps.xml in the above URL.
  e.g. http://www.conquerclub.com/maps/Africa.xml (note this is case sensitive)
• Game Status RSS : http://www.conquerclub.com/rss.php?username=chipv
  You can also use the userid that you see in the user profile URL: http://www.conquerclub.com/rss.php?user_id=206478
• Conquer Club API : See this topic: http://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=86562

• Developing Greasemonkey Scripts
• Developing IE7Pro Scripts
• Developing Firefox Extensions
• Developing Google Gadgets
• Developing Mac Dashboard Widgets
• Developing Windows System Tray Icons - can be done in any language as an .exe

Keep in mind the following things during development:

• Usability - make it easy to install and use
• Extensive use of AJAX - i.e. don't!
• Code speed/efficiency - try and make your code lightweight and efficient if possible.
• Ease Of Upgrades - allow hooks for future features.
• Version Installer - try and put in a link to allow users to easily upgrade their version.
• Sufficient help - either in the utility or on your utility thread.

[chipv]

Developing Greasemonkey Scripts

Full documentation for developers:

http://diveintogreasemonkey.org/toc/

All API functions are described in there but you don't have to use them.

Please host your scripts on http://userscripts.org.

If you really can find no other way then unsafeWindow will allow access to the parent page's variables.

Make sure the include and exclude pages are correct for the pages that you wish your script to run on.

Otherwise it's straightforward javascript.

[chipv]

Developing IE7Pro Scripts

Full documentation for developers:

http://iescripts.org/help/index.html

All API functions are described in there but you don't have to use them.

Please host your scripts on http://iescripts.org/

Make sure the include and exclude pages are correct for the pages that you wish your script to run on.

Otherwise it's straightforward javascript.

Converting from Greasemonkey to IE7Pro:

GM_ functions more or less convert to PRO_ functions.
Always watch out for FF specifics that won't work in IE in your regular javascript as it's unlikely you've
wasted code in making your GM script cross-browser.
I may post a list of pitfalls when converting at some point here.

[chipv]

Developing Firefox Extensions

Mozilla's documentation is from the ground up so you may not want to read this:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Extensions

But from the excellent Knowledge Base:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Getting_start ... evelopment

Lifehacker also has a pretty good tutorial:

http://lifehacker.com/software/programm ... 264490.php

Key thing here is to decide whether or not you need to develop an extension for the application you have in mind.

[chipv]

Developing Google Gadgets

The Google APIs are all excellent, not just these ones.

Start here:

http://code.google.com/apis/gadgets/docs/dev_guide.html

For Desktop Gadgets:

http://code.google.com/apis/desktop/

[chipv]

Developing Mac Dashboard Widgets

You can find downloadable sample code here:

http://developer.apple.com/samplecode/A ... -date.html

For a thorough grounding:

http://developer.apple.com/macosx/Dashboard.html

There is a link to a tutorial there also:

http://developer.apple.com/documentatio ... ion_1.html

[chipv]

Approval Process

There's not much to this. Make sure your source is publicly available and PM the following to me

• A link to the source.
• A link to an image/screenshot demonstrating your utility.
• A brief description of what it does, how it works, and installation instructions.
• Outstanding bugs

If I can get any more volunteers then that PM list may grow but for now, I'm doing the auditting.

Once the source has been reviewed, you'll be notified if it has been approved or whether it needs some more work.
Once approved you'll see the icon next to your script in the Users Guide list.

The approval icon is also for users to see whether or not each script has any major bugs in it.
If a large show-stopping bug should arise, the icon will be removed until that bug is fixed. That keeps the icon as a status symbol
for the level of support the script is being given. Minor bugs won't affect the icon.